An Introduction to Glaciation
Glaciation is the study of ice and its impact on the environment. Bodies of ice are called glaciers. Although it is too warm for glaciers to be found in Britain today, much of the scenery found around us is due to the work of ice in earlier times.
At various times in the Earths history the climate became cold. These periods of intense cold were named ice ages. The last ice age started about a million years ago and ended 10 000 years ago.
During the last ice age mountain glaciers formed on all continents, the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland were more extensive and thicker than today and vast glaciers spread across northern North America and Eurasia.
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As can be seen glaciers almost covered a third of the present land surface. |