The Milankovitch cycles

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changes in the Earth's orbit
- eccentricity
  - change in the shape of the Earth's orbit around the sun
  - 95,000 year cycle. during circular orbit there are cooler, glacial conditions and during elipticalit's much warmerb/c it's closer to the sun
  - when there is a more circular orbit (like 2014) there are smaller differences between the earth and sun at perihelion and aphelion = associated with glacial periods
- precession
  - - 23,000 year cycle -axial wobble -at present we have mild winters in N and hot summers in S because we are at perihelion. In 12,000 years we will have aphelion and cold winters in N and mild summers S
  - perihelion is when the axis is pointing towards the sun
  - one hemisphere will get bigger contrasts between the seasons and the other will have milder seasons
- obliquity
  - 42,000 year cycle -changein the Earth's axial tilt. -22.5-24.5 degrees tilt.
  - when the tilt increases the level of incoming solar radiation is more concentrated on the poles because there is a smaller surfacearea
  - smaller angle means smaller seasonal differences
eccentricity
- change in the shape of the Earth's orbit around the sun
- 95,000 year cycle. during circular orbit there are cooler, glacial conditions and during elipticalit's much warmerb/c it's closer to the sun
- when there is a more circular orbit (like 2014) there are smaller differences between the earth and sun at perihelion and aphelion = associated with glacial periods

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