Stable oxygen isotopes of late Quaternary sediments

In particular, the present study independently confirms the link between major deglaciations (terminations) and increases in northern hemisphere summer radiation at high latitudes and shows that this correlation is not an artifact of orbital tuning.

In addition, the excess ice characteristic of late Quaternary "100-kyr" climate cycles typically accumulates when July insolation at 65°N has been unusually low for more than a full precessional cycle, or >21 kyr, and once established does not last beyond the next increase in summer insolation. Thus, the timing of the growth and decay of large 100-kyr ice sheets, as depicted in the deep sea d18O record, is strongly (and semipredictably) influenced by eccentricity through its modulation of the orbital precession component of northern hemisphere summer insolation.