Variations in the Earth's Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages

[Sunsettommy]

Science

Variations in the Earth's Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages

Science 10 December 1976:

J. D. Hays,
John Imbrie and
N. J. Shackleton

EXCERPT:

Abstract

1) Three indices of global climate have been monitored in the record of the past 450,000 years in Southern Hemisphere ocean-floor sediments.

2) Over the frequency range 10–4 to 10–5 cycle per year, climatic variance of these records is concentrated in three discrete spectral peaks at periods of 23,000, 42,000, and approximately 100,000 years. These peaks correspond to the dominant periods of the earth's solar orbit, and contain respectively about 10, 25, and 50 percent of the climatic variance.

3) The 42,000-year climatic component has the same period as variations in the obliquity of the earth's axis and retains a constant phase relationship with it.

LINK