Milankovitch (Orbital) Cycles and Their Role in Earth's Climate
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- Cycles are fundamental to both natural and human-made systems, ranging from seasons and migrations to economics.
- Milankovitch cycles describe how Earth's orbital variations (eccentricity, obliquity, precession) affect long-term climate and ice age timing.
- Eccentricity (100,000-year cycle) alters Earth's orbit shape, affecting insolation and season lengths, but has a minor annual climate impact.
- Obliquity (41,000-year cycle) changes axial tilt, influencing season severity and ice sheet growth, with current tilt at 23.4° and decreasing.
- Precession (23,000-year cycle) combines axial and apsidal wobbles, affecting seasonal contrasts between hemispheres over millennia.
- Milankovitch's model, validated by ice core and sediment data, explains glacial-interglacial cycles but cannot account for modern rapid warming.