Just during the powerful development of all forms of life on our planet, the mysterious glacial period begins with its new temperature fluctuations. We have already spoken about the reasons for the appearance of this ice age earlier.

In the same way, when the occasion of the time of the year, he had led to the selection of more advanced, more capable of adapted by animals and created a variety of mammalian breeds, and now, in this ice age, a person is distinguished from mammals, in an even more painful fight against impending glaciers than The fight against the millennium shift of the seasons. It was not enough only to one adaptation through a significant change in body. It was necessary to mind, which would manage to pay for the benefit of the very nature and conquer it.

We have finally achieved the highest level of life development :. He mastered the land, and his mind, developing farther and further, learned to cover the whole universe. With the advent of a person, a very new era of creation began with truly. We are still on one of its lower stages, we are the simplest among the creatures, gifted by the mind that dominate the forces of nature. It began to start the path to unknown majestic goals!

There were at least four large glacial periods, which, for their part, again disintegrate into smaller waves of temperature fluctuations. Between the glacial periods lay the periods warmer; Then, thanks to the melting glether, raw valleys were covered with lush meadow vegetation. Therefore, precisely in these interledstial periods could especially well develop herbivores.

In the sediments of the Quaternary era, which closes the glacial periods, and in the sediments of the Delivevian era, which followed the last universal glaciation of the globe, and the immediate continuation of which is our time, we are pushing on huge thick-skinned, namely on Mammoth Mastodont, the fossil remnants of which we are still Now we find often in Tundra Siberia. Even with this giant, a primitive man loosened to get involved in the struggle, and, in the end, he came out of her winner.

Mastodont (restored) of the Delivevian era.

We involuntarily return the thought again to the emergence of the world, if we look at the flourishing of the fine present of the present of the chaotic dark primitive conditions. The fact that in the second half of our research remained all the time only on our little land is explained by the fact that we know all these different stages of development only on it. But, taking into account the same procedure for the world of matter and the Universality of the Matter of Nature's Matters, we will come to complete consistency of all the main features of the world's education that we can observe in the sky.

We do not have any doubt that in the distant universe there must be more millions of worlds like our Earth, although we do not have any accurate information about them. On the contrary, it is from the relatives of the Earth, the rest of our solar system, which we can better explore, thanks to their greater intimacy to us, there are characteristic differences from our land, as, for example, at the sisters of very different ages. Therefore, we should not be surprised if we are not met by traces of life, similar to the life of our Earth. Also, Mars with its channels remains the mystery to us.

If we look up, on the sky on top of the solns, then we can be sure that we will meet with the views of living beings who look at our daylight luminaries like us on their sun. Perhaps we are not entirely so far from the time when, mastered by all the forces of nature, a person will be able to penetrate these gave the universe and send a signal outside our globe living beings on another celestial body - and get an answer from them .

Just like life, at least, sometimes we cannot imagine it came to us from the Universe and spread on the ground, starting with the simplest, and the person, in the end, will spread the narrow horizon, covering him of the earth, and Will be demolished with other worlds of the universe, from where these primary elements of life appeared on our planet. The universe belongs to man, his mind, his knowledge, his strength.

But no matter how high the fantasy raised us, we will once again overthrow down. The world development circuit is lifted and falling.

Ice period on Earth

After terrible shower, such a flood, made damp and cold. From the high mountains, the glaciers are slightly lit into the valley, because the sun could no longer melt continuously falling from above the mass of snow. As a result, the places where the temperature above the summer was kept early during the summer, they were also covered with ice for a long time. We now see something similar in the Alps, where the individual "languages" of Gletters are descended significantly below the borders of eternal snow. In the end, most of the plains at the foot of the mountains were also covered above the ragged ice cover. The universal ice age came, whose traces of which we really can observe everywhere on the whole globe.

It is necessary to recognize the huge merit of the world traveler of Hans Meier from Leipzig found them proofs that both in Kilimanjaro and in Cordillera South America, even in tropical areas, - the glaciers at that time went down much lower than at present. The connection set out here between the extraordinary volcanic activities and the onset of the ice age for the first time was assumed by the Salessen brothers in Basel. How did it happen?

On the assigned question after thorough research, the following can be answered. The whole chain of the Andes during the geological periods, which, of course, are calculated by hundreds of thousands and millions of years, it was formed at the same time, and its volcanoes were a consequence of this grandiose-based process on Earth. At this time, almost all the land dominated, approximately, tropical temperature, which, however, very soon after that was to change the strong universal cooling.

Penk found that there was at least four large glacial periods, in between which were concluded warmer periods of time. But it seems that these large glacial periods are dismembered by an even greater number of smaller time intervals in which there were more insignificant universal temperature fluctuations. From here it can be seen what turpened times experienced the earth and, in what constant excitement was then the air ocean.

How long it continued this time, it can only be indicated very approximately. It is calculated that the beginning of this glacial period can be attributed, about half a million years ago. Since the last "small glaciation" passed, in all likelihood, only 10 to 20 millennia, and we live now, probably, only in one of those "interledstial periods", which were before the last universal glaciation.

Through all these glacial periods, traces of a primitive person developing from the animal pass. Talk of Flood, which moved to us from primitive times, can stand in connection with the incidents described above. Persian legend almost undoubtedly indicates volcanic phenomena preceding the beginning of the Great Flood.

This Persian legend describes the Great Flood as follows: "A large fiery dragon rose from the south. Everything was devastated by him. The day turned into the night. Stars disappeared. Zodiac was closed with a huge tail; Only the sun and the moon could notice in the sky. Boiling water fell on the ground and looked down to the roots of the trees. Among the frequent lightning fell drops of rain with a magnitude with a human head. Water covered the ground is higher than in human height. Finally, after the dragon struggle lasted 90 days and 90 nights, the enemy of the land was destroyed. A terrible storm rose, the water went down, the dragon plunged into the depths of the earth. "

This dragon, on the view of the famous Vienna Geologist Züss, was nothing more than a strong volcano, the fiery eruption of which was distributed across the sky like a long tail. All other phenomena described in the language are fully consistent with the phenomena observed after a strong volcanic eruption.

Thus, on the one hand, we have shown that after splitting and collapsed a huge block, a number of volcanoes should have been formed, the eruptions of which followed the fosters and glaciation. On the other hand, we have a number of volcanoes in the Andes located in the huge breakdown of the Pacific shore, and also proved that a glacier era came shortly after the occurrence of these volcanoes. Flood legends even more replenish the picture of this thorough period of development of our planet. When the Krakatau is erupted, we watched a small scale, but in all details, the consequences of the dive of the volcano into the marine bunch.

Taking into account all of the above, we are unlikely to doubt that the relationship between these phenomena was, indeed, as we suggested. Thus, the entire Pacific Ocean, indeed, arose as a result of the separation and failure of his present bottom, which before that was a huge mainland. Was it "death of the world" in the sense, how do they usually understand? If the fall happened suddenly, it was probably the most terrible and most grand catastrophe, which the Earth had ever seen since the organic life appeared on it.

This question is now difficult to answer. But still we can say the following. If the collapse on the coast of the Pacific Ocean was gradually committed, they would remain completely inexplicable those terrible volcanic eruptions, which at the end of the "tertiary era" occurred along the entire chain of the Andes and the very weak consequences of which are also observed there.

If the coastal area fell there so slowly that for the detection of this lowering, whole centuries were required, as we observe even now in some seashore shores, then all the movements of the masses would be performed very slowly, and only occasionally took place Volcanic eruptions.

In any case, we see that there are opposition to these forces producing shifts in the earth's crust, otherwise they could not have the place of sudden shudders of earthquakes. But we had to also recognize the fact that the stresses resulting from these opposition could not become too big, because the earth's crust turns out to be plastic, militant for large, but slowly existing forces. All these considerations lead us to the conclusion, maybe against our desire that it was precisely sudden forces in these catastrophes.

Last glacial period

In this era, under the ice sheet there were 35% sushi (compared to 10% at present).

The last glacial period was not only a natural disaster. It is impossible to understand the life of the planet Earth, without taking into account these periods. In the intervals between them (known as interleden periods), life flourished, but then the ice once again moved to the ice and brought death, but life did not completely disappear. Each glacial period was marked by the struggle for the survival of different types, global climatic changes occurred, and a new species appeared in the last one, which became dominant on Earth: it was a person.
Ice periods
Ice periods are geological periods characterized by the strong cooling of the Earth, during which the extensive spaces of the earth's surface covered the ice, there was a high level of humidity and, naturally, an exceptional cold, as well as the lowest of the famous modern science. There is no generally accepted theory concerning the causes of the onset of the glacial period, but since the XVII century explanations were offered the most different. According to the existing opinion, this phenomenon was caused by a not one reason, but became the result of the impact of three factors.

Changes in the atmosphere - the other ratio of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) and methane - caused a sharp decrease in temperature. It looks like a phenomenon, the opposite of what we call is now global warming, but on a much larger scale.

The effects of continents affected the cyclic changes of the orbit of the earth's movement around the Sun, and in addition, the change in the angle of inclination of the planet's axis relative to the sun.

The land received less solar heat, it cooled that led to the glaciation.
The earth was experiencing several glacial periods. The most large-scale glaciation occurred 950-600 million years ago in the Precambrian Era. Then in the Miocene era - 15 million years ago.

Traces of glaesting, which can be observed at present, represent the legacy of the last two million years and belong to the Quaternary period. This period has been studied by scientists best and divided into four periods: Günzskoye, Mindelle (Mindel), Rubskoy (Rice) and Vurm. The latter corresponds to the last glacial period.

Last glacial period
The Wurrms stage of the glaciation began approximately 100,000 years ago, reached a maximum after 18 thousand years and after 8 thousand years decline. During this time, the thickness of the ice reached 350-400 km and covered a third of the sushi above sea level, in other words, three times more space than now. If you proceed from the amount of ice, which is currently covered by the planet, you can get some idea of \u200b\u200bthe area of \u200b\u200bglaciation at that time: these days, the glaciers occupy 14.8 million km2 or about 10% of the earth's surface, and in the glacial period they covered the territory of 44 , 4 million km2, which is 30% of the ground surface.

According to assumptions, in the north of Canada ice covered an area of \u200b\u200b13.3 million km2, while now under the ice is 147.25 km2. The same difference is also noted in Scandinavia: 6.7 million km2 at that time compared to 3910 km2 at present.

The ice age at the same time came on both hemispheres, although in the north the ice spread to more extensive spaces. In Europe, the glacier captured most of the British Islands, North of Germany and Poland, and in North America, where Vurm's oscillation is called "Wisconsinskaya Glacier Stage", a layer of ice, descended from the North Pole, closed all Canada and spread south of the great lakes. Like lakes in Patagonia and Alps, they formed at the place of recesses left after melting ice mass.

The sea level dropped by almost 120 m, as a result of which large spaces were exposed covered with sea water. The meaning of this fact is huge, since large-scale migrations of man and animals are possible: the hominids were able to make a transition from Siberia to Alaska and move from continental Europe to England. It is possible that in the interglacial periods the two largest ice array - Antarctica and Greenland - have undergone small changes throughout history.

At the peak of the glaciation, the indicators of the average value of the temperature drop differed significantly depending on the area: 100 ° C - on Alaska, 60 ° C - in England, 20 ° C - in the area of \u200b\u200bthe tropics and practically remained unchanged in the equator. The studies of the last glaciation in North America and Europe, which occurred in the Pleistocene era, gave the same results in this geological field within the last two (approximately) of millions of years.

To understand the evolution of humanity, the last 100,000 years are of particular importance. Ice periods have become a harsh test for the inhabitants of the Earth. After the end of the next glaciation, they had to adapt, learn to survive. When the warmer climate became a warmth, the level of the sea increased, new forests and plants appeared, a climb raise, freed from the pressure of the ice shell.

The hominids turned out to be the most natural data to adapt to the changed conditions. They were able to move to areas with the highest amount of food resources, where the slow process of their evolution began.
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1.8 million years ago, a quaternary (anthropogenic) period of the geological history of the Earth continued and understood.

River basins expanded. Fast development of mammals fauna, especially mastodonts (which will later die, like many other ancient species of animals), hoofs and higher monkeys. In this geological period of the history of the Earth, a person appears (hence the word anthropogenic in the title of this geological period).

At the Quaternary period, there is a sharp climate change on the entire European part of Russia. From warm and wet Mediterranean, it turned into a moderately cold, and then in the cold-arctic. This led to the glaciation. Ice accumulated on the Scandinavian Peninsula, in Finland, on the Kola Peninsula and spread to the south.

The Oksky glacier covered with its southern edge and the territory of the modern Kashirsky district, including our region. The first glaciation was the coldest, tree vegetation in the area of \u200b\u200bOki disappeared almost completely. The glacier lasted for a short time. The first Quaternary glaciation reached the Oka Valley, which made the name of the "Okoyliament". The glacier left sea sediments in which the boulders of local sedimentary breeds prevail.

But such favorable conditions replaced the glacier again. The glaciation was a planetary scale. The grandiose Dnipro glaciation began. The thickness of the Scandinavian glacial shield reached 4 kilometers. The glacier moved through the Baltic to Western Europe and the European part of Russia. The borders of the languages \u200b\u200bof the Dneprovsky glaciation were held in the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Dnepropetrovsk and almost reached Volgograd.


Mammoth fauna

The climate has twisted again and became Mediterranean. At the site of glaciers, the thermal-loving and moisture vegetation was spread: oak, beech, housing and tees, as well as linden, alder, birch, spruce and pine, hazel. Fernic, characteristic of modern South America, grew in the swamps. The restructuring of the river system began and the formation of quaternary terraces in the valleys of rivers. This period was called the Intergrehetic Okochesky-Dniprovsky age.

Oka served as a kind of barrier to promote ice fields. According to scientists, the right bank of Oka, i.e. Our region, did not turn into a solid ice desert. Here were the fields of ice, alternated with the intervals of the hill, between which the rivers flow from melt waters and lakes accumulated.

The streams of ice of the Dnieper glaciation brought the glacial boulders from Finland and Karelia into our region.

The valleys of old rivers were filled with medium-sized and fluvioglacial sediments. Repeated again, and the glacier began to melt. The flow of melt waters rushed to the south of the following rivers. During this period, third terraces are formed in river valleys. In the depressions, large lakes were formed. The climate was moderately cold.

In our region, forest-steppe vegetation dominated with the predominance of coniferous and birch forests and large sections of steppes covered with wormwood, swan, cereals and disintegration.

The interdass epoch was short. The glacier returned to the Moscow region again, but did not reach the Oka, stopping near the southern outskirts of modern Moscow. Therefore, this third glaciation received the name of Moscow. Some languages \u200b\u200bof the glacier reached the Oka Valley, but they did not reach the territory of the modern Kashirsky district. The climate was harsh, and the landscape of our region becomes close to the steppe tundra. The forests almost disappear and their places occupy a steppe.

New warming has come. The rivers again deepened their valleys. The second terraces of rivers have been formed, the hydrography of the Moscow region has changed. It was at that time that the modern valley and the Volga pool flowing into the Caspian Sea was formed. Oka, and with her and our river B. Shedva and its tributaries, entered the Volga river pool.

This interledstate period of climate passed the steps from the continentally moderate (close to modern) to warm, with the Mediterranean climate. In our region, birch, pine and spruce were dominated, and then heat-loving oaks, beech and graphs were overwhelmed again. The swamps grew a waters of the brazing, which today will meet only in Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. At the end of the interleden period, Berezovo-coniferous forests again dominated.

This idyll spoiled the Valdai glaciation. The ice from the Scandinavian Peninsula again rushed to the south. This time, the glacier did not reach the Moscow region, but changed our climate to subarctic. For many hundreds of kilometers, including in the territory of the current Kashirsky district and rural settlement Znamenskoye, the steppe-tundra stretches, with dried grass and rare shrub, dwarf bires and polar wings. These conditions were ideal for mammoth fauna and for a primitive person, which then has already dwell on the boundaries of the glacier.

During the period of the last Valdai glaciation, the first rivers terraces were formed. Finally, the hydrographography of our region was finished.

Traces of glacial eras are found in Kashirsky district often, but they are difficult to allocate. Of course, large stone boulders are traces of the ice activity of the Dnieper glaciation. They were dragged by ice from Scandinavia, Finland and from the Kola Peninsula. The most ancient traces of the glacier are sealed or currency loam, which represents an erratic blend of clay, sand, brown stones.

The third group of glacial breeds - sands, resulting in the destruction of the sea layers with water. This sands with a large pebble and stones and sand homogeneous. They can be observed on the Oka. These include Belopesotsky Sands. Frequently found in the valleys of rivers, streams, in ravines, the layers of silvery and limestone crushed stone are traces of the direction of the ancient rivers and streams.

The geological era of Golocene came with new warming (it began 11 thousand 400 years ago), ongoing and today. Finally, modern river floats were formed. The mammoth fauna extinct, and on the spot the tundra appeared forests (first firing, then birch, and later mixed). Flora and fauna of our region acquired the features of modern - the one that we see today. At the same time, the left and right bank of the Oka still differ very much with their forest cover. If mixed forests and many open areas are dominated on the right bank, solid coniferous forests are dominated on the left bank - these are traces of glacial and intellaric climate change. On our shore, the glacier left less traces and the climate was somewhat softer than on the left bank of the Oka.

Geological processes continue today. The earth's crust in the suburbs over the past 5 thousand years rises only slightly, at a speed of 10 cm in the century. Modern alluviy Oki and other rivers of our region are formed. What this will lead to millions of years, we can only guess, for, briefly acquainted with the geological history of our region, we can safely repeat the Russian saying: "A person suggests, and God has." This saying is especially relevant, after we were convinced of this chapter that the human story is the grave in the history of our planet.

GLACIAL PERIOD

In the distant times there, where Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, was everything different. The thick forests grew along the shores of the ancient rivers, and they wandered there. Breakdown mammoths with horn bezles, huge shaggy rhinos, tigers and bears are much more than the present.

Gradually, in these places it became colder and colder. Far in the north every year there was so much snow that all the mountains accumulated - more than the present Urals. The snow was drowned, turned into ice, then began to slowly sprawl slowly, spread in all directions.

On the ancient forests, icy mountains were granted. Duli from these mountains is cold, evil winds, frozen trees and fled from the cold to the south of the beasts. And the ice mountains crawled further to the south, turning along the path of the rock and moving in front of them the entire hills of the earth and stones. They stayed before the place where Moscow costs is now, and crawled further into the warm southern countries. They reached the roasting Volga steppe and stopped.

Here, finally, they overpowered the sun: the glaciers began to melt. Huge rivers flow from them. And the ice retreated, melted, and masses of stones, sand and clay, which brought glaciers and remained lying in the southern steppes.

More than once they came from the north of terrible ice mountains. Did you see a cumen bridge? Such small stones are brought by a glacier. And there are boulders from the house. They are now lying in the north.

But ice can move again. Just not soon. Maybe thousands of years will pass. And not only the sun will then fight ice. If you need, people will apply atomic energy and will not be allowed the glacier to our land.

When ended the ice age?

Many of us believe that the Ice Age ended very long ago and no his traces remained. But geologists say that we are only approaching the end of the ice age. And the inhabitants of Greenland still live in the glacial period.

Approximately 25 thousand years ago, peoples who inhabited the central part of North America saw ice and snow all year round. The huge wall of ice extended from the quiet to the Atlantic Ocean, and north to the pole. It was at the final stage of the ice age, when the entire territory of Canada, most of the United States and the northwestern part of Europe were covered with layer of ice with a thickness of more than one kilometer.

But this does not mean that it was always very cold. In the northern part of the US, the temperature is only 5 degrees below modern. Cold summer months caused the ice age. At this time, the heat was not enough to melt the ice and snow. He accumulated and eventually covered the whole northern part of these areas.

The ice age consisted of four stages. At the beginning of each of them, the ice was formed moving south, then melted and retreated to the North Pole. It happened, as they say, four times. Cold periods are called "glaciation", warm - "interledstial" period.

It is believed that the first stage in North America began about two million years ago, the second - about 1,250,000 years ago, the third is about 500,000 years ago, and the last - about 100,000 years ago.

The ice melting speed at the last stage of the ice age in various areas was unequal. For example, in the location of the modern state of Wisconsin in the United States, melting ice began approximately 40,000 years ago. The ice, which covered the area of \u200b\u200bNew England in the United States, disappeared about 28,000 years ago. And the territory of the modern state of Minnesota ice freed only 15,000 years ago!

In Europe, Germany freed from ice 17,000 years ago, and Sweden - only 13,000 years ago.

Why do glaciers exist today?

The huge mass of ice, with the formation of which began the glacial period in North America, called the "Continental Glacier": in the very center, its thickness reached 4.5 km. Perhaps this glacier was formed and melted four times for the entire ice age.

A glacier who covered other parts of the world, some places did not melt! For example, the huge Island of Greenland is still covered by the Continental Glacier, with the exception of a narrow coastal strip. In its middle part, the glacier sometimes reaches the thickness of more than three kilometers. Antarctica is also covered with an extensive continental ice thickness glacier in some places up to 4 kilometers!

Therefore, the reason why glaciers have in some areas of the globle, is that they did not melted from the ice age. But the main part of glaciers encountered now was recently formed. Basically, they are located in the mountain valleys.

They originate in wide, gentle, in shape resembling amphitaters, valleys. Snow falls here from the slopes as a result of collaps and avalanche. Such snow does not melt in the summer, every year becomes deeper.

Gradually, the pressure from above, some thawing, re-freezing is removed by air from the bottom part of this snowy mass, turning it into solid ice. The impact of weight of the entire mass of ice and snow squeezes the whole mass and makes it move down the valley. Such a moving ice language and there is a mountain glacier.

In Europe, more than 1,200 such glaciers are known in the Alps! They also exist on Pyrenees, in the Carpathians, in the Caucasus, as well as in the mountains of the southern part of Asia. In the south of Alaska there are tens of thousands of similar glaciers, some length from 50 to 100 km!

Periods of geological history of the Earth are era, the consistent change of which formed it as a planet. At that time, the mountains were formed and destroyed, the sea appeared and dried out, the glacial periods replaced each other, the evolution of the animal world occurred. The study of the geological history of the Earth is carried out on cutoffs of rocks, which retained the mineral composition of the period that has formed them.

Cenozoic period

The current period of the geological history of the Earth is Cenoza. He began sixty-six million years ago and continues to last. The conditioned border was carried out by geologists at the end of the chalk period, when the mass extinction of species was observed.

The term was proposed by an English geologist Phillips in the middle of the nineteenth century. The literal translation of it sounds like a "new life". The era is divided into three periods, each of which, in turn, is divided into era.

Geological periods

Any geological era is divided by periods. Three periods are distinguished in the Cenozoic era:

Paleogen;

Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era, or anthropogen.

In earlier terminology, the first two periods were combined called the "Tertiary Period".

On land, which has not yet managed to finally divide into individual continents, mammals reigned. They appeared rodents and insectivores, early primates. In the seas, reptiles replaced predatory fish and sharks, new types of mollusks and algae appeared. Thirty-eight million years ago, the variety of species on Earth was hit by imagination, the evolutionary process affected representatives of all kingdoms.

Only five million years ago, the first human monkeys began to fall on land. Another three million years later in the territory relating to modern Africa, the person strapping began to gather in the tribes, collect root and mushrooms. Ten thousand years ago, a modern man appeared, who began to repaint the land to his needs.

Paleography

Paleogen lasted forty three million years. The continents in their modern form were still part of the Gondwana, which began to split into separate fragments. South America left in her free swimming, which became a reservoir for unique plants and animals. In the eocene era, the mainland gradually occupy their present position. Antarctica is separated from South America, and India moves closer to Asia. A massif of water appeared between North America and Eurasia.

In the oligocene era, the climate becomes cool, India is finally fixed below the equator, and Australia drifts between Asia and Antarctic, moving away from both. Due to the temperature caps, ice caps are formed on the southern pole, which leads to a decrease in the sea level.

In the neogenic period, the mainland begins to face each other. Africa "Tranched" Europe, as a result of which the Alps appear, India and Asia forms the Himalayan mountains. The same way appears Andes and rocky mountains. In the Pliocene Epoch, the world becomes even colder, the forests die off, giving way to the steppes.

Two million years ago, the period of glaciation comes, the sea level fluctuates, the white caps on the poles are increasing, then again melting. Animal and vegetable world is subject to testing. To date, humanity is experiencing one of the steps of warming, but on a global scale, the ice age continues to last.

Life in Cenozoa

Cenozoic periods cover a relatively short period of time. If you put the entire geological history of the Earth on the dial, then for the Cenozoa will be allocated for the past two minutes.

The extinction that marked the end of the chalk period and the beginning of the new era, erased from the face of the Earth of all animals, which were larger than the crocodile. Those who managed to survive were able to adapt in new conditions or evolved. The continent drift continued until the emergence of people, and on those of them that were isolated, a unique animal and vegetable world could continue.

The Cenozoic Era was distinguished by a large species variety of flora and fauna. It is called mammalian time and coated bridge. In addition, this era can be called the epoch of steppes, savanna, insects and flowering plants. The crown of the evolutionary process on Earth can be considered the emergence of a person reasonable.

Quaternary period

Modern humanity lives in a quaternary era of the Cenozoic era. It began two and a half million years ago, when in Africa, man-like primates began to get into the tribes and to extract themselves by collecting berries and digging roots.

The quaternary period was marked by the formation of mountains and seas, the movement of continents. The Earth acquired the appearance she now. For research-geologists, this period is simply a stumbling block, since it is so small that the methods of radioisotope rock scans are simply insufficiently sensitive and give great errors.

The characteristic of the quaternary period is made up of materials obtained using radiocarbon analysis. This method is based on measuring the quantity of fast isotopes in the soil and rock rocks, as well as bones and tissues of extinct animals. The whole length of time can be divided into two eras: Pleistocene and Golocene. Humanity is now in the second epoch. So far there are no accurate calculations when it is over, but scientists continue to build hypotheses.

Pleistocene epoch

Quaternary period opens Pleistocene. He began two and a half million years ago, and only twelve thousand years ago ended. It was the time of glaciation. Long-term glacial periods were mixed with short warms.

One hundred thousand years ago in the field of modern northern Europe, a thick icy hat appeared, which began to crawl into different directions, absorbing new and new territories. Animals and plants were forced to either adapt to new conditions, or die. The extinct desert spread out of Asia to North America. In some places, the thickness of the ice reached two kilometers.

The beginning of the Quaternary period turned out to be too severe for the creatures inhabited by the Earth. They are accustomed to a warm, moderate climate. In addition, ancient people began to hunt animals who have already invented a stone ax and other manual guns. The whole types of mammals, birds and representatives of the sea fauna disappear from the face of the Earth. Did not stand the harsh conditions and nonadertaltz. Cryanonians were more enduring, successful in the hunt, and it was their genetic material that had to survive.

Holocene epoch

The second half of the Quaternary period began twelve thousand years ago and continues until now. It is distinguished by relative warming and climate stabilization. The beginning of the era was marked by the mass extinction of animals, and she continued with the development of human civilization, its technical bloom.

Changes in animal and vegetable composition over the era were minor. Mammoths were completely extinct, some species of birds and marine mammals have ceased to exist. About seventy years ago, the total temperature on Earth rose. Scientists associate this with the fact that industrial human activity causes global warming. In this regard, glaciers melted in North America and Eurasia, disintegrates the ice cover of the Arctic.

glacial period

The glacial period is called the stage of the geological history of the planet, occupying several million years, during which the temperature decreases and an increase in the number of mainland glaciers. As a rule, glaciation alternate with warming. Now the Earth is in the period of relative increase in temperature, but this does not mean that after half the millennium, the situation cannot radically change.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Kropotkin Geologist visited Lensky gold primary and found signs of an ancient glaciation there. He was so interested in finding that he was engaged in large-scale international work in this direction. First of all, he visited Finland and Sweden, as he suggested that it was from there that the ice hats on Eastern Europe and Asia had spread. Reports of Kropotkin and its hypothesis relative to the modern glacial period formed the basis of modern ideas about this period of time.

History of land

The Ice Age, in which the Earth is now, is far from the first in our history. Climate cooling happened earlier. It was accompanied by significant changes in the terrain relief and their movement, and also influenced the species composition of flora and fauna. There could be intervals of hundreds of thousands and millions of years between glaciations. Each glacial period is divided into glacial epochs or glacials, which in the period of the period alternate with intellaries - interlevials.

In the history of the Earth, four glacier eras are distinguished:

Ranneproterozoic.

Lateproterozoic.

Paleozoic.

Cenozoic.

Each of them lasted from 400 million to 2 billion years. This suggests that our glacial period has not yet reached its equator.

Cenozoic Glacier Era

The animals of the Quaternary period were forced to grow additional fur or look for the shelter from ice and snow. The climate on the planet has changed again.

The first era of the quaternary period was characterized by cooling, and the second had a relative warming, but even now in the most extreme latitudes and on the poles of ice cover is preserved. It covers the territory of the Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland. Ice thickness varies from two thousand meters to five thousand.

The strongest in the entire Cynozoic era is considered the Pleistocene Ice Age, when the temperature declined so much that the three ocean on the planet was frozen from five.

Chronology of Cenozoic glaciation

The wintening of the Quaternary period began recently, if we consider this phenomenon regarding the history of the Earth as a whole. It can select individual epochs during which the temperature fell especially low.

  1. The end of the Eocene (38 million years ago) - Antarctica glaciation.
  2. All Oligocene.
  3. Middle Miocene.
  4. Middle of Pliocene.
  5. Glyatial Hilbert, freezing the seas.
  6. Continental Pleistocene.
  7. Late Upper Pleistocene (about ten thousand years ago).

It was the last major period when, because of the climate of climate, animals and a person had to adapt to new conditions to survive.

Paleozoic Glacier Era.

In Paleozoic Era, the Earth looked so much that Ice caps reached Africa and South America in the south, as well as covered all North America and Europe. Two glaciers practically agreed along the equator. The peak is the moment when a three-kilometer layer of ice rummaged over the territory of Northern and West Africa.

Scientists have discovered the remnants and consequences of glacial deposits during research in Brazil, Africa (in Nigeria) and the mouth of the Amazon River. Thanks to radioisotope analysis, it was found that the age and the chemical composition of these finds are the same. And therefore, it can be argued that the layers of rocks were formed as a result of a global process, which raised several continents at once.

Planet Earth on cosmic standards is still very young. She just starts his way in the universe. It is not known, with us it will continue or humanity will simply become a minor episode in the geological era replacing each other. If you look at the calendar, we spent a negligible amount of time on this planet, and it's enough to destroy us with the help of another cooling. People need to remember this and not exaggerate their role in the biological system of the Earth.

Scientists note that the glacial period is part of the ice era, when earth covers hides ice on long millions of years. But many are called the ice age of a segment of the history of the Earth, which ended about twelve thousand years ago.

It is worth noting that history of glacial period There was a huge number of unique features that did not reach our time. For example, unique animals who were able to adapt to existence in this difficult climate - mammoths, rhinos, saber-toothed tigers, cave bears and others. They were covered with thick fur and quite large sizes. Herbivores adapt themselves to extract food from under the searel surface. Take rhinos, they hit the ice horn and fed on plants. As not strange, the vegetation was diverse. Of course, many species of plants disappeared, but herbivores were freely accessible to food.

Despite the fact that the ancient people were small sizes and did not possess the cover of wool, they also were able to survive during the ice age. Their life was incredibly dangerous and difficult. They built small dwellings and insulated their skins of killed animals, and meat used to eat. People came up with various traps to lure large animals there.

Fig. 1 - Ice Age

For the first time about the history of the glacial period, they spoke in the eighteenth century. Then, geology began to be laid as the scientific industry, and scientists began to find out what origin has boulders in Switzerland. Most researchers agreed in a single point of view that they have a glacial beginning. In the nineteenth century, the assumption was put forward that the climate of the planet was susceptible to sharp cooling. And a little later, the term was announced "glacial period". Entered His Louis Agassis, whose ideas were first not recognized as a general public, but then it was proved that many of his works really have grounds.

In addition to the fact that geologists were able to establish the fact that the glacial period had a place to be, they also tried to find out for what reason it arose on the planet. The most common opinion states that the movement of lithospheric plates can block warm flows in the ocean. It gradually causes the formation of an ice array. If large-scale glacial covers have already been formed on the surface of the Earth, they will cause a sharp cooling, reflecting the sunlight, and hence the heat. Another reason for the formation of glaciers could become a change in the level of greenhouse effects. The presence of large arctic arrays and the rapid spread of plants eliminates the greenhouse effect by replacing carbon dioxide for oxygen. No matter what the reason for the formation of glaciers is a very long process that can enhance and the effect of solar activity on the ground. Changes in the orbit of our planet around the sun make it extremely susceptible. The remoteness of the planet from the "main" star also affects the influence. Scientists suggest that even in the times of the largest glacial periods, the earth was covered with ice by only one third of the entire area. There are assumptions that Ice periods had to be also when the whole surface of our planet was covered with ice. But this fact remains controversial in the world of geological research.

To date, the most significant glacial array is Antarctic. Ice power in some places reaches more than four kilometers. Glaciers move on average at a speed of five hundred meters per year. Another impressive icy cover is in Greenland. About seventy percent of this island, glaciers occupy, and this is one tenth ice of our entire planet. At the moment, scientists believe that the Ice Age will not be able to begin at least a thousand years. The thing is that in the modern world there is a colossal emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And as we found out earlier, the formation of glaciers is possible only with the low level of its content. However, this puts another problem to humanity - global warming, which may be no less large-scale than the beginning of the glacial era.