To: Mike Darancette
we are, by definition, still in an ice age and have been for over 1,000,000 years. Whose definition?
17 posted on
06/18/2005 8:38:52 AM PDT by
kabar
To: kabar
Wikipedia:
An ice age is a period of long-term downturn in the temperature of Earth's climate, resulting in an expansion of the continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers ("glaciation"). Glaciologically, ice age is often used to mean a period of ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres; by this definition we are still in an ice age (because the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets still exist). More colloquially, when speaking of the last few million years, ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and European continents: in this sense, the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. This article will use the term ice age in the former, glaciological, sense; and use the term 'glacial periods' for colder periods during ice ages and 'interglacial' for the warmer periods.
During the last few million years there have been many glacial periods, occurring at 40100,000 year frequencies. These are the best studied. There have been four major ice ages in the further past.
To: kabar
Geological definition. We are in an interglacial period and should expect up and down behavior.
21 posted on
06/18/2005 9:07:23 AM PDT by
doodad
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