Potential impact of the northern hemisphere Quaternary ice sheets on the frequencies of the astroclimatic orbital parameters

Abstract

The Earth's orbital elements involved in the astronomical theory of paleoclimates are the eccentricity, the obliquity, and the climatic precession. The sensitivity of their frequencies to the dynamical ellipticity of the Earth is investigated for the Quaternary period. According to the model used, the modification of the distribution of the masses on and inside the Earth during full glacial conditions has only a weak influence on the moments of inertia of the Earth and consequently on the astronomical periods.