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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]
Within ice ages, there exist periods of more severe glacial conditions and more temperate conditions, referred to as glacial periods and interglacial periods, respectively. 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.
Last Glacial Period, the most recent glacial period (115,000 to 11,700 years ago) Penultimate Glacial Period, the glacial period that occurred before the Last Glacial Period; Late Cenozoic Ice Age, the geologic period of the last 33.9 million years; Little Ice Age, a period of relative cold in certain regions from roughly 1450–1480
During the Quaternary glaciation, ice sheets appeared, expanding during glacial periods and contracting during interglacial periods. Since the end of the last glacial period, only the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have survived, while other sheets formed during glacial periods, such as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, have completely melted.
Areas of study within glaciology include glacial history and the reconstruction of past glaciation. A glaciologist is a person who studies glaciers. A glacial geologist studies glacial deposits and glacial erosive features on the landscape. Glaciology and glacial geology are key areas of polar research.
The penultimate glacial period expanded ice sheets and shifted temperature zones worldwide, which had a variety of effects on the world's environment, and the organisms that lived in it. [4] At its height, the penultimate glacial period was a more severe glaciation than the Last Glacial Maximum. [2]
Graph of Pleistocene glacial cycles in Europe from 600-100,000 years ago, with the Holstein interglacial labelled. The Holstein or Holsteinian interglacial (German: Holstein-Warmzeit or Holstein-Interglazial), also called the Mindel-Riss interglacial (Mindel-Riß-Interglazial) in the Alpine region, is the third to last major interglacial in Europe before the Holocene, the present warm period.
The Elster glaciation (German: Elster-Kaltzeit, Elster-Glazial or Elster-Zeit) or, less commonly, the Elsterian glaciation, in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age (Elster-Eiszeit), is the oldest known ice age that resulted in the large-scale glaciation of North Germany and other parts of Europe. It took ...