SIDEBAR. The mid-pleistocene enigma

Ford, Heather and Chalk, Thomas (2020) SIDEBAR. The mid-pleistocene enigma. Oceanography, 33 (2), 101 - 103. (doi:10.5670/oceanog.2020.216).

Record type: Letter

Abstract

Variations in Earth’s orbit affect incoming solar radiation and have guided past glacial-interglacial oscillations. These rhythmic changes in insolation are known as Milankovitch cycles. Approximately 900,000 years ago, Earth’s climate pacemaker skipped a beat and switched from the 41,000-year obliquity (Earth’s axial tilt) pacing of the Early Pleistocene to ~100,000-year eccentricity (circularity of Earth’s orbit around the sun) pacing of the Late Pleistocene. This glacial-to-interglacial shift, called the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), remains one of the most enduring mysteries of the Quaternary and in the field of paleoceanography. Recent reconstructions of atmospheric and oceanic processes and studies of the dynamic linkages between them have paved the way for a more detailed mechanistic understanding of this climatic transition and of Earth’s climate system at large.

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Published date: 19 August 2020

Additional Information: Funding Information: We are grateful to members of the PAGES Working Group on Quaternary Interglacials (QUIGS), and in particular participants of the workshop on Interglacials of the 41 kyr world and the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, for stimulating discussions. Ford is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/N015045/1).

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