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A glacial period is an interval of time within an ice age
Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
 that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier
Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
 advances. Interglacial
Interglacial

An interglacial is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature that separates glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial has persisted since the Pleistocene, about 11,400 years ago....
s, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate within an ice age. The last glacial period ended about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago; the current Holocene
Holocene

The Holocene is a geological Epoch which began approximately 11,700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present....
 epoch is the interglacial we are presently in.

in the Quaternary
Quaternary

The Quaternary Period is the Geologic Time Scale period after the Neogene Period, spanning 1.805 +/- 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary includes two geologic epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene epoch ....
 glaciation (2.58 Ma
Annum

Annum is one form of the Latin noun meaning year, not a form normally used for derivatives in modern languages: the accusative case Grammatical number of the second declension grammatical gender noun annus , anni ....
 to present), there have been various glacials and interglacials.

The Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 extent of the Quaternary ice age, has been subdivided into the following stages.

Some of these stages, the Cromerian, Beestonian, and Wolstonian stages, consist of multiple glacial and interglacial periods.






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A glacial period is an interval of time within an ice age
Ice age

The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....
 that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier
Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
 advances. Interglacial
Interglacial

An interglacial is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature that separates glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial has persisted since the Pleistocene, about 11,400 years ago....
s, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate within an ice age. The last glacial period ended about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago; the current Holocene
Holocene

The Holocene is a geological Epoch which began approximately 11,700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present....
 epoch is the interglacial we are presently in.

Quaternary ice age

Atmospheric Co2 With Glaciers Cycles
Within the Quaternary
Quaternary

The Quaternary Period is the Geologic Time Scale period after the Neogene Period, spanning 1.805 +/- 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary includes two geologic epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene epoch ....
 glaciation (2.58 Ma
Annum

Annum is one form of the Latin noun meaning year, not a form normally used for derivatives in modern languages: the accusative case Grammatical number of the second declension grammatical gender noun annus , anni ....
 to present), there have been various glacials and interglacials.

The Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 extent of the Quaternary ice age, has been subdivided into the following stages.
  • Bramertonian Stage
  • Pre-Pastonian Stage
  • Pastonian Stage
  • Beestonian Stage
    Beestonian stage

    The Beestonian Stage is the name for an early Pleistocene stage used in the British Isles. It precedes the Cromerian Stage and follows the Pastonian Stage....
  • Cromerian Stage
  • Anglian Stage
  • Hoxnian Stage
  • Wolstonian Stage
  • Eemian Stage
  • Last glacial period


Some of these stages, the Cromerian, Beestonian, and Wolstonian stages, consist of multiple glacial and interglacial periods. Other stages, the Anglian and Hoxnian stages, consist either of single glacial or interglacial periods.

Last glacial period

The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age
Quaternary glaciation

Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, the current ice age or simply the ice age, refers to the period of the last few million years in which permanent ice sheets were established in Antarctica and perhaps Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets have occurred elsewhere ....
, occurring in the Pleistocene
Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
 epoch, which began about 70,000 and ended between 10,000 and 15,000 Before Present
Before Present

Before Present years are a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other science disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use 1950 Common_Era as the arbitrary origin of the age scale....
 (BP). The glaciations that occurred during this glacial period covered many areas of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator?the word sphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator....
, and have different names, depending on their geographic distributions: Wisconsin (in North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
), Devensian (in the British Isles
British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain and Ireland, and numerous smaller islands....
), Midlandian (in Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
), Würm (in the Alps
Alps

The Alps is the name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
), Weichsel (in northern central Europe) and Llanquihue in Chile. The glacial advance reached its maximum extent
Last Glacial Maximum

The Last Glacial Maximum refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation , approximately 20,000 years ago. This extreme persisted for several thousand years....
 about 18,000 BP. In Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, the ice sheet reached northern Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
.

Next glacial period

Since orbital variations are predictable, if one has a model that relates orbital variations to climate, it is possible to run such a model forward to "predict" future climate. Two caveats are necessary: that anthropogenic
Anthropogenic

Anthropogenic effects, processes or materials are those that are derived from human activities, as opposed to those occurring in natural environments without human influence....
 effects (global warming
Global warming

Global warming is the increase in the Instrumental temperature record of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation....
) are likely to exert a larger influence over the short term; and that the mechanism by which orbital forcing
Orbital forcing

Orbital forcing is the effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis and shape of the orbit . These orbital changes change the total amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by up to 25% at mid-latitudes ....
 influences climate is not well understood.

Work by Berger and Loutre suggests that the current warm climate may last another 50,000 years..

See also

  • Timeline of glaciation
    Timeline of glaciation

    There have been four major periods of Ice age in the Earth's past. The second, and possibly most severe, is estimated to have occurred from 850 to 635 Annum#Multiples_of_an_.22annum.22 ago, in the Neoproterozoic) and it has been suggested that it produced a "Snowball Earth" in which the earth iced over completely....
  • Glacier
    Glacier

    A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
  • Geologic time scale
    Geologic time scale

    File:Geologic clock.jpgThe geologic time scale is a chronology schema relating stratigraphy to time that is used by geologys and other earth sciences scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth....
  • Glacial history of Minnesota
    Glacial history of Minnesota

    The glacial history of Minnesota is most defined since the onset of the last glacial period, which ended some 10,000 years ago. Within the last million years, most of the Midwestern United States and much of Canada were covered at one time or another with an ice sheet....
  • Milankovitch cycles
    Milankovitch cycles

    Milankovitch cycles are the collective effect of changes in the Earth's movements upon its climate, named after Serbian civil engineering and mathematician Milutin Milankovic....
  • Cyclostratigraphy
    Cyclostratigraphy

    Cyclostratigraphy is the study of Astronomy forced Climate cycle within sedimentary successions. Astronomical cycles are variations of the earth's orbit around the sun due to the gravitational interaction with other masses within the solar system....
  • Climate
    Climate

    Climate encompasses the temperatures, humidity, atmospheric pressure, winds, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other Meteorology elements in a given region over long periods of time, as opposed to the term weather, which refers to current activity of these same elements....
  • Precession (astronomy)
  • Greenhouse and Icehouse Earth
    Greenhouse and Icehouse Earth

    The terms greenhouse and icehouse Earth refer to the prevailing global climate on a timescale of millions of years.During a greenhouse Earth period, the planet's atmosphere contains sufficient greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane for ice to be entirely absent from the planet's surface....
  • Snowball Earth
    Snowball Earth

    Snowball Earth refers to hypotheses regarding paleoclimate global-scale glaciation, claiming that the Earth's surface was nearly or entirely frozen at some points in its past....
  • Interglacial
    Interglacial

    An interglacial is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature that separates glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial has persisted since the Pleistocene, about 11,400 years ago....
     and Interstadial periods
  • Yarkovsky effect
    Yarkovsky effect

    The Yarkovsky effect is a Force acting on a rotating body in space caused by the anisotropic emission of heat photons, which carry momentum. It is usually considered in relation to meteoroids or small asteroids , as its influence is most significant for these bodies....
  • YORP effect
  • Quaternary glaciation
    Quaternary glaciation

    Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, the current ice age or simply the ice age, refers to the period of the last few million years in which permanent ice sheets were established in Antarctica and perhaps Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets have occurred elsewhere ....
  • last glacial period
  • Last Glacial Maximum
    Last Glacial Maximum

    The Last Glacial Maximum refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation , approximately 20,000 years ago. This extreme persisted for several thousand years....
  • Ice age
    Ice age

    The general term "ice age" or, more precisely, "glacial age" denotes a geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in an expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers....