Stories of Our Earth: Ice Ages and Their Impact on Geography Just a couple weeks ago, we were complaining how winter was so cold and how it would never end in Canada; but imagine living in the glacial period, where there was a time when glaciers, large masses of ice, covered a huge portion of the Earth’s surface. Studies show that the polar ice caps, as we know them today used to cover approximately 30% of the Earth during our last Ice Age. The Earth remained in this state for thousands and thousands of years. Cold, right? According to geologists, there have been an approximate total of 5 major ice ages. They began appearing roughly 2, 300, 000 years ago, up until the most recent one, approximately 10,000 years ago; it was the ice age period/glacial period, and that’s was exactly what happened. Ice Ages are points in time when the temperatures around the world, including the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth, were cold consistently for a span of over multiple thousand years. Unlike the average temperature of 220C we have now, the ice ages were much colder, having an average of approximately 50C. Although geographers don’t all agree on one theory as to why the ice ages may have happened, there are a couple theories that many believe could have caused the beginning of the ice ages. One of the leading theories for the cause for ice age involves the idea of another theory, the plate tectonics theory, which proposes that the Earth’s surface, which are divided into plates, are constantly moving. The theory suggests that the plates of the Earth moved away from the equator where it is generally warm, and towards a colder place, an area where the sun’s rays were not very strong, which made land very cold. This is a logical theory be... ... middle of paper ... ...rumlins http://allyouneedtoknowaboutglaciers.weebly.com/stratified-drift.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/glacial_landscapes/glaciation_rev2.shtml http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/why_4_cool_periods.html http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_iceage.htm http://geography.howstuffworks.com/terms-and-associations/ice-age2.htm http://geography.howstuffworks.com/terms-and-associations/ice-age.htm http://www.sentex.net/~tcc/iceage.html https://www.google.com/search?q=glaciation+definition&oq=glaciation+definition&aqs=chrome..69i57.4046j0j1&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8#q=glaciers+definition http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/?q=outreach/geology-resources/end-moraines-end-glacial-ridehttp://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/?q=outreach/geology-resources/end-moraines-end-glacial-ride http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/glacial+drift
In his essay, “Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice,” Revkin is arguing that global warming is constantly changing the ...
People are responsible for higher carbon dioxide atmosphere emissions, while the Earth is now into the Little Ice Age, or just behind it. These factors together cause many years discussions of the main sources of climate changes and the temperature increasing as a result of human been or natural changes and its consequences; even if its lead to the global warming, or to the Earth’s cooling. In their articles, “Global Warming Is Eroding Glacial Ice” by Andrew C. Revkin and “Global Warming Is Not a Threat to Polar Ice” by Philip Stott, both authors discuss these two theories (Revkin 340; Stott 344). Revkin is right that global warming is taking place. Significant increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due to human activities combined with natural factors such as volcanic emissions and solar radiation – all together they lead to climate changes and temperatures rising. At the same time, other factors such as deforestation contribute to environmental changes for some glaciers not less than air pollution. However, during global warming not all regions of the planet are affected in the same way, local warming and cooling are both possible during these changes.
The Little Ice Age was a period of time in which parts of Europe and North America were exposed to colder winters than those generations before and after. This phase lasted a surprisingly long time from around the 1300’s to about 1870. Although it is not considered to be a full on “ice age”, it is said to have many effects on history including important roles on defining how we currently live today.
War and pestilence played a huge role in the situation of Europe in the 14th to 15th century. (pg. 299-304) The calamities that initiated the 14th century and greatly damaged the state of Europe set into motion a series of changes to adapt to and recover from the struggles against the growing cold of the New Ice Age along with the later, horrific Great Famine that struck many European countries between 1315 and 1322. (pg. 297) The New Ice Age dealt a heavy blow to many Greenland settlements that focused on agriculture and could not adapt to the bitter cold that ruined crops and damaged the chances of successful fishing. (pg. 296) Also, the later-developed pestilence known as the Great Famine primarily struck northern Europe, most of the critical damage being done primarily due to the lack of economical interconnection between northern countries. (pg. 298)
Americas by 14,000 ago” (O’Brien 12), after large portions of North America encountered the last ice age, which
Why do the continents move everyday? what is causing them to is caused by glaciers falling into the ocean for example rockford was caused by a huge glacier that’s why there are lots and lots of fossils at rockford, because the glaciers carried the fossils to rockford. the evidence of glaciers forming would be ice sheets and ice chunks were found on land and in the ocean, and it affects the earth because it’s putting more water into the oceans. plate tectonics also may have caused the glaciers to fall into the ocean when the plates move which causes the the glaciers to fall. Plate tectonics is the theory that earth’s outer core shell is divided into several plates, there are three different they are Convergent,Divergent, and Transform they all
The Great Ice Age caused changes to the geographical setting of North America which affected its consequent history. Around 35,000 years ago, the glaciers froze over most of the world’s oceans, which led to sea levels lowering, ultimately revealing a land bridge connecting Eurasia and North America in the space of the present-day Bering Sea. This was extremely important for the colonization of North America since groups of Nomadic Asian hunters used it to travel to the continent, possibly to follow prey; the land bridge was used for some 250 centuries before finally becoming flooded 10,000 years ago. The end of the Ice Age also changed North America’s history because it left all people in isolation on the continent. The population was forced
During the fourteenth century, a devastating climatic event occurred which played a major role in shaping human life. This event is known as the Little Ice Age. The term “Little Ice Age” (LIA) arose initially from observations that glaciers in Europe and other areas had stopped retreating and were instead growing during several periods within the last 1000 years (Free & Robock, 1999). By the 17th century, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere had fallen half a degree Celsius compared to medieval times (Powell, 2012). Evidence of the Earth’s climatic record is exemplified through tree rings and ice cores.
Climate change is a change in global temperature and regional climate patterns. At the turn of the 20th century, there has been rising issues about climate change, arguing that global warming and climate change is an issue worsened by the human race. Change in climate is a natural process in which changes from season to season and even fluxuates over thousands of years. Over the time frame of the last 650,000 years there has been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat (Global Climate Change). It could be argued that climate change is a natural process and the Earth is suppose to change its temperature from hot to cold. Yes, that is true. However, the rate in which the temperature is changing is something this Earth has never endured. In
The statement in question for this assignment puts forth various assertions: that the Little Ice Age cooled the climate worldwide, that it wasn’t the coldest period since the last ice age, and that because the earth is in a natural time of warming from this period, human-made greenhouse gasses are not plausible as a source of global warming. Some of these statements are true, but there are also fallacies within these assertions.
Currently, scientists believe that once an ice age has been triggered, oceanic circulation currents can change and the mixing of the oceans cools the southern hemisphere. As glaciers begin to accumulate in the northern hemisphere, solar heat is reflected off the snow which leads to further cooling.
Some of you may have heard that all this talk about global warming is a scam. Antarctic Ice is actually increasing! They’re all lying to us! Now that is partially true. Antarctica is gaining sea ice. But it’s losing land ice. How does that work? As land ice from the Antarctic ice shelves melts due to increasing temperatures, it spreads out into the ocean and then rises due to its low density and freezes. The land ice decreases and contributes to the increase in sea ice. The most recent estimate concludes that Antarctic land ice decreased by an average of 70 giga-tonnes per year, with the estimates beginning in 1992 and going to 2011 (King, 2013). The chart to the right shows monthly changes in Antarctic ice mass, in giga-tonnes, measured by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites from 2003 to 2011 (NASA, nd.). In addition, none of this is due to melting on the surface, so it’s more difficult to understand. In East Antarctica, the ice is growing slightly, possible d...
Although it may not feel like it, we are currently in an ice age today. An ice age is just a period of time when the Earth’s climate faces a radical decrease in temperature and remains constant. Periods of colder temperature during an ice age have been called "glaciations" because they result in something being covered by glaciers or ice sheets. Intervals of warmer, irregular temperatures have been called "interglacials", which is what we are currently living in today (Eldridge and Biek). However, some scientists believe that the climate may dramatically decrease in the near future, and we could see glaciers return again like we did in the last glacial period. This last glacial period is referred to as “The Ice Age.” It was the most recent glacial period within our
It is an unquestioned fact that the climate is changing. There is abundant evidence that the world is becoming warmer and warmer. The temperature of the global land average temperature has increased by about 8.5 degrees centigrade from 1880 to 2012 (Karr, et al 406). The one or two degrees increase in temperature can cause dramatic and serious consequences to the earth as well as humans. More extreme weather occurs, such as heat waves and droughts. The Arctic Region is especially sensitive to global climate change. According to the data in recent decades, the temperature in the Arctic has increased by more than 2 degrees centigrade in the recent half century (Przybylak 316). Climate change has led to a series of environmental and ecological negative
It is known that in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat with the last one 7,000 years ago. This was when the modern climate era started which lead to the beginning of human civilization all