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Climatology · Problem type
Which orbital cycle
Use this for “A cycle of about 41,000 years swings Earth’s tilt between 22.1° and 24.5°. Which Milankovitch cycle is it?”
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Which orbital cycle is this?
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Ask what changes: the orbit’s shape (eccentricity), the axis’s tilt (obliquity) or the direction the axis points (precession).
Assumptions
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Milankovitch cycles are slow changes in Earth’s orbit and spin that shift how much sunlight reaches each latitude in each season.
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Eccentricity is the orbit’s shape, obliquity the tilt of the spin axis, and precession the slow turning of the direction the axis points.
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Together they pace the ice ages of the last few million years.
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