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Letters to Nature
Nature 252, 216 - 218 (15 November 1974); doi:10.1038/252216a0

Arithmetic of ice ages

NIGEL CALDER

8 The Chase, Furnace Green, Crawley, Sussex RH10 6HW, UK

THE Milankovitch hypothesis is that glaciations occur when the Northern Hemisphere receives relatively little summer heat from the Sun, because of astronomical factors that alter the orientation of the Earth's axis and the eccentricity of its orbit. A new time scale for the ocean-bed record of the past eight glaciations is provided1,2 by the magnetic reversal at the start of the Brunhes epoch, 700,000 yr ago. In addition, Vernekar's recalculated insolation tables3 are now available. For a popular account of climatic change4, I wanted to illustrate the opportunity thus provided, for a re-evaluation of the Milankovitch hypothesis.

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References

1. Shackleton, N. J., and Opdyke, N. D., Quat. Res., 3, 39 (1973).
2. Emiliani, C., and Shackleton, N. J., Science, 183, 511 (1974).
3. Vernekar, A. D., Met. Monogr., 12, No. 34 (1972).
4. Calder, N., The Weather Machine (BBC London, 1974).
5. Lamb, H. H., and Woodroffe, A., Quat. Res., 1, 29 (1970).
6. Matthews, R. K., Quat. Res., 2, 368 (1972).
7. Nature, 248, 103 (1974).
8. Kellaway, G. A., Proc. R. Soc. (in the press).
9. Dansgaard, W., et al., Quat. Res., 2, 396 (1972).
10. Kennett, J. P., and Huddlestun, P., Quat. Res., 2, 384 (1972).
11. Denton, G. H., and Karlén, W., Quat. Res., 3, 155 (1973).
12. Broecker, W. S., and van Donk, J., Rev. Geophys. Space Phys., 8, 169 (1970).


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