page_title: Quaternary glaciation
section_title: Astronomical cycles
hierarchical_section_title: Quaternary glaciation / Causes / Astronomical cycles
caption_attribution_description: English: This figure shows the variations in Earth's orbit, the resulting changes in solar energy flux at high latitude, and the observed glacial cycles. According to Milankovitch Theory, the precession of the equinoxes and the apsides, variations in the tilt of the Earth's axis (obliquity) and changes in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit are responsible for causing the observed 100 kyr cycle in ice ages by varying the amount of sunlight received by the Earth at different times and locations, particularly high northern latitude summer. These changes in the Earth's orbit are the predictable consequence of interactions between the Earth, its moon, and the other planets. The orbital data shown are from Quinn et al. (1991). Principal frequencies for each of the three kinds of variations are labeled. The solar forcing curve (aka "insolation") is derived from July 1st sunlight at 65 °N latitude according to Jonathan Levine's insolation calculator [1]. The glacial data are from Lisiecki and Raymo (2005) and gray bars indicate interglacial periods, defined here as deviations in the 5 kyr average of at least 0.8 standard deviations above the mean.
context_page_description: The Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, is an alternating series of glacial and interglacial periods during the Quaternary period that began 2.58 Ma, and is ongoing. Although geologists describe the entire time period as an "ice age", in popular culture the term "ice age" is usually associated with just the most recent glacial period during the Pleistocene. Since the planet Earth still has ice sheets, geologists consider the Quaternary glaciation to be ongoing, with the Earth now experiencing an interglacial period.
  During the Quaternary glaciation, ice sheets appeared. During glacial periods they expanded, and during interglacial periods they contracted. Since the end of the last glacial period the only surviving ice sheets are the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Other ice sheets, such as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, formed during glacial periods and completely disappeared during interglacials.
context_section_description: The role of Earth's orbital changes in controlling climate was first advanced by James Croll in the late 19th century. Later, Milutin Milanković, a Serbian geophysicist, elaborated on the theory and calculated that these irregularities in Earth's orbit could cause the climatic cycles now known as Milankovitch cycles. They are the result of the additive behavior of several types of cyclical changes in Earth's orbital properties.
  Changes in the orbital eccentricity of Earth occur on a cycle of about 100,000 years. The inclination, or tilt, of Earth's axis varies periodically between 22° and 24.5° in a cycle 41,000 years long. The tilt of Earth's axis is responsible for the seasons; the greater the tilt, the greater the contrast between summer and winter temperatures. Precession of the equinoxes, or wobbles of Earth's spin axis, have a periodicity of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovitch theory, these factors cause a periodic cooling of Earth, with the coldest part in the cycle occurring about every 40,000 years. The main effect of the Milankovitch cycles is to change the contrast between the seasons, not the overall amount of solar heat Earth receives. The result is less ice melting than accumulating, and glaciers build up.
  Milankovitch worked out the ideas of climatic cycles in the 1920s and 1930s, but it was not until the 1970s that a sufficiently long and detailed chronology of the Quaternary temperature changes was worked out to test the theory adequately. Studies of deep-sea cores, and the fossils contained in them, indicate that the fluctuation of climate during the last few hundred thousand years is remarkably close to that predicted by Milankovitch.
  A problem with the theory is that these astronomical cycles have been in existence for many millions of years, but glaciation is a rare occurrence. Astronomical cycles correlate with glacial and interglacial periods, and their transitions, within a long-term ice age but do not initiate these long-term ice ages.
caption: Relationship of Earth's orbit to periods of glaciation
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