Glacial period — Safekipedia Adventurer

A glacial period (also called a glacial or glaciation) is a time when Earth gets much colder for thousands of years, and glaciers grow larger. These cold times happen inside longer periods called ice ages. Between the cold times, Earth warms up again in periods called interglacials.

The most recent big cold time, called the Last Glacial Period, ended around 15,000 years ago. Today we live in a warm time called the Holocene, which is an interglacial. When there are no glaciers anywhere on Earth, scientists call this a greenhouse climate state.

During glacial periods, huge sheets of ice cover many parts of the land. This changes rivers, mountains, and even the shape of the continents. These changes affect where plants and animals can live and help shape the world we see today.

Quaternary Period

Glacial and interglacial cycles as represented by atmospheric CO2, measured from ice core samples going back 800,000 years. The stage names are part of the North American and the European Alpine subdivisions. The correlation between both subdivisions is tentative.

Main articles: Quaternary glaciation and Timeline of glaciation

The Quaternary period began about 2.6 million years ago. During this time, Earth has had many glacial periods and warmer times called interglacials. In glacial periods, Earth's climate became much colder, and glaciers grew larger. These changes happened mainly because of shifts in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Over the last 740,000 years, there have been at least eight of these glacial cycles.

Penultimate Glacial Period

Main article: Penultimate Glacial Period

The Penultimate Glacial Period was a time when the weather turned very cold and glaciers grew. This happened before the Last Glacial Period. It began about 194,000 years ago and ended about 135,000 years ago. After this, a warmer time called the Eemian started.

Last Glacial Period

Main article: Last Glacial Period

The Last Glacial Period was the most recent time when large glaciers covered many parts of the Earth. It began about 110,000 years ago and ended around 11,700 years ago. During this time, ice covered much of the Northern Hemisphere. In North America, the glaciers were called Wisconsin, and in northern Central Europe, they were called Weichsel. The biggest expansion of ice happened about 26,500 years ago, reaching as far as Northern Germany. Over the past 650,000 years, Earth has gone through many cycles of glaciers growing and then shrinking.

Next glacial period

Because we can predict how Earth's orbit changes, scientists can use computers to guess the future climate. Some research says our warm period may last about 50,000 more years. However, the heat-trapping gases we add to the air and water might delay the next glacial period by another 50,000 years.