Page 267 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

rotation, which is also the angle between the celestial equator and the
ecliptic). This, as we have seen, varies over immensely long periods of
time between 22.1 degrees (the closest point that the axis reaches to
vertical) and 24.5 degrees (the furthest it falls away from the vertical);

2 The eccentricity of the orbit (i.e., whether the earth’s elliptical path
around the sun is more or less elongated in any given epoch);

3 Axial precession, which causes the four cardinal points on the earth’s
orbit (the two equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices) to
creep backwards very, very slowly around the orbital path.

We are dipping our toes into the waters of a technical and specialized
scientific discipline here—one largely outside the scope of this book.
Readers seeking detailed information are referred to the multidisciplinary
work of the US National Science Foundation’s CLIMAP Project, and to a
keynote paper by Professors J. D. Hays and John Imbrie entitled
‘Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages’ (see Note 4).
Briefly, what Hays, Imbrie and others have proved is that the onset of
ice ages can be predicted when the following evil and inauspicious
conjunctions of celestial cycles occur: (a) maximum eccentricity, which
takes the earth millions of miles further away from the sun at ‘aphelion’
(the extremity of its orbit) than is normal; (b) minimum obliquity, which
means that the earth’s axis, and consequently the North and South poles,
stand much closer to the vertical than is normal; and (c) precession of
the equinoxes which, as the great cycle continues, eventually causes
winter in one hemisphere or the other to set in when the earth is at
‘perihelion’ (its closest point to the sun); this in turn means that summer
occurs at aphelion and is thus relatively cold, so that ice laid down in
winter fails to melt during the following summer and a remorseless build-
up of glacial conditions occurs.
6
Levered by the changing geometry of the orbit, ‘global insolation’—the
differing amounts and intensity of sunlight received at various latitudes
in any given epoch—can thus be an important trigger factor for ice ages.
Is it possible that the ancient myth-makers were trying to warn us of
great danger when they so intricately linked the pain of global cataclysms
to the slow grinding of the mill of heaven?
This is a question we will return to in due course, but meanwhile it is
enough to observe that by identifying the significant effects of orbital
geometry on the planet’s climate and wellbeing, and by combining this
information with precise measurements of the rate of precessional
motion, the unknown scientists of an unrecognized civilization seem to
have found a way to catch our attention, to bridge the chasm of the ages,
and to communicate with us directly.

6 ‘Variations in the Earth’s Orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages’.

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