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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Houston Geological Society Bulletin
Abstract
Abstract: A Terrestrial Theory of Ice Ages *
By
*Paper presented before the Society, June 10, 1960
The direct cause of Pleistocene glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere
is explained on the basis of an ice-free Arctic 
Ocean
. This
would provide the initial precipitation and would effect changes in atmospheric
and oceanic circulation that would further enhance glacial
growth. The lowering of sea level associated with glacial growth would
finally cause the Arctic to freeze over terminating glacial conditions.
Glacial-interglacial oscillations are thus dependent on the state of the
Arctic Ocean which is in turn regulated by sea level position. The
initiation of the glacial epoch is explained by the displacement of the
geographic poles from an open ocean environment to their present
thermally isolated locations in the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica, respectively.
Consideration of the heat budget of the Arctic Basin gives theoretical
support to the maintenance of an ice-free Arctic Ocean
from the
inflow of the warmer North Atlantic. Further support is also given by
new data dealing with the glaciation of Siberia and Northern Canada,
seismicity of glaciated regions, geoid measurements, studies of thermal
gradients and submarine terraces.