ESS101C
Prof.
Jin-Yi Yu
What Causes Abrupt Deglaciations?
qSlow global cooling together
with the less sliding beneath ice sheets helped to create thicker and more extensive ice
sheets beginning
0.9 Myr ago.
qWhat cause the rapid melting
every 100,000 years?
qExplanation: the 100,000-year
eccentricity cycle
q The 100,000-year
eccentricity orbital cycle only produces a trivial amount of direct insolation changes.
It is the modulation of the 100,000-year cycle on the amplitude of the
23,000-year precession cycle that actually affect the rapid melting every 100,000 years.
(from Earth’s Climate: Past and Future)