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Palaeoclimatology

A warm future in the past

Nature volume 388, pages 418–419 (1997)Cite this article

*Carbonate Marine System During Oxygen Isotope Stage 11, American Geophysical Union Spring Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 27-30 May 1997

Changes in the Earth's orbital geometry explain the strong 41,000-year and 23,000-year rhythms in climate over the past five million years (due to changes in axial tilt and orbital precession, respectively). During the past 600,000 years, however, the dominant rhythm has been a 100,000-year cycle. Although this climate cycle is at a similar frequency to orbital eccentricity variation, the radiative impact of that orbital cycle is too small — at least in linear climate models2 — to produce the large swings in the climate record.

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Figure 1: Climate and chemistry of the past 500,000 years.

Notes

  1. *Carbonate Marine System During Oxygen Isotope Stage 11, American Geophysical Union Spring Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 27-30 May 1997

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  1. the Cooperative Research Centre for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Environment, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-80, Hobart, 7001, Tasmania, Australia

    William R. Howard

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  1. William R. Howard
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Howard, W. A warm future in the past. Nature 388, 418–419 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41201

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