Insolation And Hysteresis: Why Ice Ages Keep Happening
Monday, August 12, 2013 - 16:20
in Earth & Climate
Ice ages and warm periods have alternated fairly regularly in the Earth's history: 90,000 of every 100,000 years in the past had vast areas of North America, Europe and Asia being buried under thick ice sheets. Eventually, the pendulum swings back, it gets warmer and the ice masses melt. There's solid evidence of this 100,000-year cycle in glacial moraines, marine sediments and arctic ice, but a plausible explanation for it is harder to find. read more