Climate Change since the Last Ice Age

Click link to order The Ice Chronicles)
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The Ice Chronicles:
The Quest to
Understand Global
Climate Change

Climate researchers, using glacial ice cores, tree ring patterns, ancient pollen and more, are creating a remarkable picture of the many climate changes Earth has experienced over millions of years. The most recent Ice Age, the Last Glacial Maximum, reached its peak about 20,000 years ago. Then warming periods melted many glaciers and ushered in the current interglacial, the Holocene, about 10,000 years ago.

Here are useful resources on climate change, Ice Ages and the impact on humans and cultures.

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Global Warming:
The Science of
Climate Change

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Global Warming:
The Complete
Briefing

Overview [ Top ]
The Great Climate Flip Flop: how climate changes abruptly into Ice Age conditions and back, and the influence of climate change on human evolution, with maps and charts

The Big Chill: Earth's climate fluctuates between warm and cold periods, the latter called Ice Ages. The most recent Ice Age was at its peak 20,000 years ago; now we're in a warm interval.

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The Great Ice Age:
Climate Change
and Life

Introduction to Ice Ages & Climate Change: the Northern Hemisphere has had a dozen major glaciations in the last 1 million years

Land Environments around the Globe: detailed maps and text show changes in forests, deserts, tundra, more, during glacial and interglacial periods, including maps for the past 150,000 years for these regions:

· Africa
· Australasia
· Eurasia & Siberia · Europe
· North America
· South America

Discovery of the "Great Ice Age": explore the history of scientists finding evidence to prove the existence of ice ages, glaciers, more

Glossary of Climate Change Terminology: scientific and political terms
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Environmental
Change, Climate and
Health: Issues and
Research Methods

Click link to order The Ice Chronicles)
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The Ice Chronicles:
The Quest to
Understand Global
Climate Change

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The Two-Mile Time
Machine: Ice Cores,
Abrupt Climate Change, and
Our Future

EXPLORE
The Paleolithic
of Eurasia

Causes of Climate Change [ Top ]

Astronomical Theories of Climate Change: the earth's changing tilt and its distance from the sun appear to influence climate, a theory called the Milankovitch Cycles, and more on the Milankovitch Cycles and amounts of solar radiation reaching Earth, and the three Milankovitch Cycles, namely Earth's eccentricity, axial tilt and precession

Causes of Climate Change are thought to include solar influx, greenhouse gas concentrations, volcanic activity and human activities

Causes of Climate Change may be external such as solar variations or may be internal such as volcanic activity or ocean circulation according to this in-depth study guide

Interplanetary Dust could influence climate in much the way that volcanic dust causes cooling by blocking sunlight

Fluctuation in Solar Output may have been the cause of substantial cooling 5,200 years ago, with evidence seen in ice cores from Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, ancient plants from Peru's Andes and more

Abrupt Climate Change & the Oceans: the role of the "North Atlantic heat pump" in moving warm water into the North Atlantic where heat is released, keeping the climate mild [see map]

Climate Change & Global Warming: a look at the modern issue, including the problem of greenhouses gases, and impacts of global warming

Research to Understand Climate Change [ Top ]

Methods to discover past climates: slide shows on research including use of geology, coral, polar ice cores, tree rings, packrat middens, more

Techniques to find climate cycles: ancient pollen, wave-carved fossil ocean shores and fossil stores of hazel nuts provide evidence of climate change

Rapid climate change: layers of sediment from the sea floor, lakes and peat bogs held ancient pollen that revealed ancient vegetation patterns - and rapid climate changes including the Allerod warm period and Younger Dryas cold period as the last Ice Age ended. Ancient tree rings, shells of fossil foraminifera and plankton added support for rapid change as did the ice cores from Greenland and even shells of different species of beetles.

Greenland Ice Core Project or GRIP: in 1992, drilling reached bedrock at 3,029 meters deep, where the ice is 200,000 years old or older. A key GRIP finding was rapid climate changes.

Ice Cores from Kilimanjaro Glaciers show they began forming 11,000 years ago, but three "catastrophic droughts" in the tropics occurred at 8,300, 5,200 and 4,000 years ago. Photogallery of Kilimanjaro ice fields.

Sediment Cores from Lake El'gygytgyn in Chukotka, Northeast Siberia, may yield 400,000 years of Arctic climate history, with the research to date showing the lake was sensitive to climate variations
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A Brain for All Seasons: Human
Evolution and
Abrupt Climate
Change

EXPLORE
Ice Age Land
Beringia

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Floods, Famines,
and Emperors:
El Nino and the
Fate of Civilizations

Climate Change Impacts: Examples [ Top ]

Significant Cooling in Africa over the last 3.2 million years found, linked to human evolution

Climate Change and Mass Extinctions: climate change, including the onset of Ice Ages, was likely a factor in all mass extinctions of life on Earth

Late Pleistocene Climate Shifts and related vegetation changes are likely culprits in the demise of megafauna or large creatures such as mammoths in North America and Siberia. Climate change and human pressures combined may be the better explanation

Pleistocene Park: while Eritrea's badlands in northeast Africa are now a desert, during the Pleistocene the region had elephants, hippos, antelope, pigs, horses, plus fish, crocodiles and turtles

Beringia: massive glaciers tie up much of Earth's water, dropping sea levels, allowing regions to emerge such as Beringia, connecting Alaska and the Yukon region to Siberia. When climates warmed, Beringia vanished.

Nevada's Ancient Lake Lahontan teemed with life in the Pleistocene and into the Holocene, but is now a dry lake bed. Includes map.

Persistent Drought in the Southwest in early 900s, early 1100s and late 1200s may have led the Ancestral Puebloan or Anasazi peoples to relocate, but other researchers suggest changes in rainfall patterns as well as social and religious factors were also involved

Little Ice Age in Europe between 1200 and 1850 changed growing seasons, food and wine production, human health and more

Arctic Wildlife Threatened by environmental changes due to contemporary global warming, with polar bears, walruses, ringed seals facing loss of ice shelf habitat

Climate Change 2001: four reports from the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change, including a look at impacts and vulnerability
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Ascent of Mind:
Ice Age Climates
and the Evolution
of Intelligence

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Prehistoric America:
A Journey Through
the Ice Age
and Beyond

EXPLORE
Ancient
Artifacts

The Pleistocene [ Top ]

Pleistocene Epoch: the 1.8 million year period of cooling climate and ice ages leading up to our current, warmer Holocene

Pleistocene Research: discoveries of the bones of animals no longer alive as well as unusual features of the landscape spurred interest

Late Pleistocene Ice Sheets in North America: the Cordilleran, Laurentide and Greenland Ice Sheets blanketed the northern regions

Northern Hemisphere Ice Sheets: map showing extent of ice sheets in Europe and North America, as well as maps showing the retreat of the ice sheets on both continents

The Great Ice Age: 8-page illustrated booklet, in PDF format
Facts about the Ice Age: climate, causes of Ice Ages, animals, more

Late Pleistocene Climate Change Research

Paleolithic or Ice Age Human Cultures: an in-depth guide, and an archaeological timeline
of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic

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Desolate Landscapes:
Ice-Age Settlement in
Eastern Europe
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Map of the Last Glacial Maximum: showing the ice sheets in North America, Greenland, Scandinavia and Europe, and resources on more of the periods of Earth's climate history

Radiocarbon Dating Conversion Chart: 18,000 C14 years ago is calibrated to 21,000 real or calendar years ago; 11 date conversions shown

Younger Dryas cooling event (~10,500 - 13,000 calendar years ago) near end of Pleistocene was global in extent, researchers find
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The Holocene:
An Environmental
History

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Iceman : Uncovering
the Life and Times
of a Prehistoric Man
Found in an
Alpine Glacier

The Holocene [ Top ]
Holocene Epoch: the most recent epoch, or the warm period following the Pleistocene Ice Age

A map of Holocene continents with links to Holocene vegetation, more

Circumpolar History Timetables: series of charts showing climate changes, glacial and interglacial periods, human developments and migrations for Eurasia and North America from 140,000 BP to the present.

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Humans at the End of
the Ice Age: Archaeology
of the Pleistocene-
Holocene Transition

Climatic History of the Holocene: including the improving climate of the early Holocene, climatic optimum of the mid-Holocene, and the cooling or neoglaciation since then, with chart

Climate Change in the Holocene: including research methods and a chart showing temperatures of the late Pleistocene and the Holocene

Possible Dramatic Climate Shift 5200 Years Ago: an Ohio State University research uses ice cores from the Peruvian Andes, Kilimanjaro Glaciers, plus tree rings, pollen records and more to identify an abrupt cooling event

Detailed Chronology of Late Holocene Climate: from 793 A.D. through the 1920-30s, covering the Medieval Optimum, Medieval Glaciation and the Little Ice Age, including social impacts

Late Holocene Climate Reconstruction: a graph showing Northern Hemisphere mean temperature since 1400 A.D., including recent warming
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The Last Giant
of Beringia

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Chukchi, Their
Neighbors &
Environment

Beringia: Ice Age Land [ Top ]
Ancient Circumpolar World: with maps of Beringia and its ice shelves, productive hunting territory for early people during Ice Ages

Bering Strait & the Bering Land Bridge: Bering Strait disappears, land appears during Ice Ages

Beringia: Siberia & Alaska Linked: a guide to Ice Age land that linked Asia, North America

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American Beginnings:
The Prehistory and
Palaeoecology
of Beringia

Migration Routes to the New World: alternate theories on how early people migrated to North America, with animation of Canada's glaciers

Paleoamerican Origins: evidence of the first Americans, their relationship with Eurasian people, timing and number of migrations, likely routes, and a detailed look at Paleoamericans and the peopling of the New World
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