Russian scientists promise that in 2014 the world will begin an ice age. Vladimir Bashkin, head of the Gazprom VNIIGAZ laboratory, and Rauf Galiullin, researcher at the Institute for Fundamental Problems of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, argue that there will be no global warming. According to scientists, warm winters- a consequence of the cyclic activity of the sun and cyclic climate change. This warming has continued from the 18th century to the present, and with next year the Earth will start to cool again.

The Little Ice Age will begin gradually and last at least two centuries. The decrease in temperature will reach its peak by the middle of the 21st century.

At the same time, scientists say that the anthropogenic factor - human impact on the environment - does not play such a big role in climate change as is commonly thought. Business in marketing, Bashkin and Galiullin consider, and the promise of cold weather every year is only a way to inflate the price of fuel.

Pandora's Box - The Little Ice Age in the 21st century.

In the next 20-50 years, we are threatened by the Little Ice Age, because it has already happened before and must come again. Researchers believe that the onset of the Little Ice Age was associated with a slowdown in the Gulf Stream around 1300. In the 1310s, Western Europe, judging by the chronicles, experienced a real ecological catastrophe. According to the French Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, after the traditional warm summer 1311 was followed by four gloomy and rainy summers 1312-1315. heavy rains and unusually harsh winters have killed several crops and frozen orchards in England, Scotland, northern France, and Germany. Viticulture and wine production ceased in Scotland and northern Germany. Winter frosts began to hit even northern Italy. F. Petrarch and J. Boccaccio recorded that in the XIV century. snow often fell in Italy. A direct consequence of the first phase of the MLP was the massive famine in the first half of the 14th century. Indirectly - the crisis of the feudal economy, the resumption of corvee and major peasant uprisings in Western Europe. In the Russian lands, the first phase of the MLP made itself felt in the form of a series of “rainy years” of the 14th century.

From about the 1370s, temperatures in Western Europe began to rise slowly, and massive famine and crop failures ceased. However, cold, rainy summers were a frequent occurrence throughout the 15th century. In winter, snowfalls and frosts were often observed in southern Europe. Relative warming began only in the 1440s, and it immediately led to an increase in Agriculture. However, the temperatures of the previous climatic optimum have not been restored. For Western and Central Europe, snowy winters became commonplace, and the period of "golden autumn" began in September.

What is it that affects the climate? Turns out it's the sun! Back in the 18th century, when sufficiently powerful telescopes appeared, astronomers drew attention to the fact that the number of sunspots on the Sun increases and decreases with a certain periodicity. This phenomenon is called cycles of solar activity. They also found out their average duration - 11 years (the Schwabe-Wolf cycle). Later, longer cycles were discovered: a 22-year (Hale cycle) associated with a change in the polarity of the solar magnetic field, the "secular" Gleissberg cycle lasting about 80-90 years, as well as the 200-year (Süss cycle). It is believed that there is even a cycle of 2400 years.

"The fact is that longer cycles, for example, secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the emergence of grandiose minima," said Yury Nagovitsyn. Those modern science several are known: the Wolf minimum (early 14th century), the Spörer minimum (second half of the 15th century), and the Maunder minimum (second half of the 17th century).

Scientists have suggested that the end of the 23rd cycle, in all likelihood, coincides with the end of the secular cycle of solar activity, the maximum of which was in 1957. This, in particular, is evidenced by the curve of relative Wolf numbers, which has approached its minimum mark in recent years. Indirect evidence of the superposition is the delay of the 11-year-old. Comparing the facts, scientists realized that, apparently, a combination of factors indicates an approaching grandiose minimum. Therefore, if in the 23rd cycle the activity of the Sun was about 120 relative Wolf numbers, then in the next it should be about 90-100 units, astrophysicists suggest. Further activity will decrease even more.

The fact is that longer cycles, such as secular ones, modulate the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, leading to the emergence of grandiose minima, the last of which occurred in the 14th century. What are the consequences for the Earth? It turns out that it was during the grandiose maxima and minima of solar activity on Earth that large temperature anomalies were observed.

The climate is a very complicated thing, it is very difficult to track all its changes, all the more so on a global scale, but as scientists suggest, the greenhouse gases that bring the vital activity of mankind slowed down the arrival of the Little Ice Age a little, besides, the world ocean, having accumulated part of the heat over the past decades, also delays the process the beginning of the Little Ice Age, giving off a little bit of its heat. As it turned out later, vegetation on our planet absorbs excess carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) well. The main influence on the climate of our planet is still exerted by the Sun, and we cannot do anything about it.

Nothing catastrophic, of course, will happen, but thus part of the northern regions of Russia may become completely unsuitable for life, oil production in the north of the Russian Federation may cease altogether.

In my opinion, the beginning of a decrease in global temperature can already be expected in 2014-2015. In 2035-2045, the solar luminosity will reach a minimum, and after that, with a delay of 15-20 years, the next climate minimum will come - a deep cooling of the Earth's climate.

News about the end of the world » The Earth is threatened by a new ice age.

Scientists predict a decline in solar activity that may occur over the next 10 years. The consequence of this may be a repetition of the so-called "Little Ice Age", which happened in the XVII century, writes Times.

According to scientists, the frequency of sunspots in the coming years may decrease significantly.

The cycle of formation of new sunspots that affect the temperature of the Earth is 11 years. However, employees of the American National Observatory suggest that the next cycle may be very late or not happen at all. According to the most optimistic forecasts, they argue, a new cycle could begin in 2020-21.


Scientists are speculating whether the change in solar activity will lead to a second "Maunder Low" - a period of sharp decline in solar activity that lasted 70 years, from 1645 to 1715. During this time, also known as the "Little Ice Age", the river Thames was covered with nearly 30 meters of ice, on which horse-drawn cabs successfully traveled from Whitehall to London Bridge.

According to researchers, the decline in solar activity can lead to the fact that the average temperature on the planet will drop by 0.5 degrees. However, most scientists believe that it is too early to sound the alarm. During the "Little Ice Age" in the XVII century, the air temperature dropped significantly only in the north-west of Europe, and even then only by 4 degrees. On the rest of the planet, the temperature dropped by only half a degree.

The Second Coming of the Little Ice Age

In historical time, Europe has already once experienced a prolonged anomalous cooling.

Abnormally severe frosts that prevailed in Europe at the end of January almost led to a full-scale collapse in many Western countries. Due to heavy snowfalls, many highways were blocked, power supply was interrupted, and aircraft reception at airports was canceled. Due to frost (in the Czech Republic, for example, reaching -39 degrees), classes in schools, exhibitions and sports matches are canceled. In the first 10 days of extreme frosts in Europe alone, more than 600 people died from them.

For the first time in many years, the Danube froze from the Black Sea to Vienna (the ice there reaches 15 cm thick), blocking hundreds of ships. To prevent the freezing of the Seine in Paris, an icebreaker that had long been idle was launched into the water. Ice has blocked the canals of Venice and the Netherlands; in Amsterdam, skaters and cyclists ride on its frozen waterways.

The situation for modern Europe is extraordinary. However, looking at the famous works of European art of the 16th-18th centuries or in the records of the weather of those years, we learn that the freezing of canals in the Netherlands, the Venetian lagoon or the Seine was a rather frequent phenomenon for that time. The end of the 18th century was especially extreme.

Thus, the year 1788 was remembered by Russia and Ukraine as the "great winter", accompanied throughout their European part by "extraordinary cold, storms and snow". In Western Europe in December of the same year, a record temperature of -37 degrees was recorded. Birds froze on the fly. The Venetian lagoon froze over, and the townspeople skated along its entire length. In 1795, the ice bound the shores of the Netherlands with such force that an entire military squadron was captured in it, which was then surrounded by ice from land by a French cavalry squadron. In Paris that year, frosts reached -23 degrees.

Paleoclimatologists (historians who study climate change) name the period from the second half of the 16th century to early XIX century by the “Little Ice Age” (A.S. Monin, Yu.A. Shishkov “History of Climate”. L., 1979) or “Little Ice Age” (E. Le Roy Ladurie “History of Climate since 1000”. L. , 1971). They note that during that period there were not individual cold winters, but in general a decrease in temperature on Earth.

Le Roy Ladurie analyzed data on the expansion of glaciers in the Alps and the Carpathians. He points to the following fact: the gold mines developed in the middle of the 15th century in the High Tatras in 1570 were covered with ice 20 m thick, in the 18th century the thickness of the ice there was already 100 m. By 1875, despite the widespread retreat throughout the 19th century and the melting of glaciers, the thickness of the glacier over the medieval mines in the High Tatras was still 40 m. At the same time, as the French paleoclimatologist notes, the onset of glaciers began in the French Alps. In the commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, in the mountains of Savoy, "the advance of the glaciers definitely began in 1570-1580."

Le Roy Ladurie gives similar examples with exact dates in other places in the Alps. In Switzerland, evidence of the expansion of a glacier in the Swiss Grindelwald dates back to 1588, and in 1589 a glacier descended from the mountains blocked the valley of the Saas River. In the Pennine Alps (in Italy near the border with Switzerland and France) in 1594–1595, a noticeable expansion of glaciers was also noted. “In the Eastern Alps (Tyrol, etc.), glaciers advance in the same way and simultaneously. The first information about this dates back to 1595, writes Le Roy Ladurie. And he adds: “In 1599-1600, the glacier development curve reached its peak for the entire region of the Alps.” Since that time, endless complaints from the inhabitants of mountain villages have appeared in written sources that glaciers are burying their pastures, fields and houses under them, thus erasing entire settlements from the face of the earth. In the XVII century, the expansion of glaciers continues.

This is consistent with the expansion of glaciers in Iceland, starting from late XVI century and during the XVII century advancing on settlements. As a result, Le Roy Ladurie states, “Scandinavian glaciers, synchronously with Alpine glaciers and glaciers from other regions of the world, have been experiencing the first, well-defined historical maximum since 1695,” and “in subsequent years they will begin to advance again.” This continued until the middle of the 18th century.

The thickness of the glaciers of those centuries can indeed be called historical. On the graph of changes in the thickness of glaciers in Iceland and Norway over the past 10 thousand years, published in the book by Andrey Monin and Yuri Shishkov "The History of Climate", it is clearly seen how the thickness of glaciers, which began to grow around 1600, by 1750 reached the level at which the glaciers kept in Europe during the period of 8-5 thousand years BC.

Is it any wonder that contemporaries have recorded, since the 1560s in Europe, over and over again extraordinarily cold winters, which were accompanied by freezing major rivers and reservoirs? These cases are indicated, for example, in the book by Evgeny Borisenkov and Vasily Pasetsky “The Millennium Chronicle unusual phenomena nature” (M., 1988). In December 1564, the powerful Scheldt in the Netherlands completely froze over and stood under the ice until the end of the first week of January 1565. The same cold winter was repeated in 1594/95, when the Scheldt and the Rhine froze over. The seas and straits froze: in 1580 and 1658 - the Baltic Sea, in 1620/21 - the Black Sea and the Bosphorus Strait, in 1659 - the Great Belt Strait between the Baltic and North Seas (the minimum width of which is 3.7 km).

The end of the 17th century, when, according to Le Roy Ladurie, the thickness of glaciers in Europe reaches a historical maximum, was marked by crop failures due to prolonged severe frosts. As noted in the book by Borisenkov and Pasetsky: “The years 1692-1699 were marked in Western Europe by continuous crop failures and hunger strikes.”

One of the worst winters of the Little Ice Age occurred in January-February 1709. Reading the description of those historical events, you involuntarily try them on modern ones: “From an extraordinary cold, such as neither grandfathers nor great-grandfathers remembered ... the inhabitants of Russia and Western Europe died. Birds flying through the air froze. In general, in Europe, many thousands of people, animals and trees died. In the vicinity of Venice, the Adriatic Sea was covered with stagnant ice. The coastal waters of England were covered with ice. Frozen Seine, Thames. The ice on the Meuse River reached 1.5 m. The frosts were just as great in the eastern part of North America. The winters of 1739/40, 1787/88 and 1788/89 were no less severe.

In the 19th century, the Little Ice Age gave way to warming and harsh winters are a thing of the past. Is he coming back now?

The Ice Age has always been a mystery. We know that he could shrink entire continents to the size of a frozen tundra. We know there have been eleven or so, and they seem to happen on a regular basis. We definitely know that there was a lot of ice. However, there is much more to the ice ages than meets the eye.


By the time the last ice age arrived, evolution had already “invented” mammals. The animals that decided to breed and multiply during the Ice Age were quite large and covered in fur. The scientists gave them common name"megafauna" because it managed to survive the Ice Age. However, since other, less cold-resistant species could not survive it, the megafauna felt pretty good.

Megafauna herbivores are accustomed to foraging in icy environments, adapting to their surroundings. different ways. For example, Ice Age rhinoceroses may have had a shovel-shaped horn to remove snow. Predators like saber-toothed tigers, short-faced bears, and direwolves (yes, Game of Thrones wolves did once exist) have also adapted to their environment. Although the times were cruel, and the prey could well turn a predator into a prey, there was a lot of meat in it.

ice age people


Despite their relatively small size and little hair, Homo sapiens survived in the cold tundras of the ice ages for thousands of years. Life was cold and hard, but people were resourceful. For example, 15,000 years ago, people of the Ice Age lived in tribes of hunter-gatherers, built comfortable dwellings from mammoth bones and made warm clothes from animal fur. When food was plentiful, they stored it in natural permafrost refrigerators.

Since hunting tools at that time were mainly stone knives and arrowheads, complex weapons were rare. To capture and kill huge ice age animals, people used traps. When an animal fell into a trap, people attacked it in a group and beat it to death.

Little Ice Ages


Sometimes small ice ages arose between large and long ones. They were not as destructive, but could still cause starvation and disease due to failed crops and other side effects.

The most recent of these small ice ages began sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries and peaked between 1500 and 1850. For hundreds of years, the weather in the northern hemisphere was damn cold. In Europe, the seas were regularly frozen over, and mountainous countries(Switzerland, for example) could only watch as the glaciers moved, destroying villages. There were years without summer, but nasty weather influenced all aspects of life and culture (perhaps that is why the Middle Ages seem gloomy to us).

Science is still trying to figure out what caused this little ice age. Among possible causes- a combination of severe volcanic activity and a temporary decrease in solar energy from the Sun.

warm ice age


Some ice ages may have been quite warm. The ground was covered with a huge amount of ice, but in fact the weather was quite pleasant.

Sometimes the events that lead to an ice age are so severe that even if full of greenhouse gases (which trap the sun's heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet), ice still continues to form because, given a thick enough layer of pollution, it will reflect the sun's rays back into space. Experts say this would turn Earth into a giant Baked Alaska dessert - cold on the inside (ice on the surface) and warm on the outside (warm atmosphere).


The man whose name is reminiscent of the famous tennis player was actually a respected scientist, one of the geniuses who defined the scientific environment of the 19th century. He is considered one of the founding fathers of American science, although he was French.

In addition to many other achievements, it is thanks to Agassiz that we know at least something about the ice ages. Although many have touched on this idea before, in 1837 the scientist became the first person to seriously bring ice ages into science. His theories and publications on the ice fields that covered most of the earth were foolishly dismissed when the author first presented them. Nevertheless, he did not retract his words, and further research eventually led to the recognition of his "crazy theories."

Remarkably, his pioneering work on ice ages and glacial activity was merely a hobby. By occupation, he was an ichthyologist (studying fish).

Man-made pollution prevented the next ice age


Theories that ice ages repeat on a semi-regular basis, no matter what we do, often clash with theories about global warming. While the latter are certainly authoritative, some believe that it is global warming that may be useful in the future fight against glaciers.

Human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are considered an essential part of the global warming problem. However, they have one strange side effect. According to researchers from University of Cambridge, CO2 emissions may be able to stop the next ice age. How? Although the planetary cycle of the Earth is constantly trying to start an ice age, it will only start if the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is extremely low. By pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, humans may have accidentally made ice ages temporarily unavailable.

And even if the concern about global warming (which is also extremely bad) forces people to reduce their CO2 emissions, there is still time. At present, we have sent so much carbon dioxide into the sky that the ice age will not start for at least another 1000 years.

Plants of the Ice Age


It was relatively easy for predators during the ice ages. After all, they could always eat someone else. But what did herbivores eat?

It turns out that everything you wanted. In those days, there were many plants that could have survived the Ice Age. Even in the coldest times, steppe-meadow and tree-shrub areas remained, which allowed mammoths and other herbivores not to die of hunger. These pastures were full of plant species that thrive in cold, dry weather, such as spruces and pines. In warmer areas, birches and willows were abundant. In general, the climate at that time was very similar to Siberian. Although the plants, most likely, were seriously different from their modern counterparts.

All of the above does not mean that the ice ages did not destroy part of the vegetation. If the plant could not adapt to the climate, it could only migrate through the seeds or disappear. Australia once had the most long lists variety of plants until glaciers destroyed a good part of them.

The Himalayas may have caused an ice age


Mountains, as a rule, are not famous for actively causing anything but occasional landslides - they just stand there and stand. The Himalayas can refute this belief. Perhaps they are directly responsible for causing the Ice Age.

When the landmasses of India and Asia collided 40-50 million years ago, the collision grew massive rock ridges into the Himalaya mountain range. It brought out great amount"fresh" stone. Then the process of chemical erosion began, which removes a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over time. And this, in turn, could affect the climate of the planet. The atmosphere "cooled" and caused an ice age.

snowball earth


During most ice ages, ice sheets cover only part of the world. Even a particularly severe ice age covered, as they say, only about one third the globe.

What is "Snowball Earth"? The so-called Snowball Earth.

Snowball Earth is the chilling grandfather of the ice ages. This is a complete freezer that literally froze every part of the planet's surface until the Earth froze into a huge snowball flying in space. The few that survived a complete freeze either clung to rare places with relatively little ice, or, in the case of plants, clung to places where there was enough sunlight for photosynthesis.

According to some reports, this event happened at least once, 716 million years ago. But there could be more than one such period.

garden of eden


Some scientists seriously believe that the Garden of Eden was real. They say he was in Africa and was the only reason our ancestors survived the Ice Age.

Just under 200,000 years ago, a particularly hostile ice age was killing species left and right. Fortunately, a small group of early humans were able to survive the terrible cold. They stumbled upon the coast now represented South Africa. Despite the fact that ice was reaping its share all over the world, this area remained ice-free and completely habitable. Her soil was rich nutrients and gave a lot of food. There were many natural caves that could be used as shelter. For a young species struggling to survive, it was nothing short of heaven.

The human population of the "Garden of Eden" numbered only a few hundred individuals. This theory is supported by many experts, but it still lacks conclusive evidence, including studies that show that humans have much less genetic diversity than most other species.

We are at the mercy of autumn and it's getting colder. Are we moving towards an ice age, one of the readers wonders.
The fleeting Danish summer is behind us. The leaves are falling from the trees, the birds are flying south, it's getting darker and, of course, colder too.
Our reader Lars Petersen from Copenhagen has begun to prepare for the cold days. And he wants to know how seriously he needs to prepare.
“When does the next ice age begin? I learned that glacial and interglacial periods alternate regularly. Since we live in an interglacial period, it is logical to assume that the next ice age is ahead of us, right? he writes in a letter to the Ask Science section (Spørg Videnskaben).
We in the editorial office shudder at the thought of the cold winter that lies in wait for us at that end of autumn. We, too, would love to know if we are on the verge of an ice age.
The next ice age is still far away
Therefore, we addressed the teacher of the Center fundamental research ice and climate at the University of Copenhagen to Sune Olander Rasmussen.
Sune Rasmussen studies the cold and gets information about past weather, storms, Greenland glaciers and icebergs. In addition, he can use his knowledge in order to fulfill the role of "foreteller of ice ages."
“In order for an ice age to occur, several conditions must coincide. We cannot accurately predict when the ice age will begin, but even if humanity did not further influence the climate, our forecast is that the conditions for it will develop in the best case in 40-50 thousand years,” Sune Rasmussen reassures us.
Since we are still talking to the "ice age predictor", we can get some more information about what these "conditions" are. in question to understand a little more about what the ice age actually is.
What is an ice age
Sune Rasmussen says that during the last ice age average temperature on the ground was a few degrees lower than today, and that the climate at higher latitudes was colder.
Much of the northern hemisphere was covered in massive ice sheets. For example, Scandinavia, Canada and some other parts of North America were covered with a three-kilometer ice sheet.
The enormous weight of the ice cover pressed the earth's crust a kilometer into the Earth.
Ice ages are longer than interglacials
However, 19 thousand years ago, changes in the climate began to occur.
This meant that the Earth gradually became warmer, and over the next 7,000 years, freed itself from the cold grip of the Ice Age. After that, the interglacial period began, in which we are now.
In Greenland, the last remnants of the shell came off very abruptly 11,700 years ago, or to be exact, 11,715 years ago. This is evidenced by the studies of Sune Rasmussen and his colleagues.
This means that 11,715 years have passed since the last ice age, and this is a completely normal interglacial length.
“It's funny that we usually think of the ice age as an 'event', when in fact it's just the opposite. The middle ice age lasts 100 thousand years, while the interglacial lasts from 10 to 30 thousand years. That is, the Earth is more often in an ice age than vice versa.
“The last couple of interglacials lasted only about 10,000 years each, which explains the widely held but erroneous belief that our current interglacial is nearing its end,” says Sune Rasmussen.
Three Factors Influence the Possibility of an Ice Age
The fact that the Earth will plunge into a new ice age in 40-50 thousand years depends on the fact that there are small variations in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Variations determine how much sunlight hits which latitudes, and thereby affects how warm or cold it is.
This discovery was made by the Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milanković almost 100 years ago and is therefore known as the Milanković cycle.
Milankovitch cycles are:
1. The orbit of the Earth around the Sun, which changes cyclically about once every 100,000 years. The orbit changes from nearly circular to more elliptical, and then back again. Because of this, the distance to the Sun changes. The farther the Earth is from the Sun, the less solar radiation our planet receives. In addition, when the shape of the orbit changes, so does the length of the seasons.
2. The tilt of the earth's axis, which fluctuates between 22 and 24.5 degrees relative to the orbit of rotation around the sun. This cycle spans approximately 41,000 years. 22 or 24.5 degrees - it seems not such a significant difference, but the tilt of the axis greatly affects the severity of the different seasons. The more the Earth is tilted, the greater the difference between winter and summer. The Earth's axial tilt is currently at 23.5 and is decreasing, which means that differences between winter and summer will decrease over the next thousand years.
3. The direction of the earth's axis relative to space. The direction changes cyclically with a period of 26 thousand years.
“The combination of these three factors determines whether there are prerequisites for the beginning of the ice age. It is almost impossible to imagine how these three factors interact, but with the help of mathematical models we can calculate how much solar radiation is received by certain latitudes at certain times of the year, as well as received in the past and will receive in the future,” says Sune Rasmussen.
Snow in summer leads to ice age
Especially important role in this context play temperatures in summer.
Milankovitch realized that for the ice age to start, summers in the northern hemisphere would have to be cold.
If winters are snowy and most of the northern hemisphere is covered with snow, then temperatures and amounts sundial in the summer determine whether the snow will be allowed to stay for the whole summer.
“If the snow does not melt in the summer, then little sunlight penetrates the Earth. The rest is reflected back into space in a snow-white veil. This exacerbates the cooling that began due to a change in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun,” says Sune Rasmussen.
“Further cooling brings even more snow, which further reduces the amount of absorbed heat, and so on, until the ice age begins,” he continues.
Similarly, a period of hot summers leads to the end of the Ice Age. Then the hot sun melts the ice enough to sunlight again could fall on dark surfaces, like soil or the sea, which absorb it and heat the Earth.
Humans are delaying the next ice age
Another factor that is relevant to the possibility of an ice age is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Just as snow that reflects light increases the formation of ice or accelerates its melting, the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 180 ppm to 280 ppm (parts per million) helped bring the Earth out of the last ice age.
However, ever since industrialization began, people have been pushing the CO2 share further all the time, so it's almost 400 ppm now.
“It took nature 7,000 years to raise the share of carbon dioxide by 100 ppm after the end of the ice age. Humans have managed to do the same in just 150 years. It has great importance whether the Earth can enter a new ice age. This is a very significant influence, which means not only that an ice age cannot begin at the moment,” says Sune Rasmussen.
We thank Lars Petersen for the good question and send the winter gray T-shirt to Copenhagen. We also thank Sune Rasmussen for the good answer.
We also encourage our readers to submit more scientific questions to [email protected].
Did you know?
Scientists always talk about the ice age only in the northern hemisphere of the planet. The reason is that there is too little land in the southern hemisphere on which a massive layer of snow and ice can lie.
With the exception of Antarctica, all South part the southern hemisphere is covered with water, which does not provide good conditions for the formation of a thick ice shell.

Ecology

The ice ages that have taken place more than once on our planet have always been covered in a mass of mysteries. We know that they shrouded entire continents in cold, turning them into uninhabited tundra.

Also known about 11 such periods, and all of them took place with regular constancy. However, we still don't know much about them. We invite you to get to know the most interesting facts about the ice ages of our past.

giant animals

By the time the last ice age arrived, evolution had already mammals appeared. Animals that could survive in harsh climatic conditions were quite large, their bodies were covered with a thick layer of fur.

Scientists have named these creatures "megafauna", which was able to survive low temperatures in areas covered with ice, for example, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bmodern Tibet. Smaller animals couldn't adjust to new conditions of glaciation and perished.


Herbivorous representatives of the megafauna have learned to find their own food even under layers of ice and were able to adapt in different ways to environment: For example, rhinos ice age had spatulate horns, with the help of which they dug up snowdrifts.

Predatory animals, for example, saber-toothed cats, giant short-faced bears and dire wolves, perfectly survived in the new conditions. Although their prey could sometimes fight back due to their large size, it was in abundance.

ice age people

Although modern man Homo sapiens couldn't brag at the time large sizes and wool, he was able to survive in the cold tundra of the ice ages for many millennia.


Living conditions were harsh, but people were resourceful. For example, 15 thousand years ago they lived in tribes that were engaged in hunting and gathering, built original dwellings from mammoth bones, and sewed warm clothes from animal skins. When food was plentiful, they stocked up in the permafrost - natural freezer.


Mostly for hunting, such tools as stone knives and arrows were used. To catch and kill the large animals of the Ice Age, it was necessary to use special traps. When the beast fell into such traps, a group of people attacked him and beat him to death.

Little Ice Age

Between major ice ages, there were sometimes small periods. It cannot be said that they were destructive, but they also caused famine, disease due to crop failure, and other problems.


The most recent of the Little Ice Ages began around 12th-14th centuries. The most difficult time can be called the period from 1500 to 1850. At this time in the Northern Hemisphere, a fairly low temperature was observed.

In Europe, it was common when the seas froze, and in mountainous areas, for example, in the territory of modern Switzerland, the snow did not melt even in summer. Cold weather influenced every aspect of life and culture. Probably, the Middle Ages remained in history, as "Time of Troubles" also because the planet was dominated by a small ice age.

periods of warming

Some ice ages actually turned out to be quite warm. Despite the fact that the surface of the earth was shrouded in ice, the weather was relatively warm.

Sometimes a sufficiently large amount of carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere of the planet, which is the cause of the appearance greenhouse effect when heat is trapped in the atmosphere and warms the planet. In this case, the ice continues to form and reflect the sun's rays back into space.


According to experts, this phenomenon led to the formation giant desert with ice on the surface but quite warm weather.

When will the next ice age start?

The theory that ice ages occur on our planet at regular intervals goes against theories about global warming. There's no doubt about what's happening today global warming which may help prevent the next ice age.


Human activity leads to the release of carbon dioxide, which is largely responsible for the problem of global warming. However, this gas has another strange by-effect. According to researchers from University of Cambridge, the release of CO2 could stop the next ice age.

According to the planetary cycle of our planet, the next ice age should come soon, but it can take place only if the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be relatively low. However, CO2 levels are currently so high that no ice age is out of the question any time soon.


Even if a person abruptly stops emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (which is unlikely), existing quantity enough to prevent the onset of the ice age at least another thousand years.

Plants of the Ice Age

The easiest way to live in the Ice Age predators: they could always find food for themselves. But what do herbivores actually eat?

It turns out that there was enough food for these animals. During the ice ages on the planet many plants grew that could survive in harsh conditions. The steppe area was covered with shrubs and grass, which fed mammoths and other herbivores.


Larger plants could also be found in great abundance: for example, firs and pines. Found in warmer regions birches and willows. That is, the climate by and large in many modern southern regions resembled the one that exists today in Siberia.

However, the plants of the Ice Age were somewhat different from modern ones. Of course, with the onset of cold weather many plants died. If the plant was not able to adapt to the new climate, it had two options: either move to more southern zones, or die.


For example, in the territory of the modern state of Victoria in southern Australia, there was the most rich variety plant species on the planet, until the ice age came, as a result of which most of the species died.

Cause of the Ice Age in the Himalayas?

It turns out that the Himalayas, the highest mountain system our planet directly related with the onset of the ice age.

40-50 million years ago the land masses where China and India are today collided to form highest mountains. As a result of the collision, huge volumes of "fresh" rocks from the bowels of the Earth were exposed.


These rocks eroded, and as a result of chemical reactions, carbon dioxide began to be displaced from the atmosphere. The climate on the planet began to become colder, the ice age began.

snowball earth

During different ice ages, our planet was mostly shrouded in ice and snow. only partially. Even during the most severe ice age, ice covered only one third of the globe.

However, there is a hypothesis that at certain periods the Earth was still completely covered in snow, which made her look like a giant snowball. Life still managed to survive thanks to the rare islands with relatively little ice and with enough light for plant photosynthesis.


According to this theory, our planet turned into a snowball at least once, more precisely 716 million years ago.

Garden of Eden

Some scientists are convinced that garden of eden described in the Bible actually existed. It is believed that he was in Africa, and it is thanks to him that our distant ancestors survived the ice age.


Approximately 200 thousand years ago came a severe ice age, which put an end to many forms of life. Fortunately, a small group of people were able to survive the period of severe cold. These people moved to the area where South Africa is today.

Despite the fact that almost the entire planet was covered with ice, this area remained ice-free. A large number of living beings lived here. The soils of this area were rich in nutrients, so there was abundance of plants. Caves created by nature were used by people and animals as shelters. For living beings, it was a real paradise.


According to some scientists, in the "Garden of Eden" lived no more than a hundred people, which is why humans do not have as much genetic diversity as most other species. However, this theory has not found scientific evidence.

last ice age

During this era, 35% of the land was under the ice cover (compared to 10% at present).

The last ice age was not just a natural disaster. It is impossible to understand the life of planet Earth without considering these periods. In the intervals between them (known as interglacial periods), life flourished, but then once again the ice inexorably approached and brought death, but life did not completely disappear. Each ice age was marked by the struggle for the survival of different species, global climate changes occurred, and in the last of them appeared the new kind who became (over time) dominant on Earth: it was a man.
ice ages
Ice ages are geological periods characterized by a strong cooling of the Earth, during which vast expanses earth's surface covered with ice, there was a high level of humidity and, of course, exceptional cold, as well as the lowest sea level known to modern science. There is no generally accepted theory regarding the causes of the onset of the ice age, however, since the 17th century, various explanations have been proposed. According to current opinion, this phenomenon was not caused by one cause, but was the result of the influence of three factors.

Changes in the composition of the atmosphere - a different ratio of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) and methane - have caused a sharp decline temperature. This is similar to what we now call global warming, but on a much larger scale.

The movements of the continents, caused by cyclical changes in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and in addition, a change in the angle of inclination of the planet's axis relative to the Sun, also had an impact.

The earth received less solar heat, it cooled, which led to glaciation.
The earth has experienced several ice ages. The largest glaciation occurred 950-600 million years ago in the Precambrian era. Then in the Miocene epoch - 15 million years ago.

The traces of glaciation that can be observed at the present time represent the legacy of the last two million years and belong to the Quaternary period. This period is best studied by scientists and is divided into four periods: Günz, Mindel (Mindel), Ries (Rise) and Würm. The latter corresponds to the last ice age.

last ice age
The Wurm stage of glaciation began approximately 100,000 years ago, reached its maximum after 18 thousand years, and began to decline after 8 thousand years. During this time, the thickness of the ice reached 350-400 km and covered a third of the land above sea level, in other words, three times more space than now. Based on the amount of ice that currently covers the planet, one can get some idea of ​​the area of ​​glaciation during that period: today glaciers occupy 14.8 million km2, or about 10% of the earth's surface, and during the ice age they covered an area of ​​44 .4 million km2, which is 30% of the Earth's surface.

Northern Canada was estimated to have covered 13.3 million km2 of ice, while 147.25 km2 is now under ice. The same difference is observed in Scandinavia: 6.7 million km2 in that period compared to 3910 km2 today.

The ice age began simultaneously in both hemispheres, although in the North the ice spread to more extensive areas. In Europe, the glacier captured most of the British Isles, northern Germany and Poland, and in North America, where the Wurm glaciation is called the "Wisconsin Ice Age", a layer of ice that descended from the North Pole covered all of Canada and spread south of the Great Lakes. Like the lakes in Patagonia and the Alps, they were formed on the site of recesses left after the melting of the ice mass.

The sea level dropped by almost 120 m, as a result of which large expanses were exposed that are currently covered sea ​​water. The significance of this fact is enormous, since large-scale human and animal migrations became possible: hominids were able to make the transition from Siberia to Alaska and move from continental Europe to England. It is possible that during the interglacial periods, the two largest ice massifs on Earth - Antarctica and Greenland - have undergone little change over the course of history.

At the peak of the glaciation, indicators medium size temperature drops differed significantly depending on the area: 100 ° C - in Alaska, 60 ° C - in England, 20 ° C - in the tropics and remained practically unchanged at the equator. Conducted studies of the last glaciations in North America and Europe, which occurred during the Pleistocene era, gave the same results in this geological region within the last two (approximately) million years.

The last 100,000 years are of particular importance for understanding the evolution of mankind. Ice ages have become a severe test for the inhabitants of the Earth. After the end of the next glaciation, they again had to adapt, learn to survive. When the climate became warmer, the sea level rose, new forests and plants appeared, the land rose, freed from the pressure of the ice shell.

The hominids turned out to have the most natural data to adapt to the changed conditions. They were able to move to areas with the most food resources, where the slow process of their evolution began.
Not expensive to buy children's shoes in bulk in Moscow

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1.8 million years ago began the Quaternary (anthropogenic) period of the geological history of the earth, which continues to this day.

River basins expanded. There was a rapid development of the fauna of mammals, especially mastodons (which would later become extinct, like many other ancient animal species), ungulates and higher monkeys. In this geological period of the history of the earth, a person appears (hence the word anthropogenic in the name of this geological period).

The Quaternary period is abrupt change climate throughout the European part of Russia. From a warm and humid Mediterranean, it turned into a temperate cold, and then into a cold Arctic one. This led to glaciation. Ice accumulated on the Scandinavian Peninsula, in Finland, on the Kola Peninsula and spread to the south.

The Oksky glacier, with its southern edge, also covered the territory of the modern Kashirsky region, including our region. The first glaciation was the coldest; woody vegetation in the Oka region disappeared almost completely. The glacier did not last long. The first Quaternary glaciation reached the Oka valley, which is why it received the name “Oksky glaciation”. The glacier left moraine deposits dominated by boulders of local sedimentary rocks.

But such favorable conditions were again replaced by a glacier. The glaciation was on a planetary scale. The grandiose Dnieper glaciation began. The thickness of the Scandinavian ice sheet reached 4 kilometers. The glacier moved across the Baltic to Western Europe and European part Russia. The boundaries of the languages ​​of the Dnieper glaciation passed in the area of ​​modern Dnepropetrovsk and almost reached Volgograd.


mammoth fauna

The climate warmed up again and became Mediterranean. In place of the glaciers, heat-loving and moisture-loving vegetation spread: oak, beech, hornbeam and yew, as well as linden, alder, birch, spruce and pine, hazel. In the marshes, ferns grew, characteristic of modern South America. The restructuring of the river system and the formation of Quaternary terraces in the river valleys began. This period was called the interglacial Oxo-Dnieper age.

The Oka served as a kind of barrier to the advancement of ice fields. According to scientists, the right bank of the Oka, i.e. our region has not turned into a solid icy desert. Here were fields of ice, interspersed with intervals of melted hills, between which rivers flowed from melt water and lakes accumulated.

Ice flows of the Dnieper glaciation brought glacial boulders from Finland and Karelia to our region.

The valleys of the old rivers were filled with mid-moraine and fluvioglacial deposits. It warmed up again, and the glacier began to melt. Streams of melt water rushed south along the channels of new rivers. During this period, the third terraces are formed in the river valleys. Large lakes formed in the depressions. The climate was moderately cold.

In our region, forest-steppe vegetation dominated with a predominance of coniferous and birch forests and large areas of steppes covered with wormwood, quinoa, grasses and herbs.

The interstadial epoch was short. The glacier returned to the Moscow region again, but did not reach the Oka, stopping not far from the southern outskirts of modern Moscow. Therefore, this third glaciation was called Moscow. Some tongues of the glacier reached the Oka valley, but they did not reach the territory of the modern Kashirsky region. The climate was severe, and the landscape of our region becomes close to the steppe tundra. Forests are almost disappearing and their place is taken by steppes.

A new warming has come. The rivers deepened their valleys again. The second terraces of the rivers were formed, the hydrography of the Moscow region changed. It was during that period that the modern valley and basin of the Volga, which flows into the Caspian Sea, was formed. The Oka, and with it our river B. Smedva and its tributaries, entered the Volga river basin.

This interglacial period in terms of climate went through stages from continentally temperate (close to modern) to warm, with a Mediterranean climate. In our region, birch, pine and spruce dominated at first, and then heat-loving oaks, beeches and hornbeams turned green again. In the swamps, the water lily grew, which today you will find only in Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. At the end of the interglacial period, birch- coniferous forests.

This idyll was spoiled by the Valdai glaciation. 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 the territory of the present Kashirsky district and the rural settlement of Znamenskoye, the steppe-tundra stretches, with dried grass and rare shrubs, dwarf birches and polar willows. These conditions were ideal for the mammoth fauna and for primitive man, who then already lived on the borders of the glacier.

During the last Valdai glaciation, the first river terraces formed. The hydrography of our region has finally taken shape.

Traces of glacial epochs are often found in the Kashirsky region, but they are difficult to identify. Of course, large stone boulders are traces of the glacial activity of the Dnieper glaciation. They were brought by ice from Scandinavia, Finland and from the Kola Peninsula. The most ancient traces of the glacier are moraine or boulder loam, which is a random mixture of clay, sand, brown stones.

The third group of glacial rocks are sands resulting from the destruction of moraine layers by water. These are sands with large pebbles and stones, and the sands are homogeneous. They can be observed on the Oka. These include the Belopesotsky sands. Often found in the valleys of rivers, streams, in ravines, layers of flint and limestone gravel are traces of the bed of ancient rivers and streams.

With new warming, the geological epoch of the Holocene began (it began 11,400 years ago), which continues to this day. The modern river floodplains were finally formed. The mammoth fauna died out, and forests appeared in place of the tundra (at first, spruce, then birch, and later mixed). The flora and fauna of our region has acquired the features of modern - the one that we see today. At the same time, the left and right banks of the Oka are still very different in their forest cover. If the right bank is dominated by mixed forests and many open areas, then continuous coniferous forests dominate on the left bank - these are traces of glacial and interglacial climate changes. On our bank of the Oka, the glacier left fewer traces, and our climate was somewhat milder than on the left bank of the Oka.

Geological processes continue today. The earth's crust in the Moscow region over the past 5 thousand years has been rising only slightly, at a rate of 10 cm per century. The modern alluvium of the Oka and other rivers of our region is being formed. Where this will lead after millions of years, we can only guess, because, having briefly met with geological history of our region, we can safely repeat the Russian proverb: "Man proposes, but God disposes." This saying is especially relevant, after we have seen in this chapter that human history is a grain of sand in the history of our planet.

GLACIAL PERIOD

In the distant, distant times, where Leningrad, Moscow, Kyiv are now, everything was different. Dense forests grew along the banks of ancient rivers, and shaggy mammoths with bent tusks, huge furry rhinoceroses, tigers and bears much larger than today roamed there.

Gradually, these places became colder and colder. Far in the north, so much snow fell every year that entire mountains of it accumulated - larger than the present Urals. The snow caked up, turned into ice, then slowly began to spread, spreading in all directions.

Ice mountains have moved over the ancient forests. Cold, evil winds blew from these mountains, trees froze and animals fled from the cold to the south. And the icy mountains crawled further south, twisting the rocks along the way and moving whole hills of earth and stones in front of them. They crawled to the place where Moscow now stands, and crawled even further, to the warm southern countries. They reached the hot Volga steppe and stopped.

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

More than once, terrible ice mountains approached from the north. Have you seen the cobblestone pavement? Such small stones are brought by the glacier. And there are boulders the size of a house. They still lie in the north.

But the ice can move again. Just not soon. Maybe thousands of years will pass. And not only the sun will then fight the ice. If necessary, people will use NUCLEAR ENERGY and keep the glacier out of our land.

When did the ice age end?

Many of us believe that the Ice Age ended a very long time ago and no traces of it remain. But geologists say we are only approaching the end of the ice age. And the inhabitants of Greenland are still living in the Ice Age.

Approximately 25 thousand years ago, the peoples who inhabited the central part of NORTH AMERICA saw ice and snow all year round. A huge wall of ice stretched from the Pacific to Atlantic Ocean, and to the north - to the very pole. It was during the final stages of the Ice Age, when all of Canada, most of the United States, and northwestern Europe were covered in a layer of ice over one kilometer thick.

But this does not mean that it was always very cold. In the northern part of the United States, the temperature was only 5 degrees below present. Cold summer months caused an ice age. At this time, the heat was not enough to melt the ice and snow. It accumulated and eventually covered the entire northern part of these areas.

The Ice Age consisted of four stages. At the beginning of each of them, ice formed moving south, then melted and retreated to the North POLE. This happened, it is believed, four times. Cold periods are called "glaciation", warm - "interglacial" period.

The first phase in North America is believed to have begun about two million years ago, the second about 1,250,000 years ago, the third about 500,000 years ago, and the last about 100,000 years ago.

The rate of ice melting at the last stage of the ice age in different regions was not the same. For example, in the area of ​​present-day Wisconsin in the United States, ice melt began about 40,000 years ago. The ice that covered the New England area in the US disappeared about 28,000 years ago. And the territory of the modern state of Minnesota was freed by ice only 15,000 years ago!

In Europe, Germany was free of ice 17,000 years ago, while Sweden only 13,000 years ago.

Why do glaciers still exist today?

A huge mass of ice, from the formation of which the ice age began in North America, was called the "continental glacier": in the very center its thickness reached 4.5 km. It is possible that this glacier formed and melted four times during the entire ice age.

The glacier that covered other parts of the world has not melted in some places! For example, the huge island of Greenland is still covered by continental ice, except for a narrow coastal strip. In its middle part, the glacier sometimes reaches a thickness of more than three kilometers. Antarctica is also covered by a vast continental glacier up to 4 kilometers thick in some places!

So the reason why there are glaciers in some parts of the world is that they have not melted since the Ice Age. But the bulk of the glaciers that are found now, formed recently. They are mainly located in mountain valleys.

They originate in wide, gently sloping, amphitheater-like valleys. Snow falls here from the slopes as a result of landslides and avalanches. Such snow does not melt in summer, becoming deeper every year.

Gradually, pressure from above, some thawing, and repeated freezing remove air from the bottom of this snow mass, turning it into solid ice. The impact of the weight of the entire mass of ice and snow compresses the entire mass and causes it to move down the valley. Such a moving tongue of ice is a mountain glacier.

More than 1200 such glaciers are known in Europe in the Alps! They also exist in the Pyrenees, in the Carpathians, in the Caucasus, as well as in the mountains of southern Asia. There are tens of thousands of these glaciers in southern Alaska, some 50 to 100 km long!