The Gulf Stream has already caused the "Little Ice Age" once, this happened in 1300 in the European part of the globe. The reason was the greenhouse effect that slowed down the warm current of the Gulf Stream. Now scientists are threatening a new ice age, but is it worth fearing? After all, fossil finds claim that the Little Ice Ages have repeatedly attacked Europe of our era.
In 2010, the Gulf Stream again attracted the attention of scientists. It was noticed that the warm current strongly deviated from the course, and threatens the world with global warming, and then a new ice age.
Physicist Zangari argued that the slowdown was caused by an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil knocked down the boundary between the layer of cold and warm water, in this regard, the flow in some places completely stopped, and in some it slowed down noticeably. Of course, mankind has managed to hide some minor consequences by pumping oil, but what will happen to the Gulf Stream next? We can only wait to see what human recklessness will lead to, for which the entire planet will have to pay. If the flow stops completely, then this will lead to the collapse of planet Earth.
Maybe not everyone knows that the Gulf Stream is a kind of river in the ocean, which constantly changes its course. The Gulf Stream wriggles in the ocean like a snake and huge eddies of water constantly break away from it, scientists call them rings. These swirling masses of water reach in diameter 300 km When traveling across the ocean, vortices carry enormous reserves of energy and affect the weather. In addition, it turned out that the biological activity in the vortices is much higher than in the surrounding ocean. Now scientists are trying to understand the complex and incomprehensible life of giant vortices.
The teachings are close to giving an answer to the question of why the glaciers in Greenland are decreasing at a tremendous rate. As they managed to find out, the waters of the oceans change the current, and the waves of the subtropics reach almost to the Arctic circle, the glaciers of Greenland. According to experts, if the melting continues at the same rate, then the territory of Greenland will greatly decrease, if not disappear altogether, like Atlantis once swallowed up by the abyss of ocean waters. Work to prevent a possible environmental disaster is being carried out many thousands of miles from the Greenland coast. Research is being conducted even at the molecular level.
According to scientists, the waters of the melted glaciers desalinate the waters of the Labrador Current, it gradually rises and collides with the Gulf Stream, and the latter, as it were, breaks into two branches. But the reason for the complete rupture of the current of the Gulf Stream can also be a giant rift volcano located under the glaciers of Greenland. Now these glaciers act as a kind of cement that holds two tectonic plates together. Even partial melting of the glacier will cause the North American Plate, located under the Greenland glaciers, to rise. The plates will begin to diverge, the ocean waters will rush into the formed rift, and when the water comes into contact with the flaming mantle of the earth's crust, a huge discharge of rarefied steam into the atmosphere is formed. From the explosion, the plates will disperse even more. The entire planet will begin to shake from earthquakes, accompanied by a fracture fissure further south. But most importantly, as a result of the movement of these plates and the release of magma, a huge rift volcano is formed in the place of Greenland. Even the Krakatoa volcano will look like a child's firecracker, compared to the newly formed volcano. A pillar of incandescent magma will rise 10 km and rip up the atmosphere, it will cause abrupt change temperatures in the UK and Greenland are up to 100-150 degrees below zero. Changing the bottom topography will break the Gulf Stream once and for all. Glaciers are already melting too quickly.
After a new ice age begins, our civilization will disappear from the face of the earth.
In 2011, the highest temperature rise was recorded by 10 degrees above normal. The Moscow metro was the coolest place in the capital. All over the planet, terrible cataclysms occurred, which sometimes defy explanation by the best scientists. For the first time in Antarctica, the polar night never came. And in Siberia, at the pole of cold, which is the coldest point of the Earth for life, the heat came. So, in Oymyakon, the scale on the thermometer rose above 30 degrees Celsius. At this time, America froze, for the first time such cold weather reigned here, which claimed the lives of hundreds of people and crippled the lives of thousands. In the driest and hottest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert, which is located in Chile, snow fell for the first time, which in a matter of hours wrapped thousands of cars in its imperious arms.
First of all, people suffer from such natural disasters, countries are throwing out huge amounts of money to prevent the consequences of such natural anomalies.
Smaller cataclysms were not even noticed this year. And they were not so insignificant. For example, in the Murmansk region, the Barents Sea warmed up to 27 degrees Celsius, which was much higher than the temperature of the Mediterranean Sea this year. At this time, torrential rains were pouring in Crimea, tourists who came to rest, with bewilderment wrapped themselves in their towels to keep warm, probably only walruses or those who were so sorry for the money spent on this trip were swimming. Ukraine, like a magnet, attracted more and more natural disasters. Hurricanes and downpours reigned in Cherkassy and Kiev. In China, streams of water washed away entire cities, leaving no chance of salvation for the people who were there. Phoenix, located in Arizona, was covered with a wave of dust. The most frightening thing is not the predictability of such natural disasters, as well as their consequences.
History claims that similar phenomena have already occurred on our planet. This was in the 11th century AD. It all started with the fact that the Czech Republic was enveloped in a "smoky stench" from burning peat bogs, which did not recede for 300 days. Due to the abnormal heat, the Dnieper was very shallow, and in some places, it could be forded. The most striking phenomenon of this century was recorded when flowers bloomed in Europe in mid-January. With the established cold of this winter outside the window, this is even creepy to imagine.
Meteorologists claim that similar weather fluctuations, as in the 11th century, were the harbingers of long prolonged cold weather for several centuries. After this heat wave in the recently warm Venice, the sea was moved on nothing other than carts, because the sea was covered with a thick, impenetrable layer of ice. The Bosphorus Strait was also heavily iced up, followed by the warm, deep Nile covered with ice.
Let's go back to our time, the cold has already brought the planet big crop failures last year. Also, in the future, cold weather can cause a large migration flow. Now, only a few animals have decided to change their habitat, for example, hedgehogs, pelicans and herons began to stay in Altai from warm places. Many bird species have already immigrated from Moscow. Of course, at best, the ice age will come only at the end of this century, but some scientists are sure that the cataclysms of 2010 and 2011 brought this global catastrophe closer. If you believe their statements, then the Ice Age will come in a couple of decades. This is too bad an outcome that many simply refuse to believe, and perceive it as science fiction.
The general public only knows that the Gulf Stream has deviated significantly from its course over the past decades, and in some places its course has completely stopped. So what happens if it stops forever? First, Europe will turn into a huge freezer, temperatures will drop by 20-30 degrees Celsius below the usual. Where it was warm, bitter frosts will settle, and where cold and polar night reigned, an active melting of glaciers will begin.
As soon as the Gulf Stream stops, a global ecological catastrophe will break out, followed by a social catastrophe. People will flee from the icy areas of the earth. The scenario will be like the day of judgment, when no longer connections and money will not save lives. The same money will instantly turn into garbage that cannot be saved. Most dangerous consequences of this catastrophe, can be provoked by military showdown on the "Earth Right". Many continents will become uninhabitable. The sown area will sharply decrease. If all of Europe is covered with a glacier, who will feed the planet? Europe has the largest cultivated areas.
Unfortunately, this is a real and not a catastrophic scenario that has already taken place on our planet. Such events were vividly described in history, during the time of Boris Godunov, when winter lasted four years in Moscow.
But many scientists suggest that things are much worse. Until now, information about the effect of geocosmic resonance has not been announced to the public, as it looks more like science fiction, carefully hiding from the average layman. There is a theory that each planet, like a stone thrown into the water, sends its impulse to the universe with a certain frequency. In 2010, the Earth was in line with four such celestial messenger bodies. They were: Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon (satellite of the Earth). According to scientists, the Earth shook well that year, and is still shaking.
But the most interesting hypothesis, why all these natural disasters occur, was born in India: according to all the laws of physics, the appearance of life on Earth broke the universal symmetry and the ongoing processes are just a correction of the mistake made billions of years ago.
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We're in the grip of autumn, and it's getting colder. Are we moving towards an ice age, one of the readers wonders.
The fast Danish summer is over. Leaves fall from trees, birds fly south, it gets darker and, of course, colder too.
Our reader Lars Petersen from Copenhagen began to prepare for the cold days. And he wants to know how seriously he needs to prepare.
“When does the next ice age start? I learned that ice ages and interglacial periods alternate regularly. Since we live in the interglacial period, it is logical to assume that the next ice age lies ahead, isn't it? " - he writes in a letter to the Ask Science (Spørg Videnskaben) section.
We in the editorial office shudder at the thought of the cold winter that lies in wait for us at that end of autumn. We, too, would love to know if we are on the verge of an ice age.
The next ice age is still far away
Therefore, we addressed to Sune Olander Rasmussen, a professor at the Center for Basic Research of Ice and Climate at Copenhagen University.
Sune Rasmussen studies the cold and gets information about the weather of the past, the storm of Greenland glaciers and icebergs. In addition, he can use his knowledge to play the role of "predictor of ice ages."
“For the Ice Age to come, several conditions must coincide. We cannot predict exactly when the ice age will begin, but even if humanity did not further influence the climate, our forecast is that the conditions for it will develop in 40-50 thousand years at best, ”Sune Rasmussen reassures us.
Since we are still talking with the "ice age predictor", we can get some more information about what these "conditions" are in order to understand a little more about what an ice age really is.
This is what an ice age is
Sune Rasmussen says that during the last ice age, the average temperature on earth was several degrees lower than it is today, and that the climate at higher latitudes was colder.
Much of the northern hemisphere was covered in massive ice sheets. For example, Scandinavia, Canada and some other parts of North America were covered with a three-kilometer ice shell.
The enormous weight of the ice cover pressed the earth's crust a kilometer into the Earth.
Ice ages are longer than interglacials
However, 19 thousand years ago, changes began to occur in the climate.
In Greenland, the last remnants of the shell came off very abruptly 11,700 years ago, or 11,715 years to be precise. This is evidenced by the research of Sune Rasmussen and his colleagues.
This means that 11,715 years have passed since the last ice age, and this is a completely normal length of the interglacial.
“It's funny that we usually think of the Ice Age as an 'event', when in fact it's just the opposite. The average ice age lasts 100 thousand years, while the interglacial period lasts from 10 to 30 thousand years. That is, the Earth is more often in an ice age than vice versa. "
“The last couple of interglacial periods only lasted about 10 thousand years, which explains the widespread but misconception that our current interglacial period is nearing the end,” says Sune Rasmussen.
Three factors influence the possibility of the start of an ice age
The fact that the Earth will plunge into a new ice age in 40-50 thousand years depends on the fact that the Earth's orbit around the Sun has small variations. Variations determine how much sunlight hits which latitudes, and thus affects how warm or cold it is.
Milankovitch cycles are:
1. The orbit of the Earth's rotation around the Sun, which changes cyclically approximately once every 100,000 years. The orbit changes from nearly circular to more elliptical and then back again. Because of this, the distance to the Sun changes. The further the Earth is from the Sun, the less solar radiation our planet receives. Also, when the shape of the orbit changes, so does the length of the seasons.
2. The inclination of the earth's axis, which fluctuates between 22 and 24.5 degrees in relation to the orbit of rotation around the sun. This cycle covers approximately 41,000 years. 22 or 24.5 degrees - it seems not such a significant difference, but the tilt of the axis greatly affects the severity of the different seasons. The more the Earth is tilted, the greater the difference between winter and summer. IN this moment The tilt of the earth's axis is 23.5 and it is decreasing, which means that the differences between winter and summer will decrease over the next thousand years.
3. The direction of the earth's axis relative to space. The direction changes cyclically with a period of 26 thousand years.
“The combination of these three factors determines whether there are prerequisites for the beginning of the ice age. It is almost impossible to imagine how these three factors interact, but with the help of mathematical models we can calculate how much solar radiation receives at certain latitudes in certain time years, and also received in the past and will receive in the future, ”says Sune Rasmussen.
Snow in summer leads to an ice age
Summer temperatures are especially important in this context.
Milankovitch realized that for the prerequisite for the start of the ice age, summers in the northern hemisphere must be cold.
If the winters are snowy and much of the northern hemisphere is covered in snow, then the temperatures and the number of hours of sunshine in the summer will determine whether snow is allowed to remain throughout the summer.
“If the snow does not melt in summer, then little sunlight penetrates into the Earth. The rest is reflected back into space in a snow-white blanket. This exacerbates the cooling that started due to the change in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, ”says Sune Rasmussen.
“Further cooling brings more snow, which further reduces the amount of heat absorbed, and so on, until the ice age begins,” he continues.
Likewise, a period of hot summers leads to the end of the ice age. The hot sun then melts the ice enough so that sunlight can again hit dark surfaces like soil or the sea, which absorb it and heat the Earth.
People are delaying the next ice age
Another factor that matters for the possibility of an ice age beginning is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Just as snow, which reflects light, intensifies ice formation or accelerates its melting, the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 180 ppm to 280 ppm (parts per million) helped lift the Earth out of the last ice age.
However, since the beginning of industrialization, people are constantly engaged in further increasing the proportion of carbon dioxide, so now it is almost 400 ppm.
“It took nature 7,000 years before the end of the ice age to raise the share of carbon dioxide by 100 ppm. Humans have managed to do the same in just 150 years. This is of great importance for whether the Earth can enter a new ice age. This is a very significant impact, which means not only that the ice age cannot begin at the moment, ”says Sune Rasmussen.
We thank Lars Petersen for the good question and are sending a winter gray T-shirt to Copenhagen. We also thank Sune Rasmussen for the good answer.
We also encourage our readers to send more scientific questions to [email protected]
Did you know?
Scientists always talk about an ice age only in the northern hemisphere of the planet. The reason is that there is too little land in the southern hemisphere on which a massive layer of snow and ice can lie.
Excluding Antarctica, the entire southern part of the southern hemisphere is covered with water that does not provide good conditions to create a thick ice shell.
The last ice age ended 12,000 years ago. In the most severe period, glaciation threatened man with extinction. However, after the disappearance of the glacier, he not only survived, but also created a civilization.
Glaciers in the history of the Earth
The last ice age in the history of the Earth is the Cenozoic. It began 65 million years ago and continues to this day. Modern man is lucky: he lives in the interglacial, in one of the warmest periods in the life of the planet. The most severe glacial era is far behind - the Late Proterozoic.
Despite global warming, scientists are predicting a new ice age. And if the present comes only after millennia, then the Little Ice Age, which will reduce annual temperatures by 2-3 degrees, may come pretty soon.
The glacier became a real test for man, forcing him to invent means for his survival.
The last ice age
The Würm or Vistula glaciation began about 110,000 years ago and ended in the tenth millennium BC. The peak of cold weather fell on the period 26-20 thousand years ago, the final stage of the Stone Age, when the glacier was the largest.
Small ice ages
Even after the glaciers melted, history has known periods of noticeable cold snaps and warming. Or, in another way, - climatic pessimums and optima... Pessimums are sometimes referred to as small ice ages. In the XIV-XIX centuries, for example, the Little Ice Age began, and at the time of the Great Migration of Nations there was an early medieval pessimum.
Hunting and meat food
There is an opinion according to which the human ancestor was rather a scavenger, since he could not spontaneously occupy a higher ecological niche. And all the known tools were used for cutting the remains of animals that were taken from predators. However, the question of when and why a person began to hunt is still controversial.
In any case, thanks to hunting and meat food, ancient people received a large supply of energy, which allowed him to better endure the cold. The skins of the slaughtered animals were used as clothing, footwear and walls of the dwelling, which increased the chances of surviving in the harsh climate.
Upright walking
Walking upright appeared millions of years ago, and its role was much more important than in the life of a modern office worker. Having freed his hands, a person could engage in intensive construction of a dwelling, the production of clothing, the processing of tools, extraction and preservation of fire. The upright ancestors moved freely in the open area, and their life no longer depended on the collection of fruits from tropical trees. Already millions of years ago, they freely moved over long distances and got food in river flows.
Walking upright played an insidious role, but it became rather an advantage. Yes, man himself came to cold regions and adapted to life in them, but at the same time he could find both artificial and natural shelters from the glacier.
the fire
Fire in the life of an ancient man was originally an unpleasant surprise, not a boon. Despite this, the ancestor of man first learned to "extinguish" it, and only later to use it for his own purposes. Traces of the use of fire are found in sites that are 1.5 million years old. This made it possible to improve nutrition through the preparation of protein foods, as well as to stay active at night. This further increased the time to create conditions for survival.
Climate
The Cenozoic Ice Age was not a continuous glaciation. Every 40 thousand years, the ancestors of people had the right to "respite" - temporary thaws. At this time, the glacier retreated, and the climate became milder. During periods of harsh climates, caves or regions rich in flora and fauna were natural refuge. For example, the south of France and the Iberian Peninsula were home to many early cultures.
The Persian Gulf 20,000 years ago was a river valley rich in forests and grassy vegetation, a truly "antediluvian" landscape. Here flowed wide rivers, one and a half times larger than the Tigris and Euphrates. In some periods, the Sahara became a wet savannah. The last time this happened was 9000 years ago. This can be confirmed by rock paintings depicting an abundance of animals.
Fauna
Huge glacial mammals such as the bison, woolly rhinoceros and mammoths became an important and unique source of food for ancient people. Hunting such large animals required great coordination of efforts and brought people together noticeably. The effectiveness of "teamwork" has repeatedly shown itself in the construction of parking lots and the manufacture of clothing. Deer and wild horses among ancient people enjoyed no less "honor".
Language and communication
Language was, perhaps, the main life hack of ancient man. It was thanks to speech that important technologies for processing weapons, obtaining and maintaining fire, as well as various human adaptations for everyday survival, were preserved and passed from generation to generation. Perhaps in the Paleolithic language, the details of hunting for large animals and directions of migration were discussed.
Allerdskoye Warming
Until now, scientists are arguing whether the extinction of mammoths and other glacial animals was the work of humans or was caused by natural causes - the Allerdsky warming and the disappearance of food supply plants. As a result of the extermination of a large number of animal species, a person in harsh conditions was threatened with death from a lack of food. There are known cases of the death of entire cultures simultaneously with the extinction of mammoths (for example, the Clovis culture in North America). Nevertheless, warming has become an important factor in the relocation of people to regions whose climates have become suitable for the emergence of agriculture.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that a new ice age may begin on Earth in 15 years.
This statement was made by scientists from a British university. In their opinion, there has been a significant decrease in solar activity... According to researchers, by 2020, the 24th cycle of activity of the star will end, after which a long period of calm will begin.
Accordingly, a new ice age may begin on our planet, which has already been called the Maunder minimum, according to Planet Today. A similar process already took place on Earth in 1645-1715. Then the average air temperature dropped by 1.3 degrees, which led to the loss of crops and mass starvation.
Pravda.ru previously wrote that recently, scientists were surprised to find that glaciers in the Central Asian mountains of Karakorum are growing rapidly. And the point is not at all in the "spreading" of the ice cover. And in a full-fledged increase, the thickness of the glacier also increases. And this despite the fact that nearby, in the Himalayas, the ice continues to melt. What is the reason for the Karakorum ice anomaly?
It should be noted that against the background of the global trend towards a reduction in the area of \u200b\u200bglaciers, the situation looks very paradoxical. Mountain glaciers from Central Asia have turned out to be "white crows" (in both senses of this expression), since their area is growing at the same rate as it is decreasing elsewhere. The data obtained on the Karakorum mountain system in the period from 2005 to 2010 completely baffled glaciologists.
Recall that the Karakorum mountain system, located at the junction of Mongolia, China, India and Pakistan (between the Pamir and Kunlun in the north, the Himalayas and Gandisyshan in the south), is one of the highest in the world. The average height of the rocky ridges of these mountains is about six thousand meters (which is more than, for example, in neighboring Tibet - there the average height is about 4880 meters). There are also several "eight-thousanders" - mountains whose height from the foot to the top exceeds eight kilometers.
So in Karakorum, according to meteorologists, snowfalls have become very abundant since the end of the twentieth century. Now there they fall out about 1200-2000 millimeters per year, and almost exclusively in solid form. And the average annual temperature has remained the same - in the range of five to four degrees below zero. It is not surprising that the glacier began to grow very quickly.
At the same time, in the neighboring Himalayas, according to forecasters, during the same years, snow began to fall significantly less. The glacier of these mountains was deprived of its main source of food and, accordingly, "shrank". It is possible that the matter here is in changing the routes of the snow air masses - they used to go to the Himalayas, and now they turn to the Karakorum. But in order to confirm this assumption, it is necessary to check the situation with the glaciers of other "neighbors" - the Pamirs, Tibet, Kunlun and Gandisyshan.
Ecology
Ice ages, which have occurred more than once on our planet, have always been covered with a lot of mysteries. We know that they shrouded entire continents in cold, turning them into sparsely populated tundra.
It is also known about 11 such periods, and all of them took place with regular constancy. However, we still do not know much about them. We invite you to get acquainted with the most interesting facts about the ice ages of our past.
Giant animals
By the time the last ice age came, in the course of evolution already mammals appeared... The animals that could survive in the harsh climatic conditions were quite large, their bodies were covered with a thick layer of fur.
Scientists have named these creatures "megafauna", which was able to survive at low temperatures in ice-covered areas, for example, in the area of \u200b\u200bmodern Tibet. Smaller animals could not adapt to the new conditions of glaciation and perished.
Herbivorous representatives of the megafauna learned to find food for themselves even under layers of ice and were able to adapt to the environment in different ways: for example, rhinos ice age had shovel horns, with the help of which they dug out snow drifts.
Predatory animals, for example saber-toothed cats, giant short-faced bears and dire wolves, survived perfectly in the new conditions. Although their prey could sometimes fight back due to their large size, it was abundant.
Ice Age people
Despite the fact that modern man Homo sapiens could not boast at that time of large size and wool, he was able to survive in the cold tundra of the ice ages for millennia.
Living conditions were harsh, but people were resourceful. For instance, 15 thousand years ago they lived in tribes that were engaged in hunting and gathering, built original dwellings from mammoth bones, sewed warm clothes from animal skins. When food was plentiful, they made supplies in the permafrost - natural freezer.
Mainly used for hunting were such tools as stone knives and arrows. To catch and kill large ice age animals, it was necessary to use special traps... When the beast fell into such traps, a group of people attacked him and killed him to death.
Little Ice Age
Between major ice ages, sometimes there were small periods... This is not to say that they were destructive, but they also caused hunger, disease due to crop failure and other problems.
The most recent of the small ice ages began around 12-14 centuries... The most difficult time can be called the period from 1500 to 1850... At this time, a fairly low temperature was observed in the Northern Hemisphere.
In Europe, it was commonplace when the seas froze, and in mountainous regions, for example, in the territory of modern Switzerland, the snow did not melt even in summer... Cold weather has impacted every aspect of life and culture. Probably the Middle Ages remained in history as "Time of Troubles" also because the planet was dominated by the Little Ice Age.
Warming periods
Some ice ages actually ended up quite warm... Despite the fact that the surface of the earth was shrouded in ice, the weather was relatively warm.
Sometimes a fairly large amount of carbon dioxide accumulated in the planet's atmosphere, which is the reason for the appearance greenhouse effectwhen heat is trapped in the atmosphere and heats up the planet. In this case, ice continues to form and reflect the sun's rays back into space.
According to experts, this phenomenon led to the formation giant desert with ice on the surfacebut rather warm weather.
When is the next ice age?
The theory that ice ages occur on our planet at regular intervals runs counter to theories of global warming. There is no doubt about what is observed today widespread climate warmingwhich could help prevent the next ice age.
Human activities lead to the emission of carbon dioxide, which is largely responsible for the problem global warming... However, this gas has another strange side effect ... According to researchers from University of CambridgeCO2 emissions could stop the next ice age.
According to the planetary cycle of our planet, the next ice age should come soon, but it can only take place if the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be relatively low... However, CO2 levels are now so high that no ice age is out of the question anytime soon.
Even if a person abruptly stops emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (which is unlikely), the existing amount will be enough to prevent the onset of the ice age at least another thousand years.
Ice Age Plants
The easiest life during the ice age was predators: they could always find food for themselves. But what did the herbivores actually eat?
It turns out that there was enough food for these animals. During the ice ages on the planet a lot of plants grewthat could survive the harsh conditions. The steppe area was covered with bushes and grass, which fed on mammoths and other herbivores.
Larger plants could also be found in a great variety: for example, they grew in abundance spruce and pine... In warmer areas, there were birch and willow... That is, the climate is, by and large, in many modern southern regions resembled the one that exists in Siberia today.
However, the plants of the Ice Age were somewhat different from the modern ones. Of course, with the onset of cold weather many plants died out... If the plant was not able to adapt to the new climate, it had two options: either move to more southern zones, or die.
For example, present-day Victoria in southern Australia had the richest plant species on the planet until the Ice Age, which resulted in most of the species died.
Cause of the Ice Age in the Himalayas?
It turns out that the Himalayas, the highest mountain system of our planet, directly related with the onset of the ice age.
40-50 million years ago the land masses where China and India are located today collided to form the highest mountains. As a result of the collision, huge volumes of "fresh" rocks from the bowels of the Earth were exposed.
These rocks eroded, and as a result of chemical reactions, carbon dioxide began to be displaced from the atmosphere. The climate on the planet began to become colder, the ice age began.
Snowball Earth
During different ice ages, our planet was mostly shrouded in ice and snow. only partially... Even during the most severe ice age, ice covered only one third of the globe.
However, there is a hypothesis that at certain periods the Earth was still completely covered in snow, which made it look like a giant snowball. Life still managed to survive thanks to the rare islets with relatively little ice and enough light for plant photosynthesis.
According to this theory, our planet turned into a snowball at least once, more precisely 716 million years ago.
Garden of Eden
Some scholars are convinced that Garden of Eden, described in the Bible, actually existed. It is believed that he was in Africa, and it was thanks to him that our distant ancestors were able to survive during the ice age.
About 200 thousand years ago a severe ice age ensued, ending many forms of life. Fortunately, a small group of people were able to survive the extreme cold. These people moved to the area where South Africa is today.
Despite the fact that almost the entire planet was covered with ice, the area remained ice-free. A large number of living creatures lived here. The soils of this area were rich in nutrients, so there was abundance of plants... The caves created by nature were used by people and animals as shelters. It was a real paradise for sentient beings.
According to some scholars, in the "Garden of Eden" lived no more than a hundred peoplethis is why humans do not have the same genetic diversity as most other species. However, this theory has not found scientific evidence.