Climate chaos is coming. The Little Ice Age is coming. Interesting facts about the ice age The onset of a new ice age

Predictions about how our climate will change often contradict each other. What awaits us: global warming or a new ice age? Researchers from suggest that both, only at different scales and at different times.

"The modern climate and natural environment were finally formed in the Quaternary period - a stage in the geological history of the Earth, which began 2.58 million years ago and continues to this day. This period is characterized by the alternation of glacial and interglacial epochs. Powerful glaciations occurred at certain stages of it. Now we we live in a warm interglacial epoch, which is called the Holocene, "says Vladimir Zykin, head of the laboratory of Cenozoic geology, paleoclimatology and mineralogical indicators of climate, IGM SB RAS, doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, NSU professor.

When the first more or less reliable data on the climate of the Quaternary period appeared, it was believed that interglacial epochs lasted only ten thousand years. The Holocene epoch in which we live began about ten thousand years ago, so many researchers at the end of the last century began to talk about the approach of global glaciation.

However, their conclusions were hasty. The fact is that the alternation of major glacial and interglacial epochs is explained by the orbital theory developed by the Serbian researcher Milutin Milanković in the 1920s. According to her, these processes are associated with a change in the Earth's orbit when moving around the Sun. The scientist calculated the changes in orbital elements and made an approximate "glaciation schedule" in the Quaternary period. The followers of Milankovitch calculated that the duration of the Holocene should be about 40 thousand years. That is, for another 30 thousand years, humanity can sleep peacefully.

However, the authors of the work are not sure that only people are to blame for these changes. The fact is that significant changes in the amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere were also observed in those eras when not only anthropogenic impact, but also people did not exist on Earth. Moreover, according to comparative graphs, the increase in temperature is 800 years ahead of the increase in carbon dioxide concentration.

The increase in CO 2 is apparently associated with an increase in water temperature in the World Ocean, which leads to the release of carbon dioxide from water and methane from bottom sediments. That is, apparently, we are talking about natural causes. Therefore, experts urge to study this direction more carefully and not to "simplify" the approach to understanding the ongoing global changes, blaming only people for them.

"Humanity's attitude to the problems of climate change is well reflected in the painting by Pieter Brueghel the elder "The Blind", in which six blind people walk along a cliff," Professor Zykin concludes.

Prior to this, scientists for decades predicted the imminent onset of global warming on Earth, due to industrial human activity, and assured that "there would be no winter." Today, the situation seems to have changed dramatically. Some scientists believe that a new ice age is beginning on Earth.

This sensational theory belongs to an oceanologist from Japan - Mototake Nakamura. According to him, starting from 2015, the Earth will begin to cool. His point of view is also supported by a Russian scientist, Khababullo Abdusammatov from the Pulkovo Observatory. Recall that the last decade was the warmest for the entire period of meteorological observations, i.e. since 1850.

Scientists believe that already in 2015 there will be a decrease in solar activity, which will lead to climate change and its cooling. The temperature of the ocean will decrease, the amount of ice will increase, and the overall temperature will drop significantly.

Cooling will reach its maximum in 2055. From this moment, a new ice age will begin, which will last 2 centuries. Scientists have not specified how severe the icing will be.

There is a positive point in all this, it seems that polar bears are no longer threatened with extinction)

Let's try to figure it all out.

1 Ice Ages can last hundreds of millions of years. The climate at this time is colder, continental glaciers are formed.

For example:

Paleozoic Ice Age - 460-230 Ma
Cenozoic Ice Age - 65 million years ago - present.

It turns out that in the period between: 230 million years ago and 65 million years ago, it was much warmer than now, and we live in the Cenozoic Ice Age today. Well, we figured out the eras.

2 The temperature during the ice age is not uniform, but also changes. Ice ages can be distinguished within an ice age.

ice Age(from Wikipedia) - a periodically repeating stage in the geological history of the Earth lasting several million years, during which, against the background of a general relative cooling of the climate, repeated sharp growths of continental ice sheets - ice ages occur. These epochs, in turn, alternate with relative warmings - epochs of glaciation reduction (interglacials).

Those. we get a nesting doll, and inside the cold ice age, there are even colder segments, when the glacier covers the continents from above - ice ages.

We live in the Quaternary Ice Age. But thank God during the interglacial.

The last ice age (Vistula glaciation) began ca. 110 thousand years ago and ended around 9700-9600 BC. e. And this is not so long ago! 26-20 thousand years ago, the volume of ice was at its maximum. Therefore, in principle, there will definitely be another glaciation, the only question is when exactly.

Map of the Earth 18 thousand years ago. As you can see, the glacier covered Scandinavia, Great Britain and Canada. Note also the fact that the level of the ocean has dropped and many parts of the earth's surface have risen out of the water, now under water.

The same card, only for Russia.

Perhaps the scientists are right, and we will be able to observe with our own eyes how new lands protrude from under the water, and the glacier takes the northern territories for itself.

Come to think of it, the weather has been pretty stormy lately. Snow fell in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Israel for the first time in 120 years. There was even snow in tropical Vietnam. In the USA for the first time in 100 years, and the temperature dropped to a record -50 degrees Celsius. And all this against the backdrop of positive temperatures in Moscow.

The main thing is to prepare well for the ice age. Buy a site in the southern latitudes, away from big cities (there are always full of hungry people during natural disasters). Make an underground bunker there with food supplies for years, buy weapons for self-defense and prepare for life in the style of Survival horror))

Governments and public organizations are actively discussing the coming "global warming" and measures to combat it. However, there is a well-founded opinion that in reality we are not waiting for warming, but cooling. And in this case, the fight against industrial emissions, which are believed to contribute to warming, is not only pointless, but also harmful.

It has long been proven that our planet is in the "high risk" zone. A relatively comfortable existence is provided to us by the "greenhouse effect", that is, the ability of the atmosphere to retain the heat coming from the Sun. And yet, global ice ages occur periodically, which differ in that there is a general cooling and a sharp increase in continental ice sheets in Antarctica, Eurasia and North America.

The duration of the cooling is such that scientists talk about entire ice ages that lasted hundreds of millions of years. The last, fourth in a row, Cenozoic, began 65 million years ago and continues to this day. Yes, yes, we live in an ice age, which is unlikely to end in the near future. Why do we think that warming is happening?

The fact is that within the ice age there are cyclically repeating periods of time lasting tens of millions of years, which are called ice ages. They, in turn, are subdivided into glacial epochs, consisting of glaciations (glacials) and interglacials (interglacials).

All modern civilization arose and developed in the Holocene - a relatively warm period after the Pleistocene ice age, which reigned only 10 thousand years ago. A slight warming led to the liberation of Europe and North America from the glacier, which allowed the emergence of an agricultural culture and the first cities, which gave impetus to rapid progress.

For a long time, paleoclimatologists could not understand what caused the current warming. It was found that climate change is influenced by a number of factors: changes in solar activity, oscillations of the earth's axis, composition of the atmosphere (primarily carbon dioxide), the degree of salinity of the ocean, the direction of ocean currents and wind roses. Painstaking research has made it possible to isolate the factors that influenced modern warming.

About 20,000 years ago, the glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere moved so far to the south that even a slight increase in the average annual temperature was enough to start melting them. Fresh water filled the North Atlantic, slowing down local circulation and thereby accelerating warming in the Southern Hemisphere.

The change in the direction of winds and currents led to the fact that the water of the Southern Ocean rose from the depths, and carbon dioxide, which had remained "locked" there for thousands of years, was released into the atmosphere. The mechanism of the "greenhouse effect" was launched, which 15 thousand years ago provoked warming in the Northern Hemisphere.

Approximately 12.9 thousand years ago, a small asteroid fell in the central part of Mexico (now at the site of its fall is Lake Cuitzeo). Ashes from fires and dust thrown into the upper atmosphere caused a new local cooling, which also contributed to the release of carbon dioxide from the depths of the Southern Ocean.

The cooling lasted for about 1,300 years, but in the end only increased the "greenhouse effect" due to the rapid change in the composition of the atmosphere. The climate "swing" once again changed the situation, and warming began to develop at an accelerating pace, the northern glaciers melted, freeing Europe.

Today, carbon dioxide coming from the depths of the southern part of the World Ocean is successfully replaced by industrial emissions, and warming continues: during the 20th century, the average annual temperature increased by 0.7 ° - a very significant value. It would seem that overheating, rather than sudden cold weather, should be feared. But not everything is so simple.

It seems that the last onset of cold weather was a very long time ago, but humanity remembers well the events related to the "Little Ice Age". So in the special literature they call the strongest European cooling, which lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

View of Antwerp with the frozen river Scheldt / Lucas van Valckenborch, 1590

Paleoclimatologist Le Roy Ladurie analyzed the collected data on the expansion of glaciers in the Alps and the Carpathians. He points to the following fact: the mines developed in the middle of the 15th century in the High Tatras were covered with ice 20 meters thick in 1570, and in the 18th century the thickness of the ice was already 100 meters there. At the same time, the onset of glaciers began in the French Alps. In written sources, endless complaints appeared from the inhabitants of mountain villages that glaciers were burying fields, pastures and houses under them.

Frozen Thames / Abraham Hondius, 1677

As a result, the paleoclimatologist states, “Scandinavian glaciers, synchronously with Alpine glaciers and glaciers from other regions of the world, have been experiencing the first, well-defined historical maximum since 1695,” and “in subsequent years they will begin to advance again.” One of the most terrible winters of the "Little Ice Age" fell on January-February 1709. Here is a quote from a written source of that time:

From an extraordinary cold, such as neither grandfathers nor great-grandfathers remembered<...>the inhabitants of Russia and Western Europe perished. Birds flying through the air froze. In general, in Europe, many thousands of people, animals and trees died.

In the vicinity of Venice, the Adriatic Sea was covered with stagnant ice. The coastal waters of England were covered with ice. Frozen Seine, Thames. Just as great were the frosts in the eastern part of North America.

In the 19th century, the "Little Ice Age" was replaced by warming, and severe winters were a thing of the past for Europe. But what caused them? And won't this happen again?

Frozen lagoon in 1708, Venice / Gabriel Bella

The potential threat of the onset of another ice age was discussed six years ago, when unprecedented frosts hit Europe. The largest European cities were covered with snow. The Danube, the Seine, the canals of Venice and the Netherlands froze. Due to icing and breakage of high-voltage wires, entire areas were de-energized, classes in schools were stopped in some countries, and hundreds of people froze to death.

All these horrifying events had nothing to do with the concept of "global warming" that had been vehemently debated for a decade before. And then scientists had to reconsider their views. They drew attention to the fact that the Sun is currently experiencing a decline in its activity. Perhaps it was this factor that became decisive, exerting a much greater influence on the climate than “global warming” due to industrial emissions.

It is known that the activity of the Sun changes cyclically over 10-11 years. The last 23rd cycle (since the beginning of observations) was indeed distinguished by high activity. This allowed astronomers to say that the 24th cycle will be unprecedented in intensity, especially since this happened earlier, in the middle of the 20th century. However, in this case, the astronomers were wrong. The next cycle was supposed to start in February 2007, but instead there was an extended period of solar "minimum" and the new cycle started late in November 2008.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov, head of the space research laboratory at the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, claims that our planet passed the peak of warming in the period from 1998 to 2005. Now, according to the scientist, the activity of the Sun is slowly declining and will reach its minimum in 2041, due to which a new "Little Ice Age" will come. The scientist expects the peak of cooling in the 2050s. And it can lead to the same consequences as the cooling in the 16th century.

However, there is still reason for optimism. Paleoclimatologists have established that periods of warming between ice ages are 30-40 thousand years. Ours lasts only 10 thousand years. Humanity has a huge supply of time. If in such a short period of time, by historical standards, people have managed to rise from primitive agriculture to space flight, then one can hope that they will find a way to cope with the threat. For example, learn to control the climate.

Used materials from the article by Anton Pervushin,

Russian scientists promise that in 2014 the world will begin an ice age. Vladimir Bashkin, head of the Gazprom VNIIGAZ laboratory, and Rauf Galiullin, researcher at the Institute for Fundamental Problems of Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, argue that there will be no global warming. According to scientists, warm winters are the result of cyclical activity of the sun and cyclical climate change. This warming has continued from the 18th century to the present, and next year the Earth will begin to cool again.

The Little Ice Age will begin gradually and last at least two centuries. The decrease in temperature will reach its peak by the middle of the 21st century.

At the same time, scientists say that the anthropogenic factor - human impact on the environment - does not play such a big role in climate change as is commonly thought. Business in marketing, Bashkin and Galiullin consider, and the promise of cold weather every year is only a way to inflate the price of fuel.

Pandora's Box - The Little Ice Age in the 21st century.

In the next 20-50 years, we are threatened by the Little Ice Age, because it has already happened before and must come again. Researchers believe that the onset of the Little Ice Age was associated with a slowdown in the Gulf Stream around 1300. In the 1310s, Western Europe, judging by the chronicles, experienced a real ecological catastrophe. According to the French Chronicle of Matthew of Paris, the traditionally warm summer of 1311 was followed by four gloomy and rainy summers of 1312-1315. Heavy rains and unusually harsh winters have killed several crops and frozen orchards in England, Scotland, northern France and Germany. Viticulture and wine production ceased in Scotland and northern Germany. Winter frosts began to hit even northern Italy. F. Petrarch and J. Boccaccio recorded that in the XIV century. snow often fell in Italy. A direct consequence of the first phase of the MLP was the massive famine in the first half of the 14th century. Indirectly - the crisis of the feudal economy, the resumption of corvee and major peasant uprisings in Western Europe. In the Russian lands, the first phase of the MLP made itself felt in the form of a series of “rainy years” of the 14th century.

From about the 1370s, temperatures in Western Europe began to slowly rise, mass famine and crop failures ceased. However, cold, rainy summers were a frequent occurrence throughout the 15th century. In winter, snowfalls and frosts were often observed in southern Europe. Relative warming began only in the 1440s, and it immediately led to the rise of agriculture. However, the temperatures of the previous climatic optimum have not been restored. For Western and Central Europe, snowy winters became commonplace, and the period of "golden autumn" began in September.

What is it that affects the climate? Turns out it's the sun! Back in the 18th century, when sufficiently powerful telescopes appeared, astronomers noticed that the number of sunspots on the Sun increased and decreased with a certain periodicity. This phenomenon is called cycles of solar activity. They also found out their average duration - 11 years (the Schwabe-Wolf cycle). Later, longer cycles were also discovered: a 22-year (Hale cycle) associated with a change in the polarity of the solar magnetic field, a "secular" Gleissberg cycle lasting about 80-90 years, and a 200-year (Süss cycle). It is believed that there is even a cycle of 2400 years.

"The fact is that longer cycles, for example, secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the emergence of grandiose minima," said Yury Nagovitsyn. There are several known to modern science: the Wolf minimum (early 14th century), the Sperer minimum (second half of the 15th century) and the Maunder minimum (second half of the 17th century).

Scientists have suggested that the end of the 23rd cycle, in all likelihood, coincides with the end of the secular cycle of solar activity, the maximum of which was in 1957. This, in particular, is evidenced by the curve of relative Wolf numbers, which has approached its minimum mark in recent years. Indirect evidence of the superposition is the delay of the 11-year-old. Comparing the facts, scientists realized that, apparently, a combination of factors indicates an approaching grandiose minimum. Therefore, if in the 23rd cycle the activity of the Sun was about 120 relative Wolf numbers, then in the next it should be about 90-100 units, astrophysicists suggest. Further activity will decrease even more.

The fact is that longer cycles, for example, secular ones, modulating the amplitude of the 11-year cycle, lead to the appearance of grandiose minima, the last of which occurred in the 14th century. What are the consequences for the Earth? It turns out that it was during the grandiose maxima and minima of solar activity on Earth that large temperature anomalies were observed.

The climate is a very complicated thing, it is very difficult to trace all its changes, all the more so on a global scale, but as scientists suggest, the greenhouse gases that bring the vital activity of mankind slowed down the arrival of the Little Ice Age a little, besides, the world ocean, having accumulated part of the heat over the past decades, is also delaying the process the beginning of the Little Ice Age, giving off a little bit of its heat. As it turned out later, vegetation on our planet absorbs excess carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) well. The main influence on the climate of our planet is still exerted by the Sun, and we cannot do anything about it.

Of course, nothing catastrophic will happen, but in this case, part of the northern regions of Russia may become completely unsuitable for life, oil production in the north of the Russian Federation may cease altogether.

In my opinion, the beginning of a decrease in global temperature can already be expected in 2014-2015. In 2035-2045, the solar luminosity will reach a minimum, and after that, with a delay of 15-20 years, the next climate minimum will come - a deep cooling of the Earth's climate.

News about the end of the world » The Earth is threatened by a new ice age.

Scientists predict a decline in solar activity that may occur over the next 10 years. The consequence of this may be a repetition of the so-called "Little Ice Age", which happened in the XVII century, writes Times.

According to scientists, the frequency of sunspots in the coming years may decrease significantly.

The cycle of formation of new sunspots that affect the temperature of the Earth is 11 years. However, employees of the American National Observatory suggest that the next cycle may be very late or not happen at all. According to the most optimistic forecasts, they argue, a new cycle could begin in 2020-21.

Scientists are speculating whether the change in solar activity will lead to a second "Maunder Low" - a period of sharp decline in solar activity that lasted 70 years, from 1645 to 1715. During this time, also known as the "Little Ice Age", the river Thames was covered with almost 30 meters of ice, on which horse-drawn cabs successfully traveled from Whitehall to London Bridge.

According to researchers, the decline in solar activity can lead to the fact that the average temperature on the planet will drop by 0.5 degrees. However, most scientists believe that it is too early to sound the alarm. During the "Little Ice Age" in the XVII century, the air temperature dropped significantly only in the north-west of Europe, and even then only by 4 degrees. On the rest of the planet, the temperature dropped by only half a degree.

The Second Coming of the Little Ice Age

In historical time, Europe has already once experienced a prolonged anomalous cooling.

Abnormally severe frosts that reigned in Europe at the end of January almost led to a full-scale collapse in many Western countries. Due to heavy snowfalls, many highways were blocked, power supply was interrupted, and aircraft reception at airports was canceled. Due to frost (in the Czech Republic, for example, reaching -39 degrees), classes in schools, exhibitions and sports matches are canceled. In the first 10 days of extreme frosts in Europe alone, more than 600 people died from them.

For the first time in many years, the Danube froze from the Black Sea to Vienna (the ice there reaches 15 cm thick), blocking hundreds of ships. To prevent the freezing of the Seine in Paris, an icebreaker that had long been idle was launched into the water. Ice has blocked the canals of Venice and the Netherlands; in Amsterdam, skaters and cyclists ride on its frozen waterways.

The situation for modern Europe is extraordinary. However, looking at famous works of European art of the 16th-18th centuries or in records of the weather of those years, we learn that the freezing of canals in the Netherlands, the Venetian lagoon or the Seine was a rather frequent phenomenon for that time. The end of the 18th century was especially extreme.

Thus, the year 1788 was remembered by Russia and Ukraine as the "great winter", accompanied throughout their European part by "extraordinary cold, storms and snow". In Western Europe in December of the same year, a record temperature of -37 degrees was recorded. Birds froze on the fly. The Venetian lagoon froze over, and the townspeople skated along its entire length. In 1795, the ice bound the shores of the Netherlands with such force that an entire military squadron was captured in it, which was then surrounded by ice from land by a French cavalry squadron. In Paris that year, frosts reached -23 degrees.

Paleoclimatologists (historians who study climate change) call the period from the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 19th century the “Little Ice Age” (A.S. Monin, Yu.A. epoch" (E. Le Roy Ladurie "History of climate since 1000". L., 1971). They note that during that period there were not individual cold winters, but in general a decrease in temperature on Earth.

Le Roy Ladurie analyzed data on the expansion of glaciers in the Alps and the Carpathians. He points to the following fact: the gold mines developed in the middle of the 15th century in the High Tatras in 1570 were covered with ice 20 m thick, in the 18th century the thickness of the ice there was already 100 m. By 1875, despite the widespread retreat throughout the 19th century and the melting of glaciers, the thickness of the glacier over the medieval mines in the High Tatras was still 40 m. At the same time, as the French paleoclimatologist notes, the onset of glaciers began in the French Alps. In the commune of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, in the mountains of Savoy, "the advance of the glaciers definitely began in 1570-1580."

Le Roy Ladurie gives similar examples with exact dates in other places in the Alps. In Switzerland, evidence of the expansion of a glacier in the Swiss Grindelwald dates back to 1588, and in 1589 a glacier descended from the mountains blocked the valley of the Saas River. In the Pennine Alps (in Italy near the border with Switzerland and France) in 1594–1595, a noticeable expansion of glaciers was also noted. “In the Eastern Alps (Tyrol, etc.), glaciers advance in the same way and simultaneously. The first information about this dates back to 1595, writes Le Roy Ladurie. And he adds: “In 1599-1600, the glacier development curve reached its peak for the entire region of the Alps.” Since that time, in written sources, there have been endless complaints from the inhabitants of mountain villages that glaciers are burying their pastures, fields and houses under them, thus erasing entire settlements from the face of the earth. In the XVII century, the expansion of glaciers continues.

This is consistent with the expansion of glaciers in Iceland, starting from the end of the 16th century and throughout the 17th century advancing on settlements. As a result, Le Roy Ladurie states, “Scandinavian glaciers, synchronously with Alpine glaciers and glaciers from other regions of the world, have experienced the first, well-defined historical maximum since 1695,” and “in subsequent years they will begin to advance again.” This continued until the middle of the 18th century.

The thickness of the glaciers of those centuries can indeed be called historical. On the graph of changes in the thickness of glaciers in Iceland and Norway over the past 10 thousand years, published in the book by Andrey Monin and Yuri Shishkov "The History of Climate", it is clearly seen how the thickness of glaciers, which began to grow around 1600, by 1750 reached the level at which the glaciers kept in Europe during the period of 8-5 thousand years BC.

Is it any wonder that since the 1560s, contemporaries have recorded in Europe over and over again extraordinary cold winters, which were accompanied by the freezing of large rivers and reservoirs? These cases are indicated, for example, in the book by Yevgeny Borisenkov and Vasily Pasetsky “A Millennial Chronicle of Unusual Natural Phenomena” (M., 1988). In December 1564, the powerful Scheldt in the Netherlands completely froze over and stood under the ice until the end of the first week of January 1565. The same cold winter was repeated in 1594/95, when the Scheldt and the Rhine froze over. The seas and straits froze: in 1580 and 1658 - the Baltic Sea, in 1620/21 - the Black Sea and the Bosporus Strait, in 1659 - the Great Belt Strait between the Baltic and North Seas (the minimum width of which is 3.7 km).

The end of the 17th century, when, according to Le Roy Ladurie, the thickness of glaciers in Europe reaches a historical maximum, was marked by crop failures due to prolonged severe frosts. As noted in the book by Borisenkov and Pasetsky: “The years 1692-1699 were marked in Western Europe by continuous crop failures and hunger strikes.”

One of the worst winters of the Little Ice Age occurred in January-February 1709. Reading the description of those historical events, you involuntarily try them on modern ones: “From an extraordinary cold, such as neither grandfathers nor great-grandfathers remembered ... the inhabitants of Russia and Western Europe died. Birds flying through the air froze. In general, in Europe, many thousands of people, animals and trees died. In the vicinity of Venice, the Adriatic Sea was covered with stagnant ice. The coastal waters of England were covered with ice. Frozen Seine, Thames. The ice on the Meuse River reached 1.5 m. The frosts were just as great in the eastern part of North America. The winters of 1739/40, 1787/88 and 1788/89 were no less severe.

In the 19th century, the Little Ice Age gave way to warming and harsh winters are a thing of the past. Is he coming back now?

last ice age

During this era, 35% of the land was under the ice cover (compared to 10% at present).

The last ice age was not just a natural disaster. It is impossible to understand the life of planet Earth without considering these periods. In the intervals between them (known as interglacial periods), life flourished, but then once again the ice inexorably approached and brought death, but life did not completely disappear. Each ice age was marked by the struggle for the survival of different species, global climate changes occurred, and in the last of them a new species appeared, which became (over time) dominant on Earth: it was man.
ice ages
Ice ages are geological periods characterized by a strong cooling of the Earth, during which vast expanses of the earth's surface were covered with ice, a high level of humidity was observed and, of course, exceptional cold, as well as the lowest sea level known to modern science. There is no generally accepted theory regarding the causes of the onset of the ice age, however, since the 17th century, various explanations have been proposed. According to current opinion, this phenomenon was not caused by one cause, but was the result of the influence of three factors.

Changes in the composition of the atmosphere - a different ratio of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) and methane - caused a sharp drop in temperature. This is similar to what we now call global warming, but on a much larger scale.

The movements of the continents, caused by cyclic changes in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and in addition, a change in the angle of inclination of the planet's axis relative to the Sun, also had an impact.

The earth received less solar heat, it cooled, which led to glaciation.
The earth has experienced several ice ages. The largest glaciation occurred 950-600 million years ago in the Precambrian era. Then in the Miocene epoch - 15 million years ago.

The traces of glaciation that can be observed at the present time represent the legacy of the last two million years and belong to the Quaternary period. This period is best studied by scientists and is divided into four periods: Günz, Mindel (Mindel), Ries (Rise) and Würm. The latter corresponds to the last ice age.

last ice age
The Wurm stage of glaciation began approximately 100,000 years ago, reached its maximum after 18 thousand years, and began to decline after 8 thousand years. During this time, the thickness of the ice reached 350-400 km and covered a third of the land above sea level, in other words, three times more space than now. Based on the amount of ice that currently covers the planet, one can get some idea of ​​the area of ​​glaciation during that period: today glaciers occupy 14.8 million km2, or about 10% of the earth's surface, and during the ice age they covered an area of ​​44 .4 million km2, which is 30% of the Earth's surface.

Northern Canada was estimated to have covered 13.3 million km2 of ice, while 147.25 km2 is now under ice. The same difference is observed in Scandinavia: 6.7 million km2 in that period compared to 3910 km2 today.

The ice age began simultaneously in both hemispheres, although in the North the ice spread to more extensive areas. In Europe, the glacier captured most of the British Isles, northern Germany and Poland, and in North America, where the Wurm glaciation is called the "Wisconsin glacial stage", a layer of ice that descended from the North Pole covered all of Canada and spread south of the Great Lakes. Like the lakes in Patagonia and the Alps, they were formed on the site of recesses left after the melting of the ice mass.

The sea level dropped by almost 120 m, as a result of which large expanses that are currently covered with sea water were exposed. The significance of this fact is enormous, since large-scale human and animal migrations became possible: hominids were able to make the transition from Siberia to Alaska and move from continental Europe to England. It is possible that during the interglacial periods, the two largest ice massifs on Earth - Antarctica and Greenland - have undergone little change over the course of history.

At the peak of glaciation, the indicators of the average temperature drop varied significantly depending on the locality: 100 ° C - in Alaska, 60 ° C - in England, 20 ° C - in the tropics and remained practically unchanged at the equator. Conducted studies of the last glaciations in North America and Europe, which occurred during the Pleistocene epoch, gave the same results in this geological region within the last two (approximately) million years.

The last 100,000 years are of particular importance for understanding the evolution of mankind. Ice ages have become a severe test for the inhabitants of the Earth. After the end of the next glaciation, they again had to adapt, learn to survive. When the climate became warmer, the sea level rose, new forests and plants appeared, the land rose, freed from the pressure of the ice shell.

The hominids turned out to have the most natural data to adapt to the changed conditions. They were able to move to areas with the most food resources, where the slow process of their evolution began.
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1.8 million years ago began the Quaternary (anthropogenic) period of the geological history of the earth, which continues to this day.

River basins expanded. There was a rapid development of the fauna of mammals, especially mastodons (which would later become extinct, like many other ancient animal species), ungulates and higher monkeys. In this geological period of the history of the earth, a person appears (hence the word anthropogenic in the name of this geological period).

The Quaternary period is marked by a sharp change in climate throughout the European part of Russia. From a warm and humid Mediterranean, it turned into a temperate cold, and then into a cold Arctic one. This led to glaciation. Ice accumulated on the Scandinavian Peninsula, in Finland, on the Kola Peninsula and spread to the south.

The Oksky glacier, with its southern edge, also covered the territory of the modern Kashirsky region, including our region. The first glaciation was the coldest; woody vegetation in the Oka region disappeared almost completely. The glacier did not last long. The first Quaternary glaciation reached the Oka valley, which is why it received the name “Oksky glaciation”. The glacier left moraine deposits dominated by boulders of local sedimentary rocks.

But such favorable conditions were again replaced by a glacier. The glaciation was on a planetary scale. The grandiose Dnieper glaciation began. The thickness of the Scandinavian ice sheet reached 4 kilometers. The glacier moved across the Baltic to Western Europe and the European part of Russia. The boundaries of the languages ​​of the Dnieper glaciation passed in the area of ​​modern Dnepropetrovsk and almost reached Volgograd.

mammoth fauna

The climate warmed up again and became Mediterranean. In place of the glaciers, heat-loving and moisture-loving vegetation spread: oak, beech, hornbeam and yew, as well as linden, alder, birch, spruce and pine, hazel. In the marshes grew ferns, characteristic of modern South America. The restructuring of the river system and the formation of Quaternary terraces in the river valleys began. This period was called the interglacial Oxo-Dnieper age.

The Oka served as a kind of barrier to the advancement of ice fields. According to scientists, the right bank of the Oka, i.e. our region has not turned into a continuous icy desert. Here were fields of ice, interspersed with intervals of melted hills, between which rivers flowed from melt water and lakes accumulated.

Ice flows of the Dnieper glaciation brought glacial boulders from Finland and Karelia to our region.

The valleys of the old rivers were filled with mid-moraine and fluvioglacial deposits. It warmed up again, and the glacier began to melt. Streams of melt water rushed south along the channels of new rivers. During this period, the third terraces are formed in the river valleys. Large lakes formed in the depressions. The climate was moderately cold.

In our region, forest-steppe vegetation dominated with a predominance of coniferous and birch forests and large areas of steppes covered with wormwood, quinoa, grasses and herbs.

The interstadial epoch was short. The glacier returned to the Moscow region again, but did not reach the Oka, stopping not far from the southern outskirts of modern Moscow. Therefore, this third glaciation was called Moscow. Some tongues of the glacier reached the Oka valley, but they did not reach the territory of the modern Kashirsky region. The climate was severe, and the landscape of our region becomes close to the steppe tundra. Forests are almost disappearing and their place is taken by steppes.

A new warming has come. The rivers deepened their valleys again. The second terraces of the rivers were formed, the hydrography of the Moscow region changed. It was during that period that the modern valley and basin of the Volga, which flows into the Caspian Sea, was formed. The Oka, and with it our river B. Smedva and its tributaries, entered the Volga river basin.

This interglacial period went through stages from continental temperate (close to modern) to warm, with a Mediterranean climate. In our region, birch, pine and spruce dominated at first, and then heat-loving oaks, beeches and hornbeams turned green again. In the swamps, the water lily grew, which today you will find only in Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. At the end of the interglacial period, birch-coniferous forests again dominated.

This idyll was spoiled by the Valdai glaciation. Ice from the Scandinavian Peninsula again rushed to the south. This time the glacier did not reach the Moscow region, but changed our climate to subarctic. For many hundreds of kilometers, including the territory of the present Kashirsky district and the rural settlement of Znamenskoye, the steppe-tundra stretches, with dried grass and rare shrubs, dwarf birches and polar willows. These conditions were ideal for the mammoth fauna and for primitive man, who then already lived on the borders of the glacier.

During the last Valdai glaciation, the first river terraces formed. The hydrography of our region has finally taken shape.

Traces of glacial epochs are often found in the Kashirsky region, but they are difficult to identify. Of course, large stone boulders are traces of the glacial activity of the Dnieper glaciation. They were brought by ice from Scandinavia, Finland and from the Kola Peninsula. The most ancient traces of the glacier are moraine or boulder loam, which is a random mixture of clay, sand, brown stones.

The third group of glacial rocks are sands resulting from the destruction of moraine layers by water. These are sands with large pebbles and stones, and the sands are homogeneous. They can be observed on the Oka. These include the Belopesotsky sands. Often found in the valleys of rivers, streams, in ravines, layers of flint and limestone gravel are traces of the bed of ancient rivers and streams.

With new warming, the geological epoch of the Holocene began (it began 11,400 years ago), which continues to this day. The modern river floodplains were finally formed. The mammoth fauna died out, and forests appeared in place of the tundra (at first, spruce, then birch, and later mixed). The flora and fauna of our region has acquired the features of modern - the one that we see today. At the same time, the left and right banks of the Oka are still very different in their forest cover. If mixed forests and many open areas prevail on the right bank, then continuous coniferous forests dominate on the left bank - these are traces of glacial and interglacial climate changes. On our bank of the Oka, the glacier left fewer traces, and our climate was somewhat milder than on the left bank of the Oka.

Geological processes continue today. The earth's crust in the Moscow region over the past 5 thousand years has been rising only slightly, at a rate of 10 cm per century. The modern alluvium of the Oka and other rivers of our region is being formed. What this will lead to after millions of years, we can only guess, because, having briefly become acquainted with the geological history of our region, we can safely repeat the Russian proverb: "Man proposes, but God disposes." This saying is especially relevant, after we have seen in this chapter that human history is a grain of sand in the history of our planet.

ICE AGE

In the distant, distant times, where Leningrad, Moscow, Kyiv are now, everything was different. Dense forests grew along the banks of ancient rivers, and shaggy mammoths with bent tusks, huge furry rhinoceroses, tigers and bears much larger than today roamed there.

Gradually, these places became colder and colder. Far in the north, so much snow fell every year that entire mountains of it accumulated - larger than the present Urals. The snow caked up, turned into ice, then slowly began to spread, spreading in all directions.

Ice mountains have moved over the ancient forests. Cold, evil winds blew from these mountains, trees froze and animals fled from the cold to the south. And the icy mountains crawled further south, twisting the rocks along the way and moving whole hills of earth and stones in front of them. They crawled to the place where Moscow now stands, and crawled even further, to the warm southern countries. They reached the hot Volga steppe and stopped.

Here, finally, the sun overpowered them: the glaciers began to melt. Huge rivers flowed from them. And the ice receded, melted, and the masses of stones, sand and clay that the glaciers brought, remained lying in the southern steppes.

More than once, terrible ice mountains approached from the north. Have you seen the cobblestone pavement? Such small stones are brought by the glacier. And there are boulders the size of a house. They still lie in the north.

But the ice can move again. Just not soon. Maybe thousands of years will pass. And not only the sun will then fight the ice. If necessary, people will use NUCLEAR ENERGY and keep the glacier out of our land.

When did the ice age end?

Many of us believe that the Ice Age ended a very long time ago and no traces of it remain. But geologists say we are only approaching the end of the ice age. And the inhabitants of Greenland are still living in the Ice Age.

Approximately 25 thousand years ago, the peoples who inhabited the central part of NORTH AMERICA saw ice and snow all year round. A huge wall of ice stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, and north to the very pole. This was during the final stages of the Ice Age, when all of Canada, most of the United States, and northwestern Europe were covered in a layer of ice over one kilometer thick.

But this does not mean that it was always very cold. In the northern part of the United States, the temperature was only 5 degrees below present. The cold summer months caused the Ice Age. At this time, the heat was not enough to melt the ice and snow. It accumulated and eventually covered the entire northern part of these areas.

The Ice Age consisted of four stages. At the beginning of each of them, ice formed moving south, then melted and retreated to the North POLE. This happened, it is believed, four times. Cold periods are called "glaciation", warm - "interglacial" period.

The first stage in North America is believed to have started about two million years ago, the second about 1,250,000 years ago, the third about 500,000 years ago, and the last about 100,000 years ago.

The rate of ice melting at the last stage of the ice age in different regions was not the same. For example, in the area of ​​present-day Wisconsin in the United States, ice melt began about 40,000 years ago. The ice that covered the New England area in the US disappeared about 28,000 years ago. And the territory of the modern state of Minnesota was freed by ice only 15,000 years ago!

In Europe, Germany was free of ice 17,000 years ago, while Sweden only 13,000 years ago.

Why do glaciers still exist today?

The huge mass of ice that began the ice age in North America was called the "continental glacier": in the very center, its thickness reached 4.5 km. It is possible that this glacier formed and melted four times during the entire ice age.

The glacier that covered other parts of the world has not melted in some places! For example, the huge island of Greenland is still covered by continental ice, except for a narrow coastal strip. In its middle part, the glacier sometimes reaches a thickness of more than three kilometers. Antarctica is also covered by a vast continental glacier up to 4 kilometers thick in some places!

So the reason why there are glaciers in some parts of the world is that they have not melted since the Ice Age. But the bulk of the glaciers that are found now, formed recently. They are mainly located in mountain valleys.

They originate in wide, gently sloping, amphitheater-like valleys. Snow falls here from the slopes as a result of landslides and avalanches. Such snow does not melt in the summer, becoming deeper every year.

Gradually, pressure from above, some thawing, and repeated freezing remove air from the bottom of this snow mass, turning it into solid ice. The impact of the weight of the entire mass of ice and snow compresses the entire mass and causes it to move down the valley. Such a moving tongue of ice is a mountain glacier.

More than 1200 such glaciers are known in Europe in the Alps! They also exist in the Pyrenees, in the Carpathians, in the Caucasus, as well as in the mountains of southern Asia. There are tens of thousands of these glaciers in southern Alaska, some 50 to 100 km long!