Summary and Conclusions

Several pieces of evidence show that average temperature and extension of glaciers and snow-covered regions have changed considerably and in a cyclic fashion in the last 800,000 years. Astronomical and oceanographic data point at a complex interaction of changes in the Earth's motion (both in its orbit around the Sun and in the direction of the rotation axis) and of ocean currents. The Earth system seems to undergo rapid changes between glacial periods and warm-up periods, pointing at the existence of an istability in the ocean-atmospheric system.

This page was produced by Gianfranco Vidali.