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Late-Pleistocene Glacial And Climate Fluctuations In The Torres Del Paine Region (51ºs), Southern South America, Juan Luis Garcia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Variations in Earth‘s orbital parameters affect insolation and are thought to drive ice-age cycles (Milankovitch Theory). Northern and southern mid-latitudes show opposing insolation signals, because of the effect of precession. Despite this difference, paleoclimate records from both hemispheres display broadly synchronous glacialinterglacial climate changes tied to northern hemisphere insolation. This would imply that southern hemisphere glaciers advanced in the face of increasing local summer insolation during the last glacial maximum and thus raises questions about the orbital theory of ice ages. Well-dated paleoclimate records are important for testing hypotheses concerning the origin of ice ages, particularly in the southern hemisphere. …