Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,700 years ago.
The Earth is currently in such an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, with the Last Glacial Period of the Quaternary having ended approximately 11,700 years ago. The current interglacial is known as the Holocene epoch. [1] Based on climate proxies, paleoclimatologists study the different climate states originating from glaciation.
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods. The Last Glacial Period ended about 15,000 years ago. [1]
For a period to be considered an interglacial, it changes from Arctic through sub-Arctic to boreal to temperate conditions and back again. An interstadial reaches only the stage of boreal vegetation. [1] The MIS 1 interstadial encompasses the entirety of the present Holocene interglacial, but the Wisconsin glaciation encompasses MIS 2, 3, and 4.
Last Glacial Period, not to be confused with the Last Glacial Maximum or Late Glacial Maximum below. (The following events also fall into this period.) 48,000–28,000: Mousterian Pluvial wet in North Africa 26,500–19,000: Last Glacial Maximum, what is often meant in popular usage by "Last Ice Age" 16,000–13,000
During ice ages, ice sheets like the one in Greenland have covered much of Earth's surface. Thor Wegner/DeFodi Images via Getty Images Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you ...
High CO 2 contents correspond to warm interglacial periods, and low CO 2 to glacial periods. However, studies indicate that CO 2 may not be the primary cause of the interglacial-glacial transitions, but instead acts as a feedback. The explanation for this observed CO 2 variation "remains a difficult attribution problem". [19]
Currently, the Earth is in an interglacial period, beginning about 20,000 years ago (20 kya). The cycles of glaciation involve the growth and retreat of continental ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere and involve fluctuations on a number of time scales, notably on the 21 ky, 41 ky and 100 ky scales.