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Polar Wandering, Continental Drift, and the Onset of Quaternary Glaciation

  • Chapter
Causes of Climatic Change

Part of the book series: Meteorological Monographs ((METEOR,volume 8))

Abstract

Continents occupied much of the region around the north pole during the glaciations that occurred in the late Paleozoic and late Cenozoic eras. The geologic evidence is thus at least permissive that polar continentality is a necessary condition for glaciation. However, continents also occupied the polar regions during most of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras at times when glaciation did not occur, so that clearly polar continentality is not a sufficient condition for glaciation. Polar wandering has been linked to the onset of glaciation by several theories which suggest that glaciation began as the rotation axis migrated toward potential glaciation generating regions such as Antarctica or the Arctic Ocean. These theories are not in agreement with paleomagnetic evidence, which indicates that the rotation axis has been within the present polar region for an interval at least 10 times longer than the interval of glaciation. Similarly, rates of continental drift are too small to permit changes in the configuration of the continents to have played an important role in the onset of Quaternary glaciation. The possibility remains that vertical movements of land masses, many of which occurred at the end of the Pliocene, may have played a significant role in the initiation of Quaternary glaciation.

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Author notes

  1. Allan Cox

    Present address: Geophysics Dept., Stanford University, Stanford, Calif, USA

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  1. U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif, USA

    Allan Cox

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J. Murray Mitchell Jr.

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Cox, A. (1968). Polar Wandering, Continental Drift, and the Onset of Quaternary Glaciation. In: Mitchell, J.M. (eds) Causes of Climatic Change. Meteorological Monographs, vol 8. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-935704-38-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-935704-38-6_10

  • Publisher Name: American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-935704-38-6

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