"John and Mary Gribbin tell the remarkable story of how we came to understand the phenomenon of Ice Ages, focusing on the key personalities obsessed with the search for answers. How frequently do Ice Ages occur? How do astronomical rhythms affect the Earth's climate? Have there always been two polar ice caps? Is it true that tiny changes in the heat balance of the Earth could plunge us back into full Ice Age conditions? With startling new material on how the last major Ice Epoch could have hastened human evolution, Ice Age explains why the Earth was once covered in ice - and how that made us human."--BOOK JACKET.
Nothing new from the Ice Age? Far from it! Barely ten years have passed since the first edition of this book was published, but in that time researchers around the world have developed new methods and published their findings in scientific journals. Consequently, ideas about the course of the Ice Age have changed dramatically. The sequence of the individual ice advances, the direction of ice movement and the direction of meltwater drainage are only partially known, but they can be reconstructed. This book offers in-depth information about the state of the investigations. Ice ages are the periods of the earth's history in which at least one polar region is glaciated or covered by sea ice. Thus, we are currently living in an Ice Age. The present Ice Age is also the period in which humans started to intervene in the shaping of the earth. The results are obvious. Aerial and satellite images can be used to trace the melting of glaciers, but also the decay of the Arctic permafrost, and the clearing of the Brazilian rainforest. This book is a translation of the original German 2nd edition Das Eiszeitalter by Juergen Ehlers, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and promotes technologies to support the authors.
"In an era of warming climate, the study of the ice age past is now more important than ever. This book examines the wonders of the Quaternary ice age - to show how ice age landscapes and ecosystems were repeatedly and rapidly transformed as plants, animals, and humans reorganized their worlds." --Publisher.
Scientists charged with producing a map of the earth during the last ice age ultimately confirmed the theory that the earth's irregular orbital motions account for the bizarre climatic changes which bring on ice ages. This book tells the story of those periods--what they were like, why they occurred, and when the next ice age is due.
This book provides a detailed review of terminations of ice ages, including a very attractive theory based on dust deposits on ice sheets. While other books on ice ages are mostly short, popular, and non-technical, the only book that attempts to deal with the broad issues of what we know about past ice ages and why they occur is the book by Muller and MacDonald (M&M), published by Praxis. However, despite its many good features, this book suffers from an inordinate emphasis on spectral analysis, a lack of coverage of new data, and a very confusing sequence of chapters. As a result, the data and theory are so intimately entwined that it is difficult to separate one from the other. This volume provides an independent and comprehensive summary of the latest data, theories and analysis. This third edition of what has become the premier reference and sourcebook on ice ages addresses recent topics, and includes new references, new data, and a totally new, greatly expanded treatment of terminations of ice ages.
Since The Little Ice Age was published in 1988, interest in climatic history has grown rapidly and research in the area has flourished. A vast amount of new data has become available from sources such as ice cores, speleothems and tree rings. The picture that we have of past climates and glacier oscillations has extended further into the past and has become more detailed. However, the knowledge of climate change on the decennial and centennial timescale, to which glacier history can contribute, is scarce and is in demand when attempting to predict future change, especially with regard to global warming. New chapters and material have been included throughout the book, which tend to confirm and elaborate on the conclusions of the first edition. The glacial evidence has been presented in the context of the oceanographic and icecap studies that have provided such exciting results. Little Ice Ages is structured in three parts: Part 1 details the evidence for glacier variations in the last thousand years in different parts of the world and the associated climatic fluctuations. Part 2 brings together the evidence for the timing of glacier variations in the course of the Holocene. Part 3 views the Holocene record in a longer time context, especially as it appears in ice cores, and goes on to consider the likely causes of climatic variability on a Little Ice Age timescale and some of its physical, biological and human consequences. It becomes apparent in Little Ice Ages that the glacier record provides a valuable indication of the nature of climatic fluctuations on the land areas of the globe. The record points to periods of cooling which were more numerous and less continuous than was believed to be the case twenty years ago. There appears to be no single explanation for the variability. Volcanism, solar variability and ocean currents have all played their parts and prediction continues to present many problems. Some authorities have thrown doubt on the existence of the Little Ice Age, but Little Ice Age makes the case for a climatic sequence that can usefully be called the Little Ice Age and which had predecessors occurring at intervals of several centuries throughout much of the last 10,000 years.
First published in 2004. Since The Little Ice Age was published in 1988, interest in climatic history has grown rapidly and research in the area has flourished. A vast amount of new data has become available from sources such as ice cores, speleothems and tree rings. The picture that we have of past climates and glacier oscillations has extended further into the past and has become more detailed. However, the knowledge of climate change on the decennial and centennial timescale, to which glacier history can contribute, is scarce and is in demand when attempting to predict future change, especially with regard to global warming. New chapters and material have been included throughout the book, which tend to confirm and elaborate on the conclusions of the first edition. The glacial evidence has been presented in the context of the oceanographic and icecap studies that have provided such exciting results. Little Ice Ages is structured in three parts: • Part 1 details the evidence for glacier variations in the last thousand years in different parts of the world and the associated climatic fluctuations. • Part 2 brings together the evidence for the timing of glacier variations in the course of the Holocene. • Part 3 views the Holocene record in a longer time context, especially as it appears in ice cores, and goes on to consider the likely causes of climatic variability on a Little Ice Age timescale and some of its physical, biologi□cal and human consequences. It becomes apparent in Little Ice Ages that the glacier record provides a valuable indication of the nature of climatic fluctuations on the land areas of the globe. The record points to periods of cooling which were more numerous and less continuous than was believed to be the case twenty years ago. There appears to be no single explanation for the variability. Volcanism, solar variability and ocean currents have all played their parts and prediction continues to present many problems. Some authorities have thrown doubt on the existence of the Little Ice Age, but Little Ice Ages makes the case for a climatic sequence that can usefully be called the Little Ice Age and which had predecessors occurring at intervals of several centuries throughout much of the last 10,000 years.
The author explores the causes of Earth's cyclical temperature changes and shows how those temperature shifts touch off a chain of events in the atmosphere, in the oceans and on land. Cold temperature was the trigger; and the resultant reduction in carbon dioxide, he argues, was the bullet that killed off so many species. The re-warming released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and fueled a resurgence. This book provides significant long term background information to put global warming into perspective. In addition, the author describes the human responses to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide after the last ice age and in the last 150 years. Near the end of the last ice age, atmospheric carbon dioxide was about half of what it is today. Due to the lack of carbon dioxide, most of the vegetation disappeared from the middle and high latitudes. Without plants to eat, many large animals became extinct; North America lost three-fourths of its large animals including the woolly mammoth, mastodon and saber tooth cat. Humans, too, had little to eat in these areas and their population declined dramatically. The book then explains how and why atmospheric carbon dioxide increased by about 50% after the last ice age ended, encouraging a population explosion among plants, animals and humans, all of which then migrated into many previously barren areas. More recently, the 28% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide in the last 150 years has caused a six-fold increase in the human population. Changes in the next 300 years will reverse some of the current trends. This book has value for anyone interested in the ice age extinction; glaciers; the glacial cycle; the atmosphere and oceans and the past and future of plants, animals and humans. It provides long-term information on atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming and cooling.
