Climate of the Past Discussions www.clim-past-discuss.net 1814-9340 1814-9359 6 4 2010 10.5194/cpd-6-1421-2010 http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/1421/2010/ http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/1421/2010/cpd-6-1421-2010.html http://www.clim-past-discuss.net/6/1421/2010/cpd-6-1421-2010.pdf 1421 1452 2010-08-10 Earth as diode: monsoon source of the orbital ~100 ka climate cycle R. Y. Anderson ryand@unm.edu Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA A potential source for Earth's enigmatic ~100 ka climate cycle, which is found in many ancient geological records at low latitudes and also in the pacing of glaciation during the late Pleistocene, is traced to a climatic rectifying process inherent in the monsoon. Seasonal information needed to identify the rectifying mechanism is preserved within varves of a continuous, 200 ka recording of annual maximum surface temperature (<i>T</i>_max) from the equator of Western Pangea. Specific seasonal reactions recorded in varves show how the monsoon reacted to seasonal differences in insolation at equinox to produce a 11.7 ka semi-precession cycle in <i>T</i>_max. At solstice, anti-phasing of insolation in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, intensified and focused by a highly asymmetric Pangea relative to the equator, produced a strong equatorial maritime monsoon that performed a nonlinear rectifying function similar to that of a simple rectifying diode. Expressed in the resulting varve series are substantial cycles in <i>T</i>_max of 100 ka, 23.4 ka, and 11.7 ka. Importantly, any external or internal forcing of the tropical (monsoon) climate system at higher-than-orbital frequencies (e.g. solar, ENSO) should also be amplified at Milankovitch frequencies by the monsoon. 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