Abstract
THE Milankovitch hypothesis is that glaciations occur when the Northern Hemisphere receives relatively little summer heat from the Sun, because of astronomical factors that alter the orientation of the Earth's axis and the eccentricity of its orbit. A new time scale for the ocean-bed record of the past eight glaciations is provided1,2 by the magnetic reversal at the start of the Brunhes epoch, 700,000 yr ago. In addition, Vernekar's recalculated insolation tables3 are now available. For a popular account of climatic change4, I wanted to illustrate the opportunity thus provided, for a re-evaluation of the Milankovitch hypothesis.
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References
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CALDER, N. Arithmetic of ice ages. Nature 252, 216–218 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/252216a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/252216a0
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