Model experiments on the 100,000-yr glacial cycle

Abstract

It is believed that during the Quaternary era changes in global ice volume were mainly due to changes in the size of the ice sheets on the Eurasian and American continents. Time spectra of oxygen isotope records from deep-sea cores and of the Earth's orbital parameters are remarkably similar in the 10,000–120,000-yr range1,2, suggesting that changes in global ice volume are forced by insolation variations. Model studies by Weertman3,4 and Pollard5 have confirmed this point to some extent: the 20,000- and 40,000-yr cycles can be reproduced, but the 100,000-yr cycle does not show up. Recently, Imbrie and Imbrie6 have fitted simple nonlinear mathematical models to δ18O curves. They found that reasonable fits are obtained if the time scale for ice-sheet growth is about 27,000 yr and for decay about 7,000 yr. The present study considers the problem of the 100,000-yr cycle in a similar way. Experiments with a Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet model show that the 100,000-yr cycle and its sawtooth shape may be explained by ice sheet/bedrock dynamics alone. This cycle seems to be an internally generated feature and is not forced by variations in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit.