Re: Earth's Axial Tilt (posted for S. Bengtson)

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Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 11:00:02 +0100
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From: Stefan.Bengtson@nrm.se (Stefan Bengtson)
Subject: Re: Earth's Axial Tilt
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Roger Kaesler wrote:

>Several years ago at the GSA, Stanley Awramik gave a paper in which he used
>the inclination of stromatolites to estimate paleolatitudes (as I recall).
>If one had an independent estimate of paleolatitude from measurement of
>paleomagnetism, then perhaps the tilt of the stromatolites could give
>information about axial tilt.

You don't even need the paleolatitude if you can measure both summer and
winter directions to the sun. Awramik in fact did just that, using
sinusoidally growing stromatolites, 850 Ma old. The reference is:

Vanyo, S. & Awramik, S.M. 1985: Stromatolites and Earth-Sun-Moon dynamics.
Precambrian Research 29, pp. 121-142.

Result: They concluded that the obliquity of the ecliptic 850 Ma ago was
about 26 degrees, not very different from today's value of 23 degrees.

Stefan Bengtson                      _/        _/ _/_/_/    _/        _/
Department of Palaeozoology         _/_/      _/ _/    _/  _/_/    _/_/
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