An underground record of past deglaciations

Abstract

Glacial Cycles Understanding more exactly how the timing of deglaciations depends on changes in insolation, or the energy received by Earth from the Sun, requires precise and independent records of both environmental change and solar energy input. Bajo et al . strengthened the weak link of that two-member chain, the environmental record, by developing a precise, radiometrically dated chronology of the 11 deglaciations of the past million years derived from speleothems. This allowed them to show more clearly how the initiation and duration of glacial terminations over that period depended on solar obliquity and precession. Science , this issue p. [1235][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1114