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During cold spells Illinois was home to animals like mammoths, mastodons, stag mooses, and giant beavers. Snowshoe hares also used to make their home in Illinois. [20] The Illinoian (stage) glaciation occurred some 300,000 to 130,000 years ago. The last time glaciers covered Illinois was during the Wisconsin glaciation 25,000 years ago. [18]
Illinois averages around 50 days of thunderstorm activity a year which put it somewhat above average for number of thunderstorm days for the United States. Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes with an average of 54 occurring annually, which puts much of the state at around 9.7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles (30,000 km 2) annually.
Geologic time shown in a diagram called a geological clock, showing the relative lengths of the eons of Earth's history and noting major events The geological history of the Earth follows the major geological events in Earth's past based on the geological time scale , a system of chronological measurement based on the study of the planet's rock ...
The Illinois side includes Henry County, Mercer County, and Rock Island County. [4] In extreme northwestern Illinois the Driftless Zone, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, occupies a small part of the state. Charles Mound, located in this region, is the state's highest elevation above sea level.
They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [28]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).
In a broader sense, climate is the state of the components of the climate system, including the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere and the interactions between them. [1] The climate of a location is affected by its latitude, longitude, terrain, altitude, land use and nearby water bodies and their currents. [3]
[notes 1] The hydrosphere plays an important role in the existence of the atmosphere in its present form. Oceans are important in this regard. When the Earth was formed it had only a very thin atmosphere rich in hydrogen and helium similar to the present atmosphere of Mercury. Later the gases hydrogen and helium were expelled from the atmosphere.