Key Points
This warm ice age caused a profound change in our planets climate cycles, and could therefore represent a critical step in the evolution of our planets climate, according to Heidelberg University...
According to Heidelberg University, the change in climate cycles occurred in the Middle Pleistocene Transition period, which began around 1.2 million years ago and ended about 670,000 years ago...
After feeding this data into computer simulations, the researchers discovered long-term warming and wetting trends in both the regions in the period between 800,000 to 670,000 years ago..
While this period corresponds to the last ice age in the Middle Pleistocene Transition period, the sea surface temperature seemed to be warmer than during the previous interglacial period..
Such expansion of the continental glaciers was necessary to trigger the shift from the 40,000-year cycles to the 100,000-year cycles we experience today, which was critical for the Earths later climate evolution, added Bahr..
