There is evidence to suggest that there have been five distinct ice ages
This cycle, expectedly, requires enormous energy
Study by Milutin Milanković
Serbian scientist
Study done in early 1900s
Studied the earth’s position relative to other planets and came up with the theory of ice ages
Theory of ice ages
Gravitational pull of the sun and moon gently affect Earth’s motion and tilt toward the sun
During parts of this cycle, which can last tens of thousands of years, each of the Earth’s hemispheres gets a little more or a little less solar radiation than they’re used to
Milutin Milanković’s theory initially assumed that “the tilt” caused the ravenous winters
Addendum by Wladimir Köppen
Russian meteorologist
He dug deeper into Milutin’s work
What he found?
Moderately cool summers, not cold winters were the culprit
Begins when the summer never gets warm enough to melt previous winter’s snow
The leftover ice makes it easier for snow to accumulate the following winter
This increases the odds of snow sticking around in the following summer
Perpetual snow reflects more sunlight which makes things even cooler
A few hundred years → a seasonal icepack grows into a continental ice sheet
The same thing happens in reverse; when orbital tilt lets in more sunlight