Milankovitch cycle

English

Etymology

Named after the Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milanković (1879-1958).

Noun

Milankovitch cycle (plural Milankovitch cycles)

  1. (climatology) Any of the three cyclic variations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, respectively the obliquity of its axis, the precession of the equinoxes, and the eccentricity of its orbit.
    • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 378:
      The Milankovitch cycles alone are not enough to explain cycles of ice ages.

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