Abstract
Continued tidal evolution of the Earth-Moon system will lengthen the day and expand the lunar orbit. Both of these changes increase the present 26,000-year equinoctial precession period. In less than 2 billion years, this period will become comparable to the ∼49,000- and ∼69,000-year periods of important terms describing the precession of the Earth's orbit plane due to planetary perturbations. These events occur when the lunar orbital semimajor axis drifts past ∼66.5 and ∼68.0 Earth radii, respectively, and will be accompanied by large oscillations of the obliquity and severe climatic alterations. The current rate of lunar recession implies that these resonances should have been encountered already, had present conditions been the norm throughout geologic time.
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