Milankovitch cycles
E179504
Milankovitch cycles are long-term variations in Earth’s orbit and axial tilt that drive natural climate fluctuations, including the timing of ice ages.
All labels observed (5)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1572228 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Milankovitch cycles Context triple: [Quaternary period, climateDriver, Milankovitch cycles]
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A.
Milanković calendar
The Milanković calendar is a 20th-century reform of the Julian calendar, designed by Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković to more accurately align the civil year with the solar year and used by some Eastern Orthodox churches.
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B.
Cenozoic glaciations
Cenozoic glaciations are a series of major ice age cycles during the Cenozoic Era that saw extensive growth and retreat of continental ice sheets, profoundly shaping Earth’s climate and landscapes.
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C.
Eocene–Oligocene climate transition
The Eocene–Oligocene climate transition was a major global cooling event around 34 million years ago that marked the shift from a greenhouse to an icehouse Earth, including the formation of large Antarctic ice sheets.
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D.
Laplace resonance
Laplace resonance is a three-body orbital resonance in which the orbital periods of Jupiter’s moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede are linked in a precise 1:2:4 ratio, strongly affecting their dynamics and internal heating.
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E.
Saros cycle
The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Milankovitch cycles Target entity description: Milankovitch cycles are long-term variations in Earth’s orbit and axial tilt that drive natural climate fluctuations, including the timing of ice ages.
-
A.
Milanković calendar
The Milanković calendar is a 20th-century reform of the Julian calendar, designed by Serbian scientist Milutin Milanković to more accurately align the civil year with the solar year and used by some Eastern Orthodox churches.
-
B.
Cenozoic glaciations
Cenozoic glaciations are a series of major ice age cycles during the Cenozoic Era that saw extensive growth and retreat of continental ice sheets, profoundly shaping Earth’s climate and landscapes.
-
C.
Eocene–Oligocene climate transition
The Eocene–Oligocene climate transition was a major global cooling event around 34 million years ago that marked the shift from a greenhouse to an icehouse Earth, including the formation of large Antarctic ice sheets.
-
D.
Laplace resonance
Laplace resonance is a three-body orbital resonance in which the orbital periods of Jupiter’s moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede are linked in a precise 1:2:4 ratio, strongly affecting their dynamics and internal heating.
-
E.
Saros cycle
The Saros cycle is an approximately 18-year period after which nearly identical solar and lunar eclipses repeat, due to the alignment of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
astronomical theory
ⓘ
climate forcing mechanism ⓘ orbital cycles ⓘ |
| affects |
Earth climate
ⓘ
glacial–interglacial cycles ⓘ insolation ⓘ seasonal distribution of solar radiation ⓘ timing of ice ages ⓘ |
| causes |
changes in ice sheet mass balance
ⓘ
slow natural climate fluctuations ⓘ variations in high-latitude summer insolation ⓘ |
| describes | long-term variations in Earth’s orbit and tilt ⓘ |
| developedIn | 20th century ⓘ |
| distinctFrom | anthropogenic climate change ⓘ |
| explains |
orbital forcing of climate
ⓘ
periodicity of ice ages ⓘ |
| field |
astronomy
ⓘ
climatology ⓘ geophysics ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
eccentricity cycle
ⓘ
obliquity cycle ⓘ precession cycle ⓘ |
| hasEccentricityPeriod |
about 100,000 years
ⓘ
about 400,000 years ⓘ |
| hasObliquityPeriod | about 41,000 years ⓘ |
| hasPrecessionPeriod |
about 19,000 years
ⓘ
about 23,000 years ⓘ |
| involves |
axial precession
ⓘ
changes in axial tilt ⓘ changes in orbital eccentricity ⓘ climatic precession ⓘ precession of the equinoxes ⓘ |
| isPartOf | Earth–Sun orbital dynamics ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Milutin Milanković ⓘ |
| operatesOn |
Earth Orientation Parameters
ⓘ
surface form:
Earth axial precession
Earth axial tilt ⓘ Earth orbit ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Pleistocene epoch
ⓘ
surface form:
Pleistocene ice ages
Quaternary glaciation ⓘ orbital forcing ⓘ |
| supportedBy |
foraminifera oxygen isotope data
ⓘ
ice core records ⓘ marine sediment cores ⓘ |
| theorizedBy | Milutin Milanković ⓘ |
| timeScale |
hundreds of thousands of years
ⓘ
tens of thousands of years ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Quaternary climate studies
ⓘ
paleoclimatology ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Milankovitch cycles Description of subject: Milankovitch cycles are long-term variations in Earth’s orbit and axial tilt that drive natural climate fluctuations, including the timing of ice ages.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Kanon der Erdbestrahlung und seine Anwendung auf das Eiszeitenproblem
subject surface form:
Richard Muller
this entity surface form:
Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes research
subject surface form:
Richard Muller
this entity surface form:
Ice Ages and Astronomical Causes
this entity surface form:
Earth axial tilt