On Bifurcations Inducing Glacial Cycle Lengthening During Pliocene/Pleistocene Epoch

Abstract

In the Pliocene (about two–five million years ago) global climate fluctuated with a period corresponding well to the 41-thousand-year cycle of changes in the Earth's axis obliquity. Then, this period disappeared, despite the fact that the obliquity cycle even slightly increased its swing and, therefore, the climatic response to this external climate forcing would have only strengthened. By analyzing paleoclimatic records covering the whole Pliocene and Pleistocene epoch, we show that the climatic response to the obliquity cycle simply became unstable, and therefore unobservable. At the same time, through the period-doubling bifurcation, which is well-known in dynamical system theory, new stable, and so observable, climatic fluctuations have been excited with an approximately doubled period. Further, these fluctuations experienced several secondary bifurcations, and, as a result, their periods increased even more.