Global ice sheet evolution from 78,000 BCE to 1950
Data source: Gowan (2019): Global ice sheet reconstruction for the past 80000 years [dataset]. Visualization: © Même Terre.
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Ice ages can reshape the world!
Today, two ice sheets cover the Earth, one in Antarctica, the other in Greenland. But 20,000 years ago, at the time of the artists of the Lascaux and Cosquer caves, there were not two nor three, but four ice sheets!
- the two current ones
- one in Europe, from Ireland to Russia (the Fennoscandian)
- one in North American extended down to New York (the Laurentian Mountains)
The water in these ice sheets has the same origin: the accumulation of snow from the largest water reservoir, the ocean. The ice sheets of 3 km thickness covered immense areas, and easily lowered sea levels, by quite a bit: 130 meters lower than today!
At that time, it was possible to walk from Vietnam to Borneo (though it still took a few days to cover the 900 km…), or from Alaska to Siberia. In Europe, a simple bridge would have been enough for the Eurostar to cross the English Channel.