Abstract
Investigating all the Great Ice Age events throughout the Earth’s history, each was found to follow a strong mountain-making process. Therefore, a hypothesis was put forward with its causality chain as: strong mountain-making process→great disparity in topography on the Earth surface→introducing efficient atmospheric circulation system (plateau monsoon) →increase in global atmospheric heat engine efficiency → generating more atmospheric kinetic energy → enhancing the planetary westerly (under the condition that the huge relief is longitudinal on the whole)→widening the temperature difference between the equator and the polar regions (restrained by the thermal wind law)→sharp cooling in high latitudes and the polars (supposing the solar radiation was approximately constant)→forming a Great Ice Age event.
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Tang, M., Guo, W. The Great Ice Age cycles associated with the variation of the atmospheric heat engine efficiency. Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci. 43, 286–292 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02906824
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02906824