CaltechAUTHORS
  A Caltech Library Service

A 100-kyr periodicity in the flux of extraterrestrial ^3He to the sea floor

Farley, K. A. and Patterson, D. B. (1995) A 100-kyr periodicity in the flux of extraterrestrial ^3He to the sea floor. Nature, 378 (6557). pp. 600-603. ISSN 0028-0836. doi:10.1038/378600a0. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20130311-134139514

Full text is not posted in this repository. Consult Related URLs below.

Use this Persistent URL to link to this item: https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20130311-134139514

Abstract

Most of the helium-3 in oceanic sediments comes from interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), and can therefore be used to infer the accretion rate of dust to the Earth through time. ^3He records from slowly accumulating pelagic clays indicate that the accretion rate varies considerably over millions of years, probably owing to cometary and asteroidal break-up events. Muller and MacDonald have proposed that periodic changes in this accretion rate due to a previously unrecognized 100-kyr periodicity in the Earth's orbital inclination might account for the prominence of this frequency in climate records of the past million years. Here we report variations in the 3^He flux to the sea floor that support this idea. We find that the flux recorded in rapidly accumulating Quaternary sediments from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge oscillates with a period of about 100 kyr. We cannot yet say, however, whether the 100-kyr climate cycle is a consequence of, a cause of, or an effect independent of these periodic changes


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v378/n6557/abs/378600a0.htmlPublisherUNSPECIFIED
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/378600a0DOIUNSPECIFIED
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Farley, K. A.0000-0002-7846-7546
Additional Information:© 1995 Nature Publishing Group Received 19 June; accepted 30 October 1995; 07 December 1995 This work was supported by the NSF. We thank W. Alvarez for early discussions which led to th1s work, R. Muller, F. Marcantonio, A. Anbar and S. Love for helpful discussions. R. Wolf for analytical assistance, and S. Dermott, R. Poreda and W. Ruddiman for careful rev1ews.
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NSFUNSPECIFIED
Issue or Number:6557
DOI:10.1038/378600a0
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20130311-134139514
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20130311-134139514
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:37445
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By:INVALID USER
Deposited On:11 Mar 2013 21:23
Last Modified:09 Nov 2021 23:29

Repository Staff Only: item control page