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To: AdamSelene235
You didn't read my post, geological factors are not the cause of ice ages according to recent studies. Solar dust collected by the sun is the major contributing factor.
13 posted on 08/06/2003 8:31:12 AM PDT by BushCountry (To the last, I will grapple with Democrats. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at Liberals.)
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To: BushCountry
Solar dust collected by the sun is the major contributing factor.

Actually not. It's galactic dust, and the extra accumulation is due to changes in the Sun's magnetic field. However those changes are on a 21 year cycle, with longer cycles affecting the peak levels of the 21 year cycles. It's hard to imagine something that happens every 21 years being the "cause" of ice ages which occur on much longer time scales. Now the longer term solar variability is quite likely the cause of at least some ice ages. The so called "Little Ice Age" began in the 1200 or 1300s and lasted into the 1800s. (New York harbor routinely froze over) The recent "global warming" trend is probably the flip side of the cycle, but seems to have reached it's peak, or nearly so. The LIA was preceded by the Medievil Warm Period, a time similar to that between the end of the LIA and today.

Of course it's not a simple as the sun giving off more power or less, but rather the way that change in the solar radiation interacts with the earth. Rain patterns change, ocean currents shift and so forth.

32 posted on 08/06/2003 9:38:56 AM PDT by El Gato
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