<p>I am reading about the evolution of humans from ~2mya to today, and am running into some stuff on Geology like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.2-kiloyear_event" rel="nofollow noreferrer">8.2-kiloyear event</a>, and other &quot;cooling&quot; events and warming events. I briefly saw something about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession" rel="nofollow noreferrer">axial precession</a>, but wasn't sure that was the main cause. I would imagine if it <em>was</em> the main cause, like a spinning top sometimes the earth axis changes direction rapidly and that would mean different areas are further from or closer to the sun/moon, etc.. which would change their temperature and thus climate.</p>
<p>So my layman question is, without having studied deeply all the various geological theory/background, what generally are the causes for the abrupt changes in climate/temperature for the past 10 million years? Is it solely the axial precession, or some other factors? If it is only mainly the axial precession, I'd be curious to know what &quot;states&quot; it can be in, how it occasionally abruptly transitions from hot to cold to hot to cold, etc..</p>
<p>Basically I would just like to have a slightly better intuition for these things, not having a geology background.</p>

<climate><temperature>
What causes the rapid change in temperature / climate at various points in the past 10 million years, generally speaking?
Lance Pollard
# What causes the rapid change in temperature / climate at various points in the past 10 million years, generally speaking?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-09-30)

I am reading about the evolution of humans from ~2mya to today, and am running into some stuff on Geology like the [8.2-kiloyear event](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.2-kiloyear_event), and other "cooling" events and warming events. I briefly saw something about [axial precession](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession), but wasn't sure that was the main cause. I would imagine if it *was* the main cause, like a spinning top sometimes the earth axis changes direction rapidly and that would mean different areas are further from or closer to the sun/moon, etc.. which would change their temperature and thus climate.

So my layman question is, without having studied deeply all the various geological theory/background, what generally are the causes for the abrupt changes in climate/temperature for the past 10 million years? Is it solely the axial precession, or some other factors? If it is only mainly the axial precession, I'd be curious to know what "states" it can be in, how it occasionally abruptly transitions from hot to cold to hot to cold, etc..

Basically I would just like to have a slightly better intuition for these things, not having a geology background.

**Tags:** climate, temperature


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## 0 answers

