Will the ice ages happen again? Ice Ages are dramatically landform changing points in time when the temperatures around the world, including the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth, are consistently cold for spans of over thousands of years. Ice ages force a glacial period (when thick, large sheets of ice cover a massive portion of the Earth’s northern hemisphere). Studies show that ice used to cover approximately 30% of the Earth during our last ice age. A point in time can be classified as an ice age as long there are permanent ice sheets, ice glaciers of size over 50,000 km2. That’s roughly 9 football fields. So technically, we’re in the middle of an ice age because we still have large ice sheets such as Greenland and Antarctica. However, because the Earth is quite warm and so we call this time period as interglacial, a period between ice ages that has an irregular climate compared to the rest of the ice age. According to geologists, there have been approximately 5 major ice ages so far. They began appearing roughly 2,300,000,000 years ago, up until the most recent one, which still has not ended yet. This time period when ice ages occur is known as the glacial period. The cause for the Ice Ages is controversial and debated commonly by geographers and not all of them agree on one theory/idea as to why the ice ages may have happened, but there are certain 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, plate tectonics, which states that the Earth’s surface, which are divided into plates, are constantly moving. The theory suggests that the plates of the Earth collided into each other, creating higher altitude... ... middle of paper ... .... 2014. . "Theories of the Ice Age." Theories of the Ice Age. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Till (geology)."Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . "What Are the Different Types of Moraines?" What Are the Different Types of Moraines?Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . "What Was the Last Ice Age Like?" What Was the Last Ice Age Like?Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . “Why Were There Ice Ages?" Why Were There Ice Ages? Web. 15 Mar. 2014. .
Marshak, S. (2009) Essentials of Geology, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, ch. 11, p. 298-320.
Glaciers are an integral part of the world’s climate. In fact, as Richard Armstrong of the University of Colorado says, “Glaciers are key indicators in monitoring and detecting climate change” (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, 2003, p. 1). Not only are they an important part of monitoring current climate, they can hold many keys to the past. Glaciers are in fact, “a source of paleoclimate data…” (Meier and Dyurgerov, 1980, p. 37). This paleoclimate data can give geologists information on the conditions that were present at the time of the glaciers birth, as well as the approximate age. This has an important role in the geologic time scale of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. These Glaciers played a role in the carving of the present day Rocky Mountains in Colorado, which will be the primary focus of this paper. In addition, glacial formations will be discussed to give the reader background information and the future of the Glaciers in Colorado will close this paper.
In the essay, “Global Warming is Eroding Glacial Ice,” Andrew C. Revkin argues that global warming is the primary cause for many of the world’s natural disasters; including flash floods, climate change, and the melting of the polar ice caps. He includes multiple accounts of expert testimony as well as a multitude amount of facts and statistics to support his theory that global warming is a threat to the world. However, in the essay “Cold Comfort for ‘Global Warming’,” Phillip Stott makes the complete opposite argument. He argues that global warming is nothing to be worried about and the melting of the polar icecaps is caused by the interglacial period we are currently in. After reading both of these essays and doing extensive research on both viewpoints, I completely agree with Revkin that global warming is an enormous threat to our world today. My research not only helped me to take a stand but it also showed me the invalidity in Stott’s essay.
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
Americas by 14,000 ago” (O’Brien 12), after large portions of North America encountered the last ice age, which
Bibliography Wikipedia. The World of the. Gould, Stephen. Jay. Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology.
Glaciers have drastically changed over time because on average, “glaciers worldwide have been losing mass since at least the 1970s”. The melting of glaciers has been contributing to the rise in sea level because the glaciers have been shrinking faster in the last decade. Three of the major glaciers in the us have shown an overall drop in mass since the 1950s and 1960s and an accelerated rate of decline in recent years. An ice cap covered Mt. Hood during the Ice Age, from about 1.8 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago. These ice caps covered the Oregon Cascades, a series of mountains in Oregon, with glaciers going down on the east and west sides of the range. These glaciers melted into smaller glaciers as the weather proceeded to get warmer...
The planet we live in, the earth is a tiny composition in this huge universe. It has diversities ranging from highly variant temperature and pressure belts as well as various ecosystem types. One such remarkable feature of the earth is the polar ice caps. There are three major prominent features, the Antarctic ice on the South Pole, the Arctic ice on the North Pole and Greenland on the north between North America and Europe. Antarctica consist about 90 percent of the world's ice (and 70 percent of its fresh water). It is covered with ice an average of 2,133 meters (7,000 feet) thick. If all of the Antarctic ice melted, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters (200 feet). The Arctic ice is not so thick in comparison and it mostly floats in the Arctic Ocean. Greenland, on the other hand would add another 7 meters (20 feet) to the oceans if it melted because Greenland is closer to the equator than Antarctica, the temperatures there are higher, so the ice is more likely to melt. Scientists from the Universities of London and Edinburgh say that ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland together contribute approximately 12 percent of the rise in sea levels. The melting of these enormous ice bodies can significantly impact the global changes in climate and reversely, this climate changes also impact the melting of the ice bodies. It is a two way process and the causes are mostly anthropogenic.
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 glaciers have been through a minimum of four glacial periods. They’ve been through the Little Ice age, which commenced around 4,000 years ago. Marks of retreating glacier ice are seen in the rock-strewn and sculpted peaks valleys. The land and bodies of water that the retreating ice has created a new display of animal and plant communities.
The Little Ice Age by Brian Fagan is a novel that discussed different climate periods that occurred. The setting of the novel occurred in Europe from 1300 to 1850. Throughout that time period the climate in Europe was changing quite drastically. The layout of this book was done chronologically and thematically. Fagan broke down the book into four different parts: Warmth and its Aftermath, Cooling Begins, The End of the “Full World”, and The Modern Warm Period. He also went further into breaking down each section from discussing the medieval warm period, to the climate seesaw, then to the specter of hunger, finally to a warmer greenhouse as well as other things in between. The way he wrote the book was not based on his personal experience. It
The foundation of the Great Lakes began around three billion years ago, which is known as the Precambrian Era. The Precambrian Era contains numerous ecological events, which consists of volcanic activity to erosion to the mountains and hills seen today being formed. Then during the Pleistocene Epoch or known as the “Ice Age, occurred between 1.6 million and 10,000 years ago. At least four times during the Pleistocene Epoch, large masses of ice advanced and retreated over the surface of what is now North America. As the glaciers advanced, giant sheets of ice flowed across the land, leveling mountains and carving out massive ...
globe will warm, some places may, in fact, cool. This warming will be so gradual, you probably won’t even notice a difference in the near future. As Elizabeth
Glaciers have disappeared due to increasing in global temperatures because of which the water level had drastically increased and its causing flood all over the world
The movie cited the cause of the global climate change to be the rise in temperature due to greenhouse gasses. The warmer temperatures caused the polar ice caps to melt, and the increased amount of freshwater in the ocean disrupted the North Atlantic Current. The North Atlantic Current is what is responsible for the warm temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. With the current disrupted the Northern Hemisphere went into an ice age. In real life, the polar ice caps are melting, but at a rate not even close to that of the one represented in the movie. Even if the ice was melting at a quicker rate, the chance that it would throw off the North Atlantic Current is slim to none. Also, there is no way that the ice would melt so quickly that a change that drastic would be made.