At the end of Cenozoic during the Cretaceous period there was a massive extension that included all dinosaurs and the vast majority of living species. The most accepted theory is that of the fall of a large meteorite in the Central American area. Following large amounts of dust in the air, they prevented sunlight from reaching the surface, rendering plants unable to photosynthesize and severely affecting the food chain. It is when 35% of all life on Earth died out, giving way to The ice age.
Do you want to know everything about what happened in the ice age? Are we approaching another ice age? In this post you can learn everything.
Disappearance of flora and fauna
The disappearance of the large reptiles gave way to the well-known ice AgeDuring this era, mammals took advantage of the gap left by the dinosaurs to multiply and spread. Furthermore, thanks to genetic crossbreeding, new species were born, and thus mammals diversified. Eventually, their expansion was such that they imposed their dominance on the rest of the vertebrates. Of the 10 families that existed at the beginning of this Ice Age, they became nearly 80 in the Eocene in just 10 million years of evolution. The evolution of these species can be further studied on pages about the geological periods and their impact on the current climate. In addition, you can learn more about the glaciations that have affected the planet in the past.
Take a look at geological time if you don't position yourself well on the time scale
Many of the modern mammalian families date to the Oligocene, that is, about 35 million years ago. It was then in the Miocene (between 24 and 5 million years ago) when the greatest diversity of species was recorded during the ice age.
Contrary to popular belief, the ice age does not mean that the entire planet is covered in ice, but they occupy a higher percentage than normal. This is important to understand the context of a possible little ice age, which could influence the global climate.
In this last period the first and most primitive Hominoidea appeared, such as the Proconsul, Dryopithecus and Ramapithecus. Starting in the Miocene, the number of mammals began to decline and, as a consequence of the profound climatic changes that occurred during the Pliocene, about 2 million years ago, many species disappeared.
It is then when the ice age was about to begin within the Pleistocene where the primates were advancing and one of them was going to impose his reign: the genus Homo.
Characteristics of an ice age
An ice age is defined as a period of time characterized by the permanent presence of an extensive ice cover. This ice extends to at least one of the poles. The Earth is known to have spent 90% of its time during the last million years in the 1% of the coldest temperatures. These temperatures are lowest since the last 500 million years. In other words, the Earth is trapped in an extremely cold state. This period is known as the Quaternary Ice Age.
The last four ice ages have occurred at intervals of 150 million years. Therefore, scientists believe they are due to changes in the Earth's orbit or changes in solar activity. Other scientists prefer a terrestrial explanation. For example, they cite the onset of glaciation, the distribution of continents, or the concentration of greenhouse gases such as those mentioned in the loss of control over climate change.
According to the definition of glaciation, it is a period characterized by the existence of ice caps at the poles. By that rule of thumb, right now we are submerged in an ice age, since the polar caps occupy almost 10% of the entire earth's surface.
Glaciation is understood as a period of ice ages in which the temperature is very low globally. The ice caps, as a consequence, extend towards lower latitudes and dominate the continents. Ice caps have been found in latitudes of the equator. The last ice age took place about 11 thousand years ago.
Are we near a new ice age?
This year the winter in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula has lasted longer than usual. Spring has been cooler reaching 2 degrees below the average of the last 20 years. The month of June was also abnormally cold with temperatures 4 degrees lower than normal.
Climate changes have always occurred on the planet and not because of the appearance of man and the industrial revolution. It is these changes that have caused the flora and fauna of the Earth to change and there have been glacial and interglacial periods.
Many factors influence the planet's climate. Therefore, although scientists point out that global warming is solely the responsibility of greenhouse gases, it is not solely responsible for them. Their concentration continues to rise over the years, but the temperature has not increased correspondingly. There are hotter summers, although not consecutively.
All this makes the scientific community think that, although we are causing anthropized global warming at a faster rate than nature does, we will not be able to stop the end of the interglacial period and the arrival of a new ice age. This is something that is also addressed in debates about whether the next ice age in Spain will be inevitable.
What happened in the last ice age?
We are currently in an interglacial period within the Quaternary glaciation. The area that the polar caps occupies reaches 10% of the entire earth's surface. The evidence tells us that within this quaternary period, there have been several ice ages.
When the population refers to "The ice age" refers to the last glacial period of this quaternary period. The Quaternary began 21000 years ago and ended about 11500 years ago. It occurred simultaneously in both hemispheres. The largest extensions of ice were reached in the northern hemisphere. In Europe, the ice advanced, covering all of Great Britain, Germany and Poland. All of North America was buried under ice.
After freezing, sea level dropped 120 meters. Large expanses of the sea today were for that era on land. Today, it has been calculated that if the remaining glaciers melted, the sea level would rise between 60 and 70 meters.
What do you think about the arrival of a new ice age? Let us know in the comments.
I am a person who in the 1980s estimated not only that a new Ice Age was imminent but that it was possible that we were already living that age without realizing it. The trends in temperatures, the natural cycle that the Earth must follow and even the warming of the planet itself were the indications that most influenced my point of view. Regarding the most controversial of the indicators or warming of the planet, the investigations carried out in Antarctica that concluded that global warming or the planet always preceded an ice age should be considered.
As you point out, the Ice Age is an irreversible and unstoppable phenomenon:
“All this makes the scientific community think that, although we are causing anthropized global warming at a faster rate than nature does, we will not be able to stop the end of the interglacial period and the arrival of a new age of ice."
The engineer Lee carroll, in his lectures channeling the energy of Kryon, invites us to prepare for the glaciation that we already started in this year 2019.
The evidence is, as you point out, in the records of the air trapped in the cylinders of ice in Antarctica, and in the tree rings. It invites us to develop energy self-sufficiency at the local, community, and housing levels. Because «the electricity grid is not prepared to withstand an ice age. It may fail. And it will fail »