Ice Ages and Interglacials Measurements, Interpretation, and Models
It is not so long ago (a mere 17,000 years – a blink in geologic time) that vast areas of the Northern Hemisphere were covered with ice sheets up to two miles thick, lowering the oceans by more than 120 m. By 11,000 years ago, most of the ice was gone. Ev
- PDF / 12,642,416 Bytes
- 362 Pages / 490.394 x 697.324 pts Page_size
- 62 Downloads / 178 Views
Ice Ages and Interglacials Measurements, Interpretation, and Models Third Edition
Ice Ages and Interglacials
Donald Rapp
Ice Ages and Interglacials Measurements, Interpretation, and Models Third Edition
123
Donald Rapp South Pasadena, CA, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-10465-8 ISBN 978-3-030-10466-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10466-5
(eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018965882 1st edition: © Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK 2009 2nd edition: © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 3rd edition: © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
The typical description of the past 800,000 years would be that the Earth has experienced about nine major periods of glaciation (“Ice Ages”) spaced at various intervals ranging from 0.9 my to 1.1 my (see Fig. 8.23). This presupposes that Ice Ages are unusual departures from normalcy. Actually, it appears as if the natural state of the Earth during this period was an Ice Age, but there were about nine interruptions of the glacial state, during which the Arctic climate was much warmer for time periods of the order of 10,000 years or so. Each Ice Age required many tens of thousands of years to develop to its maximum state of glaciation. During the last glacial maximum, some 20,000 years ago, Canada and the northern USA were blanketed by huge ice sheets, up to 4 km in thickness. In addition, there was a large ice sheet covering Scandinavia that reached down into Northern Europe. The Antarctic ice sheet was somewhat more extensive than today. Local glaciations existed in mountainous regions of North America, Europe, South America and Africa, driving the tree line down by up to 700–800 m. The tem
Data Loading...
