Preview

Ice Age

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2056 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ice Age
Ice Ages and Climate Change Scientists believe that over the past 2.8 billion years, immense layers of ice have covered the Earth. The ice age proposes a puzzle composed of the works and findings of dozens of scientists through history, each providing a crucial piece to the puzzle. Scientists who worked on the development of this puzzle ranged from Geologists, Astronomers, Physicists, and early Biologists whom ultimately proved the complexity of this expanding subject. Progressing from a hypothesis based on myths to factual evidence, the subject of ice ages has provided immense insight to past and current global climate change.
The oldest hypothesis is known to provide a tentative explanation for a possible ice age, which began with the discovery of preserved large bones and tusks found in Denmark in 1577. The discovery of these bones and archeological artifacts lead to an explanation rooted from the great Cyclops of Greek mythology. The Swiss explained this phenomenon with the belief that there were giants living in the Northern Sea of Denmark and the Baltic in a time when it was “very cold”. Assuming that the giants were children of a huge giant who ruled Scandinavia, the Swiss came to the conclusion that the huge giant died and caused sea levels to rise. When the sea levels rose, it made his children drown which is why they are now non-existent (Lister and Bahn 48). This explanation was conserved in Icelandic legends and is the earliest recorded hypothesis for the existence of an ice age.
Ancient beliefs of a flood that killed off giant animals came to fruition again because of scientific research from the early 19th century. Baron Georges Cuvier, a comparative anatomist in the early eighteen hundreds, brought forth the idea of extinction by looking at mammoth fossils and comparing them to elephants now. He realized by comparing these fossils that the mammoth was similar to the elephant but in contrast had many features that helped it survive in an extremely



Cited: Baker, V. R. "Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism: Logical Roots and Current Relevance in Geology." Geological Society, London, Special Publications 143.1 (1998): 171-82. Print. "Discovery of the Ice Age." Discovery of the Ice Age. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. "Early Theories of Evolution:  Pre-Darwinian Theories." Early Theories of Evolution:  Pre-Darwinian Theories. Dennis O 'Neil, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. Huybers, Peter. "Combined Obliquity and Precession Pacing of Late Pleistocene Deglaciations." Nature (2011): 229-32. ProQuest. Web. 6 Mar. 2013. Imbrie, John, and Katherine Palmer Imbrie. Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery. Short Hills, NJ: Enslow, 1979. Print. Lister, Adrian, and Paul G. Bahn. Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 2007. Print. Rosenberg, Matt. "Milankovitch Cycles." About.com Geography. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. Rudwick, M. J. S., and Georges Cuvier. Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes: New Translations & Interpretations of the Primary Texts. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1997. Print. Taylor, Robert. "Worlds History, On Ice." The Boston Globe [Bergen County, N.J.] 09 Jan. 2000: Y04+. Print. Weaver, A. J. "OCEAN SCIENCE: Global Warming and the Next Ice Age." Science 304.5669 (2004): 400-02. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    1. Comes about at different times at different locations due to ice age ending unevenly…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    5) Using pages 23-24, identify 2-3 changes due to the end of the Last Ice Age between 16,000-10,000BCE.…

    • 496 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Apush Unit 1 Study Guide

    • 2654 Words
    • 11 Pages

    ii. Isolated by the melting of glaciers at the end of the Ice Age (10,000 B.C.)…

    • 2654 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inconvenient Truth

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages

    NOTE: This assignment requires viewing a DVD - "An Inconvenient Truth." You have four options. 1. Go to the CSUDH Library Instructional Media Center (LIB C121) and ask to view “An Inconvenient Truth”, which is posted on their web server. Note that the IMC is closed on weekends and certain Fridays. 2. Most public libraries will have the video for checkout. 3. You can also rent the DVD (check Wherehouse, Blockbuster, etc.). 4. Go the following website (foreign subtitles are a bit distracting) - http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/an-inconvenient-truth/…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Little Ice Age (LIA)

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of cooling where the world had all round colder temperatures than are experienced now in the 20th century, with Europe being, on average, 1.8℃ colder.…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ice Age Theory

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Scientists and geologists, throughout the years, discover many different ways that things like this could occur. Still to this day no one really knows the truth behind the ice age. Some people chose to believe the scientific theory as to how the glaciers were the cause of everything dealing with the ice age. They believe that the melting of the glaciers lasted for a very long time causing temperatures to increase and decrease. Other people chose to believe in the biblical theory. Some people believe that the flood from the book of Genesis was the reason that the ice age era even began. They also believe that the flood can be the explanation to the valleys, rocks,…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Glaciers are thought to be remnants from the last Ice Age, when ice covered nearly 32 percent of the land, and 30 percent of the oceans. However; over the last century most of Earth 's 160,000 glaciers have been slowly shrinking as the climate warms up from both natural causes and human activity. Although it may be a mute point among most humans’ glaciers are an essential for our existence on earth. Glacial melting over the past century can be traced to global warming. Global warming is the rise in average global temperature caused by the recent industrialization of the world which was made possible by fossil fuels which emit greenhouse gasses. These greenhouse gasses over time have burned holes in the ozone allowing more ultraviolent rays into the earth’s…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Since his ideas challenged scientists in geology, geophysics, zoogeography and paleontology, it demonstrates the reactions of different communities of scientists. The reactions by the leading authorities in the different disciplines was so strong and so negative that serious discussion of the concept stopped.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The little ice age gave us a glimpse as to how climate change can affect our society. This is especially important today as we stand on the brink of another environmental catastrophe. The acceleration of greenhouse gas output has irrevocably changed how mankind affects the environment. The lessons that we can learn from studying the little ice age may lead us to understanding what we can do stop this process.…

    • 1294 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 17th and 18th centuries, the predominant geological paradigm was Catastrophism. The catastrophists believed that the Earth’s geological features were the result of numerous sudden, brief, violent events. One such theorist was French paleontologist Georges Cuvier. His drive was to find an explanation for the extinction patterns he observed in fossil records. Cuvier suggested the catastrophe responsible for the more recent extinctions in Eurasia might have been caused by floods, although no references to Noah’s flood were made. This was because Cuvier avoided using religious or metaphysical reasoning in his scientific writings, for he was influenced by the intellectual state during the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    2.1.1 Global warming has begun thousands of years ago, according to globalwarmingarchieve.com/Histroy; in fact the first theory of global warming just came to us on the year 1824. Several scientists estimated that 15,000 and 30,000 years ago the Earth was covered by large sheets of ice and these years were believed to be “Ice Age”. The Earths’ temperature began to rise 7,000 years ago, the Ice Age came to and end.…

    • 4149 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Paleoclimatology is the study of prehistoric climates from evidence preserved in a wide range of geological settings. Paleoclimatologists study the evidence preserved in these geological settings, and search for the reasons behind climatic change throughout Earth’s history. By doing this, scientists may better predict future climate change and calculate the impact of humankind’s activities on the atmosphere and climate. Paleoclimatologists must piece together climatic history, but the further they look into the past, the more evidence has faded due to erosion and chemical processes. Scientists have been able to put together a detailed picture of the last 20, 000 years of climatic history, and a general picture of the past 150,000. Although the evidence is less complete further back in time, scientists have been able to identify major, often catastrophic climatic events throughout Earth’s 4.5 billion year history.…

    • 1758 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    It would be a huge irony if melting icebergs, until now a powerful symbol of the damage caused by global warming, reveal a process that may enable scientists to take steps that might drastically reduce, and potentially even halt, the threat of…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Paris, Cuvier was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at L'institut de France, where he was introduced to his peers by presenting a paper comparing the anatomy of modern and fossil elephants. He clearly separated African elephants, Asian elephants, and mastodons as distinct species. Then he presented a similar work on modern and extinct sloths. These two works were important in defining the concept of extinction. Indeed, it was the…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Climate Change

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It would be safe to assume that climate change is going to be around for a long time and have an enormous impact on the lives of many people. Humans have had a huge impact on the environment for many years and can be linked to one the main factors of global warming. Global warming is a topic that has received much attention in recent years; yet our climate change is not a recent problem. If the U.S. Continues to ignore climate change then the effect on the environment will affect humans. Despite what many might think, climate change is well known across hundreds of nations all over the world. My thesis is the Greenland ice cap is both shrinking and expanding, and climate change can be linked to both trends.…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics