Orbital forcing of the marine isotope stage 9 interglacial

C. H. Stirling*, T. M. Esat, K. Lambeck, M. T. McCulloch, S. G. Blake, D. C. Lee, A. N. Halliday

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

116 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Milankovitch orbital forcing theory has been used to assign time scales to many paleoclimate records. However, the validity of this theory remains uncertain, and independent sea-level chronologies used to test its applicability have been restricted largely to the past ∼ 135,000 years. Here, we report U-series ages for coral reefs formed on Henderson Island during sea-level high-stands occurring at ∼630,000 and ∼330,000 years ago. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that interglacial climates are forced by Northern Hemisphere summer solar insolation centered at 65°N latitude, as predicted by Milankovitch theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)290-293
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume291
Issue number5502
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Jan 2001
Externally publishedYes

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