Abstract
Glaciation cycles are the phenomena which dominate climatic variability on time scales of 103–106yr over the last few million years of the earth’s history. They have attracted increased attention lately due to the wealth of proxy data recently uncovered and interpreted which document them. We describe and model some of the physical mechanisms internal to the climatic system which might play a causal role in glaciation cycles. Model results indicate that the nonlinear interaction of these mechanisms leads to oscillations in temperature and ice extent comparable to those found in the paleoclimatological proxy record. We outline ways in which the models could account for most of the glaciation cycles’ characteristics by combining the action of the internal mechanisms with that of quasi-periodically varying external forcing.
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Ghil, M. (1981). Internal Climatic Mechanisms Participating in Glaciation Cycles. In: Berger, A. (eds) Climatic Variations and Variability: Facts and Theories. NATO Advanced Study Institutes Series, vol 72. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8514-8_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8514-8_31
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