Earth Is 'Between Ice Ages At The Moment'

IOL ^ | 12-17-2003

[blam]

Earth is 'between Ice Ages at the moment'

December 17 2003 at 07:15AM

Paris - Earth and its companion planet, Mars, are both enjoying a period of warm climate between their respective Ice Ages, according to a study published on Thursday in Nature, the British science weekly.

Pictures sent back by United States orbiters have shown that Mars has "dusty, water-ice-rich mantling deposits" in layers that are metres thick, it says.

"These deposits were formed during a geologically recent Ice Age that occurred from about 2,1 million to 400 000 years ago," it suggests. "Mars is at present in an 'inter-glacial' period."

Earth, too, is considered to be between two Ice Ages - the last one ended some 11 000 years ago, helping the rise of Homo sapiens as a species - but for quite different reasons, according to the study.

Mars is at present in an 'inter-glacial' period The finger of suspicion in Earth's regular bouts of glaciation points to slight variations in the planet's orbit around the sun and a minor "wobble" in its rotation around its axis.

In Mars' case, the last ice age probably happened when the planet tilted, according to the authors, led by James Head of Brown University, Rhode Island.

That would have caused its polar regions to warm, causing water vapour to migrate to lower, cooler latitudes.

There, the vapour consolidated in the startling deposits seen by the Mars Orbiter and Mars Odyssey and which have been interpreted as being rich in water ice.

These features are in locations that are in much lower latitudes (down to 30 degrees) than on the Earth - the equivalent of finding an ice sheet in Saudi Arabia or Florida.

So far, there is only visual and radar data to suggest there is water on Mars, although within a few months, solid evidence may emerge to confirm, or not, the presence of the precious substance.

The European Space Agency is scheduled to send down a lander, Beagle 2, on December 25, and this will be followed in January by two US rovers. - Sapa-AFP

[blam]

We're still coming out of the last Ice Age.

[blam]

Global Warming ping.

[Tax-chick]

Well, I hope the next one hurries ... my kids really want to see the woolly mammoths strolling down the streets of Charlotte.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I hate speculation...let's see what the Mars rovers find out.

[Argus]

Phanerozoic Eon
(544 million years ago - Present)

The period of time, also known as an eon, between the end of the Precambrian and today, The Phanerozoic begins with the start of the Cambrian period, 544 million years ago. It encompasses the period of abundant, complex life on the Earth.


Era Period or System Epoch or Series
Cenozoic
(65 million years ago - Present)

"Age of Recent Life"

An era of geologic time from the beginning of the Tertiary period to the present. Its name is from Greek and means "new life."


Quaternary
(1.8 million years ago - Present)

The second period of the Cenozoic era. It contains two epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene. It is named after the Latin word "quatern" (four at a time).


The several geologic eras were originally named Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. The first two names are no longer used. Tertiary and Quaternary have been retained but used as period designations.


Holocene
(8,000 years ago - Present)

An epoch of the Quaternary period. It is named after the Greek words "holos" (entire) and "ceno" (new).



Pleistocene
(1.8 million - 8,000 years ago)

"The Great Ice Age"

An epoch of the Quaternary period. It is named after the Greek words "pleistos" (most) and "ceno" (new).

[11th Earl of Mar]

Earth and its companion planet, Mars, are both enjoying a period of warm climate

Earth's global warming has now heated up Mars?

We earthlings better do something quick before we melt Jupiter!

[rickmichaels]

...my kids really want to see the woolly mammoths strolling down the streets of Charlotte.

Tell them Hillary and Nancy Pelosi are coming to town. Your kids will be over the moon.

[spokeshave]

No ....they are a pair of raptors

[Timocrat]

Earth and its companion planet, Mars, are both enjoying a period of warm climate

Man is causing global warming on Earth, Mars is warming, Ergo there must be human life on Mars! (look it's about as reasonable as the theory that man is causing global warming)

[expatpat]

Those darn Martians and their SUVs are screwing up the solar system.

[billorites]

It's been one ice age after another for 2 million years.

We're in one. We're out of one. We're in one...

That's the way it's been.

And that's the way it's gonna be, for an eon or so.

Get used to it.

And stop trying to appear so smart.

[blam]

"And stop trying to appear so smart."

Appear?

[gitmo]

SUVs causing Mars' Global Warming. Kyoto Treaty called for.

[caisson71]

Global Warming = time between ice ages?? That explains it as well as whacko science.

[Tax-chick]

An example of how technology can turn living beings into walking fossils? Now that's a science lesson ...

[AFreeBird]

Damn, and that SUV is even solar powered.

[CrazyIvan]

Forcast for tonight; dark, followed by scattered light by morning........

[Dallas59]

Following the same, we should burn more of everything to produce more green house gases to warm the Earth to prevent the next Ice Age....right?

[Dallas59]

I'm buting a V12 pickup....

[Dallas59]

I'm buying a V12 pickup....