Astronomical theory of the ice ages (Croll)
Teoría astronómica de las glaciaciones (Croll)
- Date
- 1864 · confidence high
- Place
- Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- James Croll
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Croll calculated how changes in orbital eccentricity and precession alter seasonal insolation, and proposed that these variations, amplified by ice and ocean currents, trigger ice ages. He was the first to work out the orbital cause of the ice ages.
Joseph Adhémar had invoked precession in 1842. Croll's theory was abandoned around 1900 and rehabilitated by Milankovitch and by the ocean data of Hays, Imbrie and Shackleton (1976).
What it led to
- the astronomical hypothesis developed by Milankovitch and others
- debate on glacial chronology and the age of the Earth