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North American ice-sheet dynamics and the onset of 100,000-year glacial cycles

Author

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  • R. Bintanja

    (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), Wilhelminalaan 10, 3732 GK De Bilt, The Netherlands
    Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands)

  • R. S. W. van de Wal

    (Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Glacial change: the merging North American ice sheets During the past 2.7 million years, Earth's climate has undergone a number of glacial cycles during which the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets successively expanded and retreated. From about a million years ago, the dominant glacial periodicity gradually increased from 41,000 to 100,000 years. What caused the emergence of 100,000-year glacial cycles is something of a mystery, mainly because sufficiently long climatic records are lacking. Richard Bintanja and Roderik van de Wal use a comprehensive ice-sheet model and a simple ocean-temperature model to construct 3-million-year mutually consistent records of temperature, ice volume and sea level from marine oxygen isotope data. Their findings suggest that the switch to 100,000-year cycles may have been due to the increased ability of the merged North American ice sheets to survive insolation maxima and their ultimate collapse on reaching a certain threshold size.

Suggested Citation

  • R. Bintanja & R. S. W. van de Wal, 2008. "North American ice-sheet dynamics and the onset of 100,000-year glacial cycles," Nature, Nature, vol. 454(7206), pages 869-872, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:454:y:2008:i:7206:d:10.1038_nature07158
    DOI: 10.1038/nature07158
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    Cited by:

    1. Yvonne Milker & Manuel F G Weinkauf & Jürgen Titschack & Andre Freiwald & Stefan Krüger & Frans J Jorissen & Gerhard Schmiedl, 2017. "Testing the applicability of a benthic foraminiferal-based transfer function for the reconstruction of paleowater depth changes in Rhodes (Greece) during the early Pleistocene," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(11), pages 1-30, November.

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