Earth's Precession Research Articles

LATITUDINAL DISTRIBUTION OF ENDOGENIC RELIEF-FORMING PROCESSES AND ROTATION OF EARTH

An analysis of factual data on volcanic eruptions (during the period of 1900 to 1977) has revealed a pattern in eruptions distribution over latitudinal zones of the Earth and elucidated special features of the distribution related to the Earth's rotation and precession of its axis. The general rotation-dependent regularity consists in total number of eruptions decreasing from; it is complicated by regular alternation of zones of active volcanism and relatively quiet zones. The distribution of eruptions resembles a standing wave with vibration amplitude damping out towards from equator toward poles; it reflects wave character of processes of crustal deformation of the Earth ellipsoid. The wave length is ~20° of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere and ~15° in the Southern Hemisphere. Maximums are at 15-20°, 35—40°, 55-60° in the Northern Hemisphere, and at 0-10°, 20-25°, 35—40° and 50-55° in the Southern one. The rate of eruptions decrease with latitude amounts to about 3 eruptions per 1° in the Northern Hemisphere and about 5 in the Southern. Distribution of seismic events over latitude was analyzed using USGS/NEIC Significant Worldwide Earthquakes database. Some regularities in earthquakes number changes with latitude have been established for both hemispheres.

A long time span relativistic precession model of the Earth**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

A numerical solution to the Earth's precession in a relativistic framework for a long time span is presented here. We obtain the motion of the solar system in the Barycentric Celestial Reference System by numerical integration with a symplectic integrator. Special Newtonian corrections accounting for tidal dissipation are included in the force model. The part representing Earth's rotation is calculated in the Geocentric Celestial Reference System by integrating the post-Newtonian equations of motion published by Klioner et al. All the main relativistic effects are included following Klioner et al. In particular, we consider several relativistic reference systems with corresponding time scales, scaled constants and parameters. Approximate expressions for Earth's precession in the interval ±1 Myr around J2000.0 are provided. In the interval ±2000 years around J2000.0, the difference compared to the P03 precession theory is only several arcseconds and the results are consistent with other long-term precession theories.

Nonlinear problems of complex natural systems: Sun and climate dynamics

The universal role of the nonlinear one-third subharmonic resonance mechanism in generation of strong fluctuations in complex natural dynamical systems related to global climate is discussed using wavelet regression detrended data. The role of the oceanic Rossby waves in the year-scale global temperature fluctuations and the nonlinear resonance contribution to the El Niño phenomenon have been discussed in detail. The large fluctuations in the reconstructed temperature on millennial time scales (Antarctic ice core data for the past 400,000 years) are also shown to be dominated by the one-third subharmonic resonance, presumably related to the Earth's precession effect on the energy that the intertropical regions receive from the Sun. The effects of galactic turbulence on the temperature fluctuations are also discussed.

Formation of Glaciation Epochs

The effect of Earth precession angle on a climate is presented here. It is shown that the glaciation epochs occurred only when the precession angle was low. After the continental glaciation formed in the Northern hemisphere, Earth’s spherecal symmetry was disrupted and its precession angle increased drastically. As a result, a drastic and rapid climate warm-up occurred, the glaciers melted down and an interglacial stadial1 began. Subsequently, affected by the Lunar-Solar gravity pull on the Earth’s equatorial swelling, the precession angle gradually decreased and a new cooling-down phase occurred. As a result, there was nonlinear oscillation of Earth’s climate with periods on the order of 100 - 120 MY.

Variations in Tropical Cyclone Genesis Factors in Simulations of the Holocene Epoch

Abstract The thermodynamic factors related to tropical cyclone genesis are examined in several simulations of the middle part of the Holocene epoch when the precession of Earth’s orbit altered the seasonal distribution of solar radiation and in one transient simulation of the millennium preceding the industrial era. The thermodynamic properties most crucial for genesis display a broad stability across both periods, although both orbital variations during the mid-Holocene (MH) 6000 years ago (6ka) and volcanic eruptions in the transient simulation have detectable effects. It is shown that the distribution of top-of-the-atmosphere radiation 6ka altered the Northern Hemisphere seasonal cycle of the potential intensity of tropical cyclones in addition to slightly increasing the difference between middle tropospheric and boundary layer entropy, a parameter that has been related to the incubation period required for genesis. The Southern Hemisphere, which receives more solar radiation during its storm season today than it did 6ka, displays slightly more favorable thermodynamic properties during the MH than in the preindustrial era control. Surface temperatures over the ocean in both hemispheres respond to radiation anomalies more slowly than those in upper levels, altering the thermal stability. Volcanism produces a sharp but transient temperature response in the last-millennium simulation that strongly reduces potential intensity during the seasons immediately following a major eruption. Here, too, the differential vertical temperature response is key: temperatures in the lower and middle troposphere cool, while those near the tropopause rise. Aside from these deviations, there is no substantial variation in thermodynamic properties over the 1000-yr simulation.

EMPIRICAL MODE DECOMPOSITION DETECTS A PHASE-SHIFT OF SEASONAL OSCILLATION

Through the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), we extrapolated the seasonal component of monthly temperature oscillation of N = 1167 distributed on whole USA covering a period of 111 years from 1898 to 2008. We found an occasional destabilization of the phase of the seasonal component; moreover, the time distribution of these anomaly events is strongly correlated in time with a dominant periodicity remarkably close to the 18.6-year period of the Earth's nutation that represents the stronger modulation to the Earth's precession. Probably, phase-shift effect of seasonal oscillation is due to an orbit-climate relationship related to nutational forcing.

The Miocene/Pliocene boundary in the Mediterranean area: New insights from a high-resolution micropalaeontological and cyclostratigraphical study (Cava Serredi section, Central Italy)

Tuscany (Central Italy) is a key area for studying the Messinian Salinity Crisis and overlying Lower Pliocene deposits due to the high number and excellence of the outcrops. Although the Miocene/Pliocene transition is well exposed and suitable for detailed analyses, a high-resolution integrated stratigraphic study of such a crucial time span for the geological history of the Mediterranean has never been attempted. In the Fine Basin (Central Tuscany), the Cava Serredi section is one of the best exposures of the upper Messinian–Lower Pliocene transition of the Northern Apennines. The Miocene/Pliocene boundary corresponds to a surface separating thinly laminated lacustrine (“Lago-Mare”) marls from homogeneous circalittoral to upper bathyal marly clays. Detailed quantitative micropalaeontological analyses have been performed on 111 samples from the 22 m-thick Lower Pliocene succession. They resulted in the improvement of the biostratigraphic resolution of the basal Zanclean interval due to the recognition of several chronologically constrained bioevents typical of the Mediterranean region and based on benthic and planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils. Moreover, to unravel cyclical patterns of deposition, and given that the investigated succession shows no evident lithological pattern, micropalaeontological analyses have been coupled with calcium carbonate content variations. The latter revealed more-regular fluctuations, which are especially evident if the exclusive contribution of the planktonic foraminifer fraction ( PCaCO 3) is considered. Spectral analysis of the CaCO 3 curve indicates that sedimentation occurred under the control of Earth's precession. This datum is also confirmed by the cyclical patterns of Neogloboquadrina acostaensis and Sphenolithus spp. among foraminifers and nannofossils, respectively. According to the proposed cyclostratigraphic and astrochronological reconstruction, the Lower Pliocene interval of the Cava Serredi section consists of eight precession-controlled cycles ranging from the i-cycle 510 (5.33 Ma) to the i-cycle 494 (5.16 Ma). Finally, the comparison with other astronomically calibrated sections, including the Zanclean GSSP (Eraclea Minoa, Sicily), allowed us to prove the completeness of the basal Zanclean interval of the study section and to state that Pliocene re-flooding after the Messinian Salinity Crisis occurred synchronously with respect to other deeper sectors of the Mediterranean Basin.

Climate Change in Eurasia: Perspectives over Space and Time

A prominent physical geographer offers a brief primer on climate change in general and then brings spatial and temporal perspectives to bear in an assessment of the past, present, and future changes of climate over Eurasia. More specifically, he addresses climate change and feedbacks for Eurasia over longer (tectonic forcing, >105 years), intermediate (Earth's orbital relations, 104-105 years), and shorter timeframes (<104 years), emphasizing that climates change more or less continuously in response to many forcing factors (solar output, Earth's eccentric orbit, rotational tilt, precession, and interactive atmosphere-ocean-land systems, including human impacts). Although these factors operate at different rates and timescales, they may coincide at times to promote rapid change. The nesting of the current, three-decade pattern of warming within longer centennial- and millennial-scale cycles of warming and cooling since the Holocene Optimum (itself a warm interglacial stage within warm and cold cycles in the late Cenozoic over the last 50 million years) shows that the recent rapid warming since 1980 is not unique in Earth history, although it does warrant concern and raises questions of global significance.

The complex dynamics of the seasonal component of USA's surface temperature

Abstract. The dynamics of the climate system has been investigated by analyzing the complex seasonal oscillation of monthly averaged temperatures recorded at 1167 stations covering the whole USA. We found the presence of an orbit-climate relationship on time scales remarkably shorter than the Milankovitch period {related to the nutational forcing}. The relationship manifests itself through occasional destabilization of the phase of the seasonal component due to the local changing of balance between direct insolation and the net energy received by the Earth. Quite surprisingly, we found that the local intermittent dynamics is modulated by a periodic component of about 18.6 yr due to the nutation of the Earth, which represents the main modulation of the Earth's precession. The global effect in the last century results in a cumulative phase-shift of about 1.74 days towards earlier seasons, in agreement with the phase shift expected from the Earth's precession. The climate dynamics of the seasonal cycle can be described through a nonlinear circle-map, indicating that the destabilization process can be associated to intermittent transitions from quasi-periodicity to chaos.

Obliquity and precessional forcing of continental snow fall and melt: implications for orbital forcing of Pleistocene ice ages

Milankovitch theory posits that Earth's orbital cycles were the primary forcing of Pleistocene ice-age cycles through their strong influence on summer insolation at high latitudes. Accordingly, Milankovitch theory predicts ice volume should vary at both obliquity and precessional periods. However, early Pleistocene global ice volume varied mainly at the obliquity period with weak variability at the precessional period suggesting that Milankovitch theory is not sufficient to explain the ice-age cycles. Here we describe the results from a series of coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model experiments, using the Fast Ocean Atmosphere Model, that systematically investigate the influence of precession and obliquity on continental snowfall and potential ablation. Our model results identify three factors that magnify the influence of obliquity forcing on the global ice volume: First, high-latitude snowfall variability is dominated by changes in Earth's axial tilt. Second, hemispheric changes in net snowfall due to Earth's precession are out-of-phase, and largely cancel to produce a very small global snowfall change. Third, snowmelt variability over Antarctica responds greatly to changes in obliquity that intensify accumulation over obliquity cycle. We discuss the implications of these factors for existing hypotheses that account for the variability in the ice volume record.

Amplification of obliquity forcing through mean annual and seasonal atmospheric feedbacks

Abstract. Pleistocene benthic δ18O records exhibit strong spectral power at ~41 kyr, indicating that global ice volume has been modulated by Earth's axial tilt. This feature, and weak spectral power in the precessional band, has been attributed to the influence of obliquity on mean annual and seasonal insolation gradients at high latitudes. In this study, we use a coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model to quantify changes in continental snowfall associated with mean annual and seasonal insolation forcing due to a change in obliquity. Our model results indicate that insolation changes associated with a decrease in obliquity amplify continental snowfall in three ways: (1) Local reductions in air temperature enhance precipitation as snowfall. (2) An intensification of the winter meridional insolation gradient strengthens zonal circulation (e.g. the Aleutian low), promoting greater vapor transport from ocean to land and snow precipitation. (3) An increase in the summer meridional insolation gradient enhances summer eddy activity, increasing vapor transport to high-latitude regions. In our experiments, a decrease in obliquity leads to an annual snowfall increase of 25.0 cm; just over one-half of this response (14.1 cm) is attributed to seasonal changes in insolation. Our results indicate that the role of insolation gradients is important in amplifying the relatively weak insolation forcing due to a change in obliquity. Nonetheless, the total snowfall response to obliquity is similar to that due to a shift in Earth's precession, suggesting that obliquity forcing alone can not account for the spectral characteristics of the ice-volume record.

Orbital- and millennial-scale vegetation and climate changes of the past 225 ka from Bear Lake, Utah–Idaho (USA)

Continuous high-resolution pollen data for the past 225 ka from sediments in Bear Lake, Utah–Idaho reflect changes in vegetation and climate that correlate well with variations in summer insolation and global ice-volume during MIS 1 through 7. Spectral analysis of the pollen data identified peaks at 21–22 and 100 ka corresponding to periodicities in Earth's precession and eccentricity orbital cycles. Suborbital climatic fluctuations recorded in the pollen data, denoted by 6 and 5 ka cyclicities, are similar to Greenland atmospheric temperatures and North Atlantic ice-rafting Heinrich events. Our results show that millennial-scale climate variability is also evident during MIS 5, 6 and 7, including the occurrence of Heinrich-like events in MIS 6, showing the long-term feature of such climate variability. This study provides clear evidence of a highly interconnected ocean–atmosphere system during the last two glacial/interglacial cycles that extended its influence as far as continental western North America. Our study also contributes to a greater understanding of the impact of long-term climate change on vegetation of western North America. Such high-resolution studies are particularly important in efforts of the scientific community to predict the consequences of future climate change.

Times of peak astronomical tides

The times of maximum tide generating potential, maximum semi‐diurnal potential, and maximum diurnal potential for years 1–3000 c.e. are found by direct evaluation from a high‐precision numerical ephemeris of the sun and moon. A slight negative trend in the equilibrium peaks of the total tide is caused by the current decrease in the earth's orbital eccentricity, which increases the earth–sun distance at perihelion. Peak diurnal tides are also slightly decreasing owing to the decrease in obliquity. Trends in semi‐diurnal tidal peaks are more complicated, tending to decrease until 1247 c.e. and increase thereafter, a result primarily of the influence of the earth's precession on the solar tide.

한국, 일본, 중국의 역사 기록에 나오는 별똥만발 기록의 새로 고친 목록

한국, 일본, 중국의 옛 역사 기록에 나오는 벌똥만발 기록(meteor outbursts즉, 강한 별똥비 및 별똥 소나기 기록) 가운데 신뢰할 만한 것을 모은 목록을 새로 고쳐 만들었다. 이 고친 목록에서는 지구의 세차운동과 근일점이동에 의한 영향을 받지 않고 별찌흐름(meteor stream)의 공간적 위치를 연구하기 위해 별똥만발이 나타난 시각을 나타내는데 새로운 시간 좌표계를 도입하였다. 즉 임의로 지구의 2000년 근일점을 기준으로 각 기록의 관측 시각이 항성년 단위로 끊을 때 나머지가 며칠인지를 가지고 시간 좌표계를 정의하여 사용하였다. 또한 개별 별똥 기록으로 취급되어 별똥비 항목에서 누락되었던 중국 기록 19개를 찾아내서 목록에 추가했다. 우리는 새로 개정된 별똥만발 목록에서 지난 2천년 동안 별똥만발 현상을 일으킨 별찌흐름들은 물병자리 에타 별찌흐름, 오리온자리 별찌흐름, 페르세우스자리 별찌흐름, 사자자리 별찌흐름임을 확인하였다. 세 나라의 옛 별똥만발 기록만을 대상으로 할 때, 각 별똥만발들의 가장 오랜 기록들을 약간 수정하였다. 우리는 이러한 별똥만발 현상들을 일으키는 어미혜성이 핼리형 혜성(Halley-type comet)임에 주목하고 논의하였다. We made a revised catalogue for reliable records of meteor outbursts that were recorded in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese chronicles. In order to avoid the effects of both Earth's precession and perihelion shift, we introduced a new time-coordinate of records, or the number of days elapsed within the sidereal year of the record for a given origin of time or the perihelion passage time of the you 2000. We added nineteen new records of meteor showers that are wrongly classified i, individual meteors in a Chinese archive. We found that the <TEX>${\eta}-Aquarids,$</TEX> the Perseids, the Orionids, and the Leonids have been active during the last two millennia. Due to the change of time-coordinate, the oldest record of each long-lasting meteor shower has been slightly corrected. We discuss that these long-lasting meteor showers belong to the Halley-type comets.

Orbitally forced Lofer cycles in the Dachstein Limestone of the Julian Alps (northeastern Italy)

Lofer cyclothems of the Upper Triassic Dachstein Limestone of the Julian Alps (northeastern Italy) are the focus of a new sedimentological-cyclostratigraphic study. A 112-cycle-long field section reveals that the meter-scale basic cycle shallows upward, from subtidal megalodont-bearing subfacies to intertidal laminites, capped by a paleosol subfacies. Time-series analysis of a correlative grayscale scan of a high-resolution field photograph shows that a 166-m-thick succession of Lofer cycles has time-frequency characteristics consistent with Earth's precession index, suggesting that the Lofer cycles were generated by eustatic sea-level oscillations that were forced by Milankovitch cycles.

Ecological collapse of Lake Baikal and Lake Hovsgol ecosystems during the Last Glacial and consequences for aquatic species diversity

Sedimentary sections from Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Hovsgol in Mongolia show that during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), planktonic/benthic diatoms, chrysophyte cysts, sponge spicules and zooplankton remains did not accumulate in the lake sediments. The combined data suggest a drastic lowering of photosynthetic production and perhaps the collapse of the ecosystems of both lakes due to significant environmental changes during the LGM. Both lakes were almost uninhabited during the LGM. Starting from ∼12,000 to 13,000 14C years ago, the planktonic communities redeveloped and primary production increased in both lakes. As a result, Holocene sediments contain abundant and well-preserved planktonic/benthic diatoms, stomatocysts, sponge spicules and zooplankton remains. The ecosystem stress in Lake Baikal during glacial time appears to be due to a decrease in nutrient loading from the watershed, lowering of surface water temperature, and very low transparency of water and ice. We believe that endemic species in Baikal survived during glacial ecological catastrophes in refugia that could have been a source of species that invaded and repopulated Baikal after intense and long glacial winters. The ecosystem stress in Lake Hovsgol during glacial time appears to be due primarily to drastic lake level falls, and changes in water chemistry. At the beginning of the Holocene, Lake Hovsgol was reoccupied again by cosmopolitan species probably from surrounding small lakes and rivers. In addition to the LGM results, we also show that Lake Baikal planktonic diatom species diversity during the last 350 ka is closely related to solar insolation fluctuations caused by the 23 and 41 ka cycles of the Earth's precession and obliquity. Our results also indicate that Baikal's planktonic diatom species diversity, as measured by the Shannon–Weiner index, correlates with the oxygen isotope record that represents changes in global ice volume.

Remaining error sources in the nutation at the submilliarc second level

Earth's precession and nutations are mainly generated by the luni‐solar tidal torque. Diurnal retrograde variations in the atmospheric and oceanic angular momenta in an Earth‐fixed reference system induce some additional nutation motions. Observed precession and nutations are derived from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) data, assuming that the direction of the observed quasars are fixed in space. In this study, we consider the effects of two possible causes for explaining discrepancies between the observed nutations and those modeled in MHB2000 (model adopted by the International Astronomical Union): (1) the time variations in the atmospheric (and potentially oceanic) forcing of the nutations, of the free core nutation (FCN), and of the free inner core nutation (FICN), and (2) the possible contamination of VLBI‐derived nutation amplitudes by apparent changes in the directions of the extragalactic radio sources. The robustness of MHB2000 is tested by perturbing some of the parameters and assessing the validity of the resulting nutation amplitudes against realistic estimations. We show that even allowing for large discrepancies related to atmospheric forcing, the ranges of the possible changes in the FCN and FICN periods and damping factors are small.

Differential rotation driven by precession

The tidal force in the Earth–Moon system exerted on the Earth's equatorial bulge results in the Earth's precession. It was proposed a long time ago that the strong shear flow driven by the precession of the Earth may power the Earth's dynamo in its liquid core. We present a nonlinear analytical study investigating how the Poincare force in a rotating, precessing spherical system drives a large-amplitude differential rotation which plays a major role in the modern theory of the geodynamo. The analysis is based on a perturbation approach in terms of the small Poincare force parameter. It is found that the amplitude of the precession-driven differential rotation is consistent with that estimated from the geomagnetic secular variation.

Cyclostratigraphy and high‐frequency carbon isotope fluctuations in Upper Cretaceous shallow‐water carbonates, southern Italy

Abstract A detailed carbon isotope study has been carried out on a Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) carbonate platform succession that crops out at Monte Sant'Erasmo (southern Italy). Previous centimetre‐scale studies on this succession have shown that high‐frequency eustatic changes, resulting from the Earth's orbital fluctuations, controlled the hierarchical organization of the depositional and early diagenetic features in elementary cycles, bundles (groups of three to five elementary cycles) and superbundles (groups of three or four bundles). The elementary cycles, which correspond to single beds, suggest a control caused by Earth's precession; the bundles and superbundles record the short (≈ 100 kyr) and long (≈ 400 kyr) eccentricity periodicity respectively. The δ13C signal of the Monte Sant'Erasmo succession is cyclic in nature and may be considered to be a reliable proxy for the sedimentary evolution (and related sea‐level history) of the analysed sequence. The carbon isotope cyclicity is recorded at bundle and superbundle level, but it is not evident at the scale of the elementary cycles, at least with the sampling interval used in this study. Spectral analysis of the δ13C record shows two main peaks corresponding to the short‐ and long‐eccentricity periodicity, whereas the precession signal is not evident in the power spectrum. In addition, lithofacies analysis shows that, in each bundle (and superbundle), higher C isotope values occur in sediments characterized by marine cements, whereas lower values are normally found in more restricted deposits overprinted by early meteoric diagenesis. Early diagenesis, driven by periodic sea‐level fluctuations, developed in either shallow‐subtidal (marine diagenesis) or subaerial‐exposed (meteoric overprint) sedimentary environments and directly influenced the carbon isotope signature. As a consequence, the δ13C record at Monte Sant'Erasmo reflects high‐frequency climatic oscillations controlling both environmental and early diagenetic changes. The long‐term isotopic record is similar to that of contemporaneous pelagic sections in England and elsewhere in Italy. It is concluded that the δ13C signature of shallow‐water carbonates, such as those of Monte Sant'Erasmo, offers great potential for correlation with coeval sections, including those of the pelagic realm.

The earth as a gigantic, rapidly rotating gyroscope

A method of calculating the earth's precession, known from observations, with a period of 26 000 years, is proposed. It is suggested that this precession can be calculated using gyroscope precession theory, assuming the earth itself to be a rapidly rotating gyroscope. The earth's precession is assumed to be due to the action of the moments of the attractive forces of the sun and the moon.