12 Aug 2026
At Kimmeridge Bay on the Jurassic Coast, the rocks have a bit of a pattern to them. And there’s a good reason for that! It’s a record of changes in Earth’s climate that were driven by something happening far beyond Dorset: the changing geometry of Earth’s orbit around the Sun… Because Earth’s orbit changes over time in cycles! Welcome to Milancovich cycles!

This is far from the only rock unit that shows this, and in fact the Blue Lias around Lyme Regis is also pretty famous for this, but I found this cool paper that really investigated it so it was an interesting spot to talk about it.

Enjoy!

📍 Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset, UK

Main paper used:
Weedon, G.P., Coe, A.L. & Gallois, R.W. (2004), Cyclostratigraphy, orbital tuning and inferred productivity for the type Kimmeridge Clay (Late Jurassic), Southern England, Journal of the Geological Society, 161, 655–666.

Update: after some comments asking if Milancovich Cycles explain current warming…. No. Unfortunately not. Technically we should actually be cooling. Full explanation here by NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/science-rese…

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