Informative Essay: The Evolution Of The Ice Age

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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 …show more content…

This is also the case for Yellowstone and Yosemite National Park. Near Inspiration Point on the Grand Canyon in Yellowstone, a boulder-sized piece of granite sits in the middle of nothing. It traveled a great distance on the Pinedale glacier from Beartooth Mountains, and then was left alone once the ice retreated (National Nature Park Service). This rock is different from others in the Yellowstone bedrock, and displaced rocks of any size, which have been moved by glaciers to a different location outside of their own geology, are referred to as glacial “erratics” (National Nature Park Service). Erratics cover a large majority of Yosemite National Park. Yosemite is also home for "striations" which are groves and scratches in the valley's bedrock (Wirth). These markings simply prove that glaciers scoured their way through the valley. These glaciers, along with stream erosion, have also deepened Yosemite Valley, widened it and produced the incredibly steep valley walls like the ones we see in other parks that have been overrun by glacial

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