earth-sciences

Paleoclimate & Ancient Atmospheres

Earth's climate deep history — Milankovitch orbital forcing, CO2 proxy reconstruction from ice cores, glacial-interglacial cycles, thermohaline ocean circulation, and volcanic winter cooling events.

paleoclimateMilankovitch cyclesice agesCO2 proxythermohaline circulationvolcanic winterice cores

Earth's climate has swung between hothouse and icehouse states over billions of years, driven by orbital mechanics, greenhouse gases, ocean currents, and volcanic eruptions. Paleoclimatology reconstructs these ancient atmospheres using proxies — ice cores, sediment layers, fossil chemistry — to understand the forces that shaped our planet and to contextualize modern climate change.

These simulations let you model Milankovitch orbital cycles, reconstruct CO2 from proxy data, visualize glacial-interglacial oscillations, explore thermohaline circulation patterns, and simulate volcanic winter cooling — all with interactive controls grounded in real paleoclimate data.

5 interactive simulations

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CO₂ Proxy Reconstruction from Ice Cores

Reconstruct atmospheric CO₂ from ice core data — explore how bubble depth, temperature, and accumulation rate affect the CO₂ record over 800,000 years

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Glacial-Interglacial Cycles & Ice Volume

Model the growth and retreat of continental ice sheets — explore how orbital forcing, CO₂ feedback, and albedo combine to produce glacial-interglacial oscillations

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Milankovitch Cycles & Orbital Forcing

Visualize Earth's orbital variations — eccentricity, obliquity, and precession — and their combined effect on insolation patterns over hundreds of thousands of years

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Thermohaline Ocean Circulation & AMOC

Model the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation — explore how salinity, temperature, and freshwater forcing control deep water formation and heat transport

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Volcanic Winter & Aerosol Cooling

Simulate the climate impact of major volcanic eruptions — explore how sulfur emissions, plume height, and latitude affect global temperature through stratospheric aerosol forcing