The "Era of the Great Glaciations" is one of the mysteries of the Earth. Ice ages in the history of the earth

Consider such a phenomenon as periodic ice ages on Earth. In modern geology, it is generally accepted that our Earth periodically experiences Ice Ages in its history. During these epochs, the Earth's climate becomes sharply colder, and the Arctic and Antarctic polar caps monstrously increase in size. Not so many thousands of years ago, as we were taught, vast expanses of Europe and North America were covered with ice. Eternal ice lay not only on the slopes of high mountains, but also covered the continents with a thick layer even in temperate latitudes. Where the Hudson, the Elbe and the Upper Dnieper flow today, there was a frozen desert. All this was like an endless glacier, and now covers the island of Greenland. There are indications that the retreat of the glaciers has been halted by new ice masses and that their boundaries have varied over time. Geologists can determine the boundaries of glaciers. Traces of five or six successive movements of ice during the ice age, or five or six ice ages, have been found. Some force pushed the ice layer to temperate latitudes. Until now, neither the cause of the appearance of glaciers, nor the cause of the retreat of the ice desert is known; the timing of this retreat is also a matter of dispute. Many ideas and conjectures have been put forward to explain how the ice age began and why it ended. Some have thought that the Sun radiated more or less heat in different epochs, which explains the periods of heat or cold on the Earth; but we do not have sufficient evidence that the Sun is such a "changing star" to accept this hypothesis. The reason for the Ice Age is seen by some scientists as a decrease in the initially high temperature of the planet. Warm periods between glacial periods have been associated with heat released from the supposed decomposition of organisms in layers close to the earth's surface. The increase and decrease in the activity of hot springs were also taken into account.

Many ideas and conjectures have been put forward to explain how the ice age began and why it ended. Some have thought that the Sun radiated more or less heat at different epochs, which explains the periods of heat or cold on the Earth; but we do not have sufficient evidence that the Sun is such a "changing star" to accept this hypothesis.

Others have argued that there are colder and warmer zones in outer space. As our solar system passes through regions of cold, the ice descends in latitude closer to the tropics. But no physical factors have been found to create similar cold and warm zones in space.

Some have wondered whether precession, or the slow reversal of the earth's axis, could cause periodic fluctuations in climate. But it has been proven that this change alone cannot be so significant as to cause an ice age.

Also, scientists were looking for an answer in periodic variations in the eccentricity of the ecliptic (earth's orbit) with the phenomenon of glaciation at maximum eccentricity. Some researchers believed that winter in aphelion, the most distant part of the ecliptic, could lead to glaciation. And others believed that summer at aphelion could cause such an effect.

The reason for the Ice Age is seen by some scientists as a decrease in the initially high temperature of the planet. Warm periods between glacial periods have been associated with heat released from the supposed decomposition of organisms in layers close to the earth's surface. The increase and decrease in the activity of hot springs were also taken into account.

There is a point of view that the dust of volcanic origin filled the earth's atmosphere and caused insulation, or, on the other hand, the increasing amount of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere prevented the reflection of heat rays from the surface of the planet. An increase in the amount of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere can cause a drop in temperature (Arrhenius), but calculations have shown that this could not be the true cause of the ice age (Angstrom).

All other theories are also hypothetical. The phenomenon that underlies all these changes has never been precisely defined, and those that were named could not produce a similar effect.

Not only are the reasons for the appearance and subsequent disappearance of ice sheets unknown, but the geographic relief of the area covered with ice remains a problem. Why did the ice cover in the southern hemisphere move from the tropical regions of Africa towards the South Pole, and not in the opposite direction? And why in the northern hemisphere did ice move into India from the equator towards the Himalayas and higher latitudes? Why did glaciers cover most of North America and Europe, while North Asia was free of them?

In America, the ice plain extended to a latitude of 40° and even went beyond this line, in Europe it reached a latitude of 50°, and North-Eastern Siberia, above the Arctic Circle, even at a latitude of 75° was not covered by this eternal ice. All hypotheses regarding the increasing and decreasing isolation associated with the change of the sun or temperature fluctuations in outer space, and other similar hypotheses, cannot but encounter this problem.

Glaciers formed in permafrost regions. For this reason, they remained on the slopes of high mountains. The north of Siberia is the coldest place on Earth. Why did the ice age not touch this area, although it covered the Mississippi basin and all of Africa south of the equator? No satisfactory answer to this question has been offered.

During the Last Ice Age, at the peak of the glaciation, which was observed 18,000 years ago (on the eve of the Great Flood), the borders of the glacier in Eurasia passed along approximately 50 ° north latitude (latitude of Voronezh), and the border of the glacier in North America even along 40 ° (latitude New York). At the South Pole, glaciation took over southern South America, and possibly also New Zealand and southern Australia.

The theory of ice ages was first presented in the work of the father of glaciology, Jean Louis Agassiz, "Etudes sur les glaciers" (1840). Over the past century and a half, glaciology has been replenished with a huge amount of new scientific data, and the maximum boundaries of the Quaternary glaciation were determined with a high degree of accuracy.
However, for the entire time of the existence of glaciology, it failed to establish the most important thing - to determine the causes of the onset and retreat of ice ages. None of the hypotheses put forward during this time has received the approval of the scientific community. And today, for example, in the Russian-language Wikipedia article “Ice Age” you will not find the section “Causes of Ice Ages”. And not because this section was forgotten to be placed here, but because no one knows these reasons. What are the real reasons?
Paradoxically, in fact, there have never been any ice ages in the history of the Earth. The temperature and climate regime of the Earth is set mainly by four factors: the intensity of the Sun's glow; orbital distance of the Earth from the Sun; the angle of inclination of the axial rotation of the Earth to the plane of the ecliptic; as well as the composition and density of the earth's atmosphere.

These factors, as scientific data show, remained stable throughout at least the last Quaternary period. Consequently, there were no reasons for a sharp change in the Earth's climate in the direction of cooling.

What is the reason for the monstrous growth of glaciers during the Last Ice Age? The answer is simple: in the periodic change in the location of the earth's poles. And here it should immediately be added: the monstrous growth of the Glacier during the Last Ice Age is an apparent phenomenon. In fact, the total area and volume of the Arctic and Antarctic glaciers have always remained approximately constant - while the North and South Poles changed their position with an interval of 3,600 years, which predetermined the wandering of polar glaciers (caps) on the Earth's surface. Exactly as much glacier formed around the new poles as it melted in those places where the poles left. In other words, the Ice Age is a very relative concept. When the North Pole was in North America, there was an ice age for its inhabitants. When the North Pole moved to Scandinavia, the Ice Age began in Europe, and when the North Pole “left” into the East Siberian Sea, the Ice Age “came” to Asia. An ice age is currently in full swing for the supposed inhabitants of Antarctica and the former inhabitants of Greenland, which is constantly melting in the southern part, as the previous pole shift was not strong and moved Greenland a little closer to the equator.

Thus, there have never been ice ages in the history of the Earth, and at the same time they have always been. Such is the paradox.

The total area and volume of glaciation on the planet Earth has always been, is and will be generally constant as long as the four factors that determine the climate regime of the Earth are constant.
During the pole shift, there are several ice sheets on the Earth at the same time, usually two melting and two newly formed - this depends on the angle of crustal displacement.

Pole shifts on Earth occur at intervals of 3,600-3,700 years, corresponding to the orbital period of Planet X around the Sun. These pole shifts lead to a redistribution of heat and cold zones on Earth, which is reflected in modern academic science in the form of continuously replacing each other stadials (cooling periods) and interstadials (warming periods). The average duration of both stadials and interstadials is determined in modern science at 3700 years, which correlates well with the orbital period of Planet X around the Sun - 3600 years.

From academic literature:

It must be said that in the last 80,000 years the following periods were observed in Europe (years BC):
Stadial (cooling) 72500-68000
Interstadial (warming) 68000-66500
Stadial 66500-64000
Interstadial 64000-60500
Stadial 60500-48500
Interstadial 48500-40000
Stadial 40000-38000
Interstadial 38000-34000
Stadial 34000-32500
Interstadial 32500-24000
Stadial 24000-23000
Interstadial 23000-21500
Stadial 21500-17500
Interstadial 17500-16000
Stadial 16000-13000
Interstadial 13000-12500
Stadial 12500-10000

Thus, in the course of 62 thousand years, 9 stadials and 8 interstadials happened in Europe. The average duration of a stadial is 3700 years, and an interstadial is also 3700 years. The largest stadial lasted 12,000 years, and the interstadial lasted 8,500 years.

In the post-Flood history of the Earth, 5 pole shifts occurred and, accordingly, 5 polar ice sheets successively replaced each other in the Northern Hemisphere: the Laurentian ice sheet (the last antediluvian), the Scandinavian Barents-Kara ice sheet, the East Siberian ice sheet, the Greenland ice sheet and the modern Arctic ice sheet.

The modern Greenland Ice Sheet deserves special attention as the third major ice sheet coexisting simultaneously with the Arctic Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The presence of a third major ice sheet does not contradict the above theses, since it is a well-preserved remnant of the previous North Polar Ice Sheet, where the North Pole was located during 5200-1600 years. BC. Connected with this fact is the answer to the riddle why the extreme north of Greenland today is not affected by glaciation - the North Pole was in the south of Greenland.

Accordingly, the location of the polar ice sheets in the southern hemisphere changed:

• 16,000 BCuh. (18,000 years ago) Recently, there has been a strong consensus in academic science regarding the fact that this year was both the peak of the maximum glaciation of the Earth and the beginning of the rapid melting of the Glacier. A clear explanation of neither one nor the other fact in modern science does not exist. What was this year famous for? 16,000 BC e. - this is the year of the 5th passage through the solar system, counting from the present moment ago (3600 x 5 = 18,000 years ago). This year, the North Pole was located on the territory of modern Canada in the Hudson Bay region. The South Pole was located in the ocean to the east of Antarctica, which suggested the glaciation of southern Australia and New Zealand. Bala's Eurasia is completely free of glaciers. “In the 6th year of K'an, the 11th day of Muluk, in the month of Sak, a terrible earthquake began and continued without interruption until 13 Kuen. The Land of the Clay Hills, the Land of Mu, was sacrificed. Having experienced two strong vibrations, she suddenly disappeared during the night;the soil was constantly shaking under the influence of underground forces, which raised and lowered it in many places, so that it settled; countries were separated from one another, then scattered. Unable to resist these terrible shudders, they failed, dragging the inhabitants with them. This happened 8050 years before this book was written.”("Code Troano" translated by Auguste Le Plongeon). The unprecedented magnitude of the catastrophe caused by the passage of Planet X has resulted in a very strong pole shift. The North Pole moves from Canada to Scandinavia, the South Pole to the ocean west of Antarctica. At the same time that the Laurentian Ice Sheet begins to melt rapidly, which coincides with the data of academic science about the end of the peak of glaciation and the beginning of the melting of the Glacier, the Scandinavian Ice Sheet is formed. At the same time, the Australian and South Zealand ice sheets melt and the Patagonian Ice Sheet forms in South America. These four ice sheets coexist for only a relatively short time, which is necessary for the two previous ice sheets to completely melt and two new ones to form.

• 12,400 BC The North Pole is moving from Scandinavia to the Barents Sea. As a result, the Barents-Kara Ice Sheet is formed, but the Scandinavian Ice Sheet is melting only slightly as the N Pole moves a relatively small distance. In academic science, this fact has found the following reflection: “The first signs of an interglacial period (which is still ongoing) appeared as early as 12,000 BC.”
• 8 800 BC The North Pole moves from the Barents Sea to the East Siberian Sea, in connection with which the Scandinavian and Barents-Kara ice sheets are melting, and the East Siberian ice sheet is formed. This pole shift killed off most of the mammoths. Quote from an academic study: “About 8000 BC. e. a sharp warming led to the retreat of the glacier from its last line - a wide strip of moraines stretching from central Sweden through the Baltic Sea basin to southeast Finland. Approximately at this time, the disintegration of a single and homogeneous periglacial zone occurs. In the temperate zone of Eurasia, forest vegetation predominates. To the south of it, forest-steppe and steppe zones are formed.
• 5 200 BC The North Pole is moving from the East Siberian Sea to Greenland, causing the East Siberian Ice Sheet to melt and the Greenland Ice Sheet to form. Hyperborea is freed from ice, and a wonderful temperate climate is established in the Trans-Urals and Siberia. Ariavarta, the country of the Aryans, flourishes here.
• 1600 BC Past shift. The North Pole moves from Greenland to the Arctic Ocean to its current position. The Arctic Ice Sheet emerges, but the Greenland Ice Sheet remains at the same time. The last mammoths living in Siberia freeze very quickly with undigested green grass in their stomachs. Hyperborea is completely hidden under the modern Arctic ice sheet. Most of the Trans-Urals and Siberia become unsuitable for human existence, which is why the Aryans undertake their famous Exodus to India and Europe, and the Jews also make their exodus from Egypt.

“In the permafrost of Alaska ... one can find ... evidence of atmospheric disturbances of incomparable power. Mammoths and bison were torn apart and twisted as if some cosmic arms of the gods were acting in rage. In one place ... they found the front leg and shoulder of a mammoth; the blackened bones still held the remnants of soft tissues adjacent to the spine along with tendons and ligaments, and the chitinous sheath of the tusks was not damaged. There were no traces of dismemberment of carcasses with a knife or other tool (as would be the case if hunters were involved in the dismemberment). The animals were simply torn apart and scattered around the area like woven straw, although some of them weighed several tons. Mixed with clusters of bones are trees, also torn, twisted and tangled; all this is covered with fine-grained quicksand, subsequently tightly frozen” (G. Hancock, “Traces of the Gods”).

Frozen mammoths

Northeastern Siberia, which was not covered by glaciers, holds another mystery. Its climate has changed dramatically since the end of the ice age, and the average annual temperature has fallen many degrees below its previous level. The animals that once lived in the area could no longer live here, and the plants that used to grow there were no longer able to grow here. Such a change must have happened quite suddenly. The reason for this event is not explained. During this catastrophic climate change and under mysterious circumstances, all Siberian mammoths perished. And it happened only 13 thousand years ago, when the human race was already widespread throughout the planet. For comparison: Late Paleolithic rock paintings found in the caves of Southern France (Lascaux, Chauvet, Rouffignac, etc.) were made 17-13 thousand years ago.

Such an animal lived on earth - a mammoth. They reached a height of 5.5 meters and a body weight of 4-12 tons. Most mammoths died out about 11-12 thousand years ago during the last cooling of the Vistula Ice Age. This is what science tells us, and draws a picture like the one above. True, not very concerned about the question - what did these woolly elephants weighing 4-5 tons eat on such a landscape. “Of course, since it’s written in books like that”- Allen nod. Reading very selectively, and considering the given picture. About the fact that during the life of mammoths on the territory of the current tundra, birch grew (which is written in the same book, and other deciduous forests - that is, a completely different climate) - they somehow do not notice. The diet of mammoths was mainly vegetable, and adult males daily ate about 180 kg of food.

While the number of woolly mammoths was truly impressive. For example, between 1750 and 1917, the mammoth ivory trade flourished over a wide area, and 96,000 mammoth tusks were discovered. According to various estimates, about 5 million mammoths lived in a small part of northern Siberia.

Before their extinction, woolly mammoths inhabited vast parts of our planet. Their remains have been found throughout Northern Europe, Northern Asia and North America.

Woolly mammoths were not a new species. They have inhabited our planet for six million years.

A biased interpretation of the hairy and fatty constitution of the mammoth, as well as a belief in unchanging climatic conditions, led scientists to the conclusion that the woolly mammoth was an inhabitant of the cold regions of our planet. But fur-bearing animals do not have to live in cold climates. Take for example desert animals like camels, kangaroos and phoenixes. They are furry but live in hot or temperate climates. In fact most fur-bearing animals would not be able to survive in arctic conditions.

For successful cold adaptation, it is not enough just to have a coat. For adequate thermal insulation from the cold, the coat should be in an elevated state. Unlike Antarctic fur seals, mammoths lacked raised fur.

Another factor of sufficient protection against cold and humidity is the presence of sebaceous glands, which secrete oils on the skin and fur, and thus protect against moisture.

Mammoths did not have sebaceous glands, and their dry hair allowed snow to touch the skin, melt, and significantly increase heat loss (the thermal conductivity of water is about 12 times higher than that of snow).

As seen in the photo above, mammoth fur was not dense. In comparison, the fur of a yak (a cold-adapted Himalayan mammal) is about 10 times thicker.

In addition, mammoths had hair that hung down to their toes. But every arctic animal has hair on its toes or paws, not hair. Hair would collect snow on the ankle joint and interfere with walking.

The above clearly shows that fur and body fat are not proof of cold adaptation. The fat layer only indicates the abundance of food. A fat, overfed dog would not have been able to withstand an arctic blizzard and a temperature of -60°C. But arctic rabbits or caribou can, despite their relatively low fat content relative to total body weight.

As a rule, the remains of mammoths are found with the remains of other animals, such as: tigers, antelopes, camels, horses, reindeer, giant beavers, giant bulls, sheep, musk oxen, donkeys, badgers, alpine goats, woolly rhinos, foxes, giant bison, lynx, leopard, wolverine, hares, lions, elk, giant wolves, gophers, cave hyenas, bears, and many bird species. Most of these animals would not be able to survive in the arctic climate. This is additional evidence that woolly mammoths were not polar animals.

The French prehistoric expert, Henry Neville, made the most detailed study of mammoth skin and hair. At the end of his careful analysis, he wrote the following:

"It is not possible for me to find in the anatomical study of their skin and [hair] any argument in favor of adaptation to cold."

— G. Neville, On the Extinction of the Mammoth, Smithsonian Institution Annual Report, 1919, p. 332.

Finally, the diet of mammoths contradicts the diet of animals living in polar climates. How could a woolly mammoth maintain its vegetarian diet in an arctic region, and eat hundreds of pounds of greens every day, when in such a climate most of the year there is none at all? How could woolly mammoths find liters of water for daily consumption?

To make matters worse, woolly mammoths lived during the Ice Age, when temperatures were cooler than they are today. Mammoths would not have been able to survive in the harsh climate of northern Siberia today, let alone 13,000 years ago, if the then climate had been much harsher.

The above facts indicate that the woolly mammoth was not a polar animal, but lived in a temperate climate. Consequently, at the beginning of the Younger Dryas, 13 thousand years ago, Siberia was not an arctic region, but a temperate one.

"A long time ago, however, they died"- the reindeer breeder agrees, cutting off a piece of meat from the found carcass in order to feed the dogs.

"Hard"- says a more vital geologist, chewing a piece of barbecue taken from a makeshift skewer.

Frozen mammoth meat initially looked absolutely fresh, dark red in color, with appetizing streaks of fat, and the expedition even wanted to try to eat it. But as it thawed, the meat became flabby, dark gray in color, with an unbearable smell of decomposition. However, the dogs happily ate the millennial ice cream delicacy, from time to time arranging internecine fights over the most tidbits.

One more moment. Mammoths are rightly called fossils. Because in our time they are simply dug. For the purpose of obtaining tusks for crafts.

It is estimated that for two and a half centuries in the north-east of Siberia, tusks belonging to at least forty-six thousand (!) Mammoths were collected (the average weight of a pair of tusks is close to eight pounds - about one hundred and thirty kilograms).

Mammoth tusks are DIGGING. That is, they are mined from underground. Somehow, the question does not even arise - why have we forgotten how to see the obvious? Did mammoths dig holes for themselves, lay down in them for winter hibernation, and then they fell asleep? But how did they end up underground? At a depth of 10 meters or more? Why are mammoth tusks dug from river banks? And, massively. So massively that a bill was submitted to the State Duma equating mammoths with minerals, as well as introducing a tax on their extraction.

But for some reason they are digging massively only here in the north. And now the question arises - what happened that whole mammoth cemeteries were formed here?

What caused such an almost instantaneous mass pestilence?

Over the past two centuries, numerous theories have been proposed that attempt to explain the sudden extinction of woolly mammoths. They got stuck in frozen rivers, were over-hunted, and fell into ice crevices at the height of the global glaciation. But none of the theories adequately explains this mass extinction.

Let's try to think for ourselves.

Then the following logical chain should line up:

1. There were a lot of mammoths.
2. Since there were a lot of them, they should have had a good food base - not the tundra, where they are now found.
3. If it was not the tundra, the climate in those places was somewhat different, much warmer.
4. A slightly different climate OUTSIDE the Arctic Circle could only be if it was not TRANSArctic at that time.
5. Mammoth tusks, and whole mammoths themselves, are found underground. They somehow got there, some event occurred that covered them with a layer of soil.
6. Taking it as an axiom that mammoths themselves did not dig holes, only water could bring this soil, first surging, and then descending.
7. The layer of this soil is thick - meters, and even tens of meters. And the amount of water that applied such a layer must have been very large.
8. Mammoth carcasses are found in a very well-preserved condition. Immediately after washing the corpses with sand, their freezing followed, which was very fast.

They almost instantly froze on giant glaciers, the thickness of which was many hundreds of meters, to which they were carried by a tidal wave caused by a change in the angle of the earth's axis. This gave rise to the unjustified assumption among scientists that the animals of the middle belt went deep into the North in search of food. All remains of mammoths were found in sands and clays deposited by mud flows.

Such powerful mudflows are possible only during extraordinary major disasters, because at that time dozens, and possibly hundreds and thousands of animal cemeteries were formed throughout the North, into which not only the inhabitants of the northern regions, but also animals from regions with a temperate climate were washed away . And this allows us to believe that these giant animal cemeteries were formed by a tidal wave of incredible power and size, which literally rolled over the continents and retreating back into the ocean, carried away thousands of herds of large and small animals with it. And the most powerful mudflow "tongue", containing giant accumulations of animals, reached the New Siberian Islands, which were literally covered with loess and countless bones of various animals.

A giant tidal wave washed away gigantic herds of animals from the face of the Earth. These huge herds of drowned animals, lingering in natural barriers, terrain folds and floodplains, formed countless animal cemeteries, in which animals of various climatic zones appeared to be mixed.

Scattered bones and molars of mammoths are often found in sediments and sedimentary rocks at the bottom of the oceans.

The most famous, but far from the largest cemetery of mammoths in Russia, is the Berelekh burial. Here is how N.K. describes the mammoth cemetery in Berelekh. Vereshchagin: “Yar is crowned with a melting edge of ice and mounds ... A kilometer later, an extensive scattering of huge gray bones appeared - long, flat, short. They protrude from the dark damp ground in the middle of the slope of the ravine. Sliding down to the water along a slightly turfed slope, the bones formed a spit-toe protecting the shore from erosion. There are thousands of them, the scattering stretches along the coast for about two hundred meters and goes into the water. The opposite, right bank is only eighty meters away, low, alluvial, behind it is an impenetrable willow growth ... everyone is silent, depressed by what they saw ".In the area of ​​the Berelekh cemetery there is a thick layer of clay-ash loess. Signs of an extremely large floodplain sediment are clearly traced. In this place, a huge mass of fragments of branches, roots, bone remains of animals has accumulated. The animal cemetery was washed away by the river, which, twelve millennia later, returned to its former course. Scientists who studied the Berelekh cemetery found among the remains of mammoths a large number of bones of other animals, herbivores and predators, which under normal conditions are never found in huge clusters together: foxes, hares, deer, wolves, wolverines and other animals.

The theory of repeated catastrophes that destroy life on our planet and repeat the creation or restoration of life forms, proposed by Deluc and developed by Cuvier, did not convince the scientific world. Both Lamarck before Cuvier and Darwin after him believed that a progressive, slow, evolutionary process governs genetics and that there are no catastrophes that interrupt this process of infinitesimal changes. According to the theory of evolution, these minor changes are the result of adaptation to the conditions of life in the struggle of species for survival.

Darwin admitted that he was unable to explain the disappearance of the mammoth, an animal much better developed than the elephant, which survived. But in accordance with the theory of evolution, his followers believed that the gradual subsidence of the soil forced the mammoths to climb the hills, and they turned out to be closed on all sides by swamps. However, if geological processes are slow, mammoths would not be trapped on isolated hills. Besides, this theory cannot be true, because the animals did not die of starvation. Undigested grass was found in their stomachs and between their teeth. This, by the way, also proves that they died suddenly. Further research showed that the branches and leaves found in their stomachs do not grow in the areas where the animals died, but further south, at a distance of more than a thousand miles. It seems that the climate has changed radically since the death of the mammoths. And since the bodies of the animals were found undecayed, but well preserved in blocks of ice, a change in temperature must have followed immediately after their death.

Documentary

Risking their lives and being in great danger, scientists in Siberia are looking for a single frozen mammoth cell. With the help of which it will be possible to clone and thereby bring back to life a long-extinct animal species.

It remains to be added that after storms in the Arctic, mammoth tusks are carried to the shores of the Arctic islands. This proves that the part of the land where the mammoths lived and drowned was heavily flooded.

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For some reason, modern scientists do not take into account the facts of the presence of a geotectonic catastrophe in the recent past of the Earth. It is in the recent past.
Although for them it is already an indisputable fact of the catastrophe from which the dinosaurs died. But they attribute this event to the times of 60-65 million years ago.
There are no versions that would combine the temporary facts of the death of dinosaurs and mammoths - at the same time. Mammoths lived in temperate latitudes, dinosaurs - in the southern regions, but died at the same time.
But no, no attention is paid to the geographic attachment of animals of different climatic zones, but there is still a temporary separation.
The facts of the sudden death of a huge number of mammoths in different parts of the world have already accumulated a lot. But here the scientists again stray from the obvious conclusions.
Not only did the representatives of science age all the mammoths by 40 thousand years, they also invent versions of the natural processes in which these giants died.

American, French and Russian scientists have performed the first CT scans of Lyuba and Khroma, the youngest and best preserved mammoths.

Computed tomography (CT) slices were presented in the new issue of the Journal of Paleontology, and a summary of the results of the work can be found on the website of the University of Michigan.

Reindeer herders found Lyuba in 2007, on the banks of the Yuribey River on the Yamal Peninsula. Her corpse reached the scientists with almost no damage (only the tail was bitten off by dogs).

Chrome (this is a "boy") was discovered in 2008 on the banks of the river of the same name in Yakutia - crows and arctic foxes ate his trunk and part of his neck. Mammoths have well-preserved soft tissues (muscles, fat, internal organs, skin). Chroma was even found to have clotted blood in intact vessels and undigested milk in her stomach. The chroma was scanned in a French hospital. And at the University of Michigan, scientists took CT scans of animal teeth.

Thanks to this, it turned out that Lyuba died at the age of 30-35 days, and Khroma - 52-57 days (both mammoths were born in the spring).

Both mammoths died, choking on silt. CT scans showed a dense mass of fine-grained deposits obstructing the airways in the trunk.

The same deposits are present in Lyuba's throat and bronchi - but not inside the lungs: this suggests that Lyuba did not drown in water (as was previously believed), but suffocated, inhaling liquid mud. Chroma had a broken spine and also had dirt in his airways.

So, scientists once again confirmed our version of a global mudflow that covered the current north of Siberia and destroyed everything living there, covering a vast territory with “fine-grained sediments that clogged the respiratory tract.”

After all, such finds are observed over a vast territory and it is absurd to assume that all the mammoths found SIMULTANEOUSLY and massively began to fall into rivers and swamps.

Plus, mammoths have typical injuries for those caught in a stormy mudflow - fractures of bones and spine.

Scientists have found a very interesting detail - the death occurred either in late spring or summer. After birth in the spring, mammoths lived until death for 30-50 days. That is, the time of the change of poles was probably in the summer.

Or here's another example:

A team of Russian and American paleontologists is studying a bison that has lain in permafrost in northeastern Yakutia for about 9,300 years.

The bison, found on the shores of Lake Chukchala, is unique in that it is the first representative of this species of bovids, found at such a venerable age in complete safety - with all parts of the body and internal organs.

He was found in a recumbent position with his legs bent under his belly, his neck outstretched, and his head lying on the ground. Usually in this position, ungulates rest or sleep, but in it they die a natural death.

The age of the body, determined using radiocarbon analysis, is 9310 years, that is, the bison lived in the early Holocene. Scientists also determined that his age before his death was about four years. The bison managed to grow up to 170 cm at the withers, the span of the horns reached an impressive 71 cm, and the weight was about 500 kg.

Researchers have already scanned the animal's brain, but the cause of his death is still a mystery. No injuries were found on the corpse, as well as no pathologies of internal organs and dangerous bacteria.

In the Cenozoic era, mammals began to be exposed to a special factor that, to our knowledge, did not exist during the Cretaceous. This factor is the cooling of the climate. Therefore, to the noted changes that the continents underwent during the Cenozoic era, we must add one more thing - a change in the prevailing climate. Land masses have become colder. The cooling of the polar regions was the strongest, the equatorial regions the weakest, but one way or another it manifested itself everywhere. The influence of this cooling spread widely and affected not only mammals, but also other organisms. Let's start with a review of the data on which our conclusion about the temperature change that has taken place since the beginning of the Cenozoic is based.

Evidence of climate change. First of all, three groups of facts should be noted.

1. When drilling in the deep-water areas of the ocean, fossil shells of microscopic invertebrates were found in layers of fine-clastic Cenozoic deposits. In some layers, shells of animals living in cold water are found; above and below lie layers containing shells of animals characteristic of warmer waters.

2. In some layers of fine-clastic sediments that make up the bottom in the deep-water areas of the ocean around Antarctica, grains of quartz sand were found, bearing traces of glacial processing on the surface. These grains were probably brought into the sea with icebergs, from which, as they melted, the sandy material sank to the bottom of the sea. Sand grains of this type have been found in bottom sediments since the Eocene, which indicates the existence of glaciers in Antarctica already at that time. These grains of sand are found in the same layers, which are associated with fossil shells of cold-water invertebrates.

3. Fossil leaves of plants that grew in cold climates have been found in some layers of Cenozoic deposits on the continents. Fossil plants characteristic of warmer climates have been found in layers both above and below.

Thus, there are three types of data, different, but indicating the same thing: a decrease in temperatures in the Cenozoic, which was most pronounced in the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere. From these and some other data, a curve was constructed (Fig. 62), which shows the rise and fall of temperature during the Cenozoic era. With the exception of its extreme right side, the curve is built solely on the basis of the information listed above. The curve also shows that the temperature changes were slow and gradual, but by no means constant.

Rice. 62. The proposed pattern of temperature fluctuations on the earth's surface during the entire Cenozoic to the present day. The curve is inaccurate, as it is given in a generalized form for the entire Earth. It shows the main epochs of rising and falling temperatures. More complete information, perhaps, would make it possible to distinguish many small fluctuations superimposed on large ones shown on the curve.

Climate Fluctuations: Ice Ages. Climate change has not been permanent. Temperatures fluctuated again and again, from warmer to colder, and again to warm. The cooling first manifested itself in Antarctica, then in Alaska and other regions of the Far North. But the cold snap took hold of the middle latitudes only about two million years ago, and when it happened, the effect of the cold snap was very strong and obvious. In these latitudes, snow accumulated and huge powerful glaciers formed that covered most of North America and northern Europe. Comparatively recent epochs, when huge sheets of ice were moving over the regions of middle latitudes, are what we are accustomed to call glacial epochs; as they are named in figure 62. Yet, strictly speaking, in areas such as Antarctica and Alaska, similar ice ages occurred many millions of years earlier than shown in the figure. These ancient ice ages are much less known; they were established only in the 60s of our century, and it is not yet clear how to change the definition of the term "ice age" so that it includes these ancient events. More importantly, however, there were several glacial epochs within the Quaternary period alone, perhaps even more than is shown schematically by the serpentine curve in our diagram.

last ice age. The last ice age was relatively recent. It reached its highest point only 20,000 years ago, when a powerful ice sheet, a huge glacier, occupied almost all of Canada and most of the USA; its edge went far to the south from the areas of the present cities of New York, Chicago, Seattle. Another glacier covered the territory of Europe, spreading south to the places where the cities of Copenhagen, Berlin and Leningrad are now located. The total area of ​​glaciers that covered North America and Europe exceeded 23 million km 2, and the thickness of the ice was more than one and a half kilometers, so that the ice completely hid almost all the mountains located on the territory occupied by ice. Thus, the volume of glaciers could probably reach 37 million km 3 of ice. Now the total volume of glaciers in the United States (with the exception of Alaska) is less than 83 km3. Currently, ice exists in the form of thousands of small mountain glaciers, mostly located in the states of Washington and Oregon. In Canada, the ice volume is now much larger, probably around 41,000 km 3 , because Canada is partially located in the cold Arctic regions and the ice does not melt there longer. But even 41,000 km 3 is only a tiny fraction of the amount of ice cover that existed in Canada 20,000 years ago.

When we think about the astonishing amount of ice that so recently covered the earth's surface, we have two main questions. First, was the Ice Age an exceptional phenomenon, characteristic only of the Cenozoic era? And secondly, what are the causes of the ice ages? Let's try to answer these questions.

Ancient Ice Ages. So, firstly, did glaciations occur in earlier geological periods, long before the beginning of the Cenozoic era? Of course yes. The evidence for this is incomplete, but it is quite certain, and some of this evidence extends over large areas. Evidence for the existence of the Permian Ice Age is present on several continents (it is possible that at that time these continents were part of the same land mass), and in addition, traces of glaciers have been found on the continents dating from other epochs of the Paleozoic era up to its beginning, the Early Cambrian time. Even in much older rocks, pre-Phanerozoic, we find traces left by glaciers and glacial deposits. Some of these footprints are over two billion years old, perhaps half the age of the Earth as a planet. Is it possible to assert that even more ancient, still undiscovered glacial epochs did not exist?

In any case, even considering only the glaciations known to us, which occurred over a period of more than two billion years, we must admit that they do not contradict the principle of actualism, according to which - as applied to geological processes - there is nothing new under the Sun. Therefore, the glacial events that took place 20,000 years ago - or the modern glaciation of Antarctica - are just a repetition of the same events that have been repeated in one form or another repeatedly since the earth existed.

This is the answer to the first of two questions. A glaciation is no more extraordinary an event than the rise of a huge mountain range, both of which are repeated whenever the appropriate conditions are created. This answer makes it easier to understand the second question - why do glaciations occur? All we have to do is to define the "appropriate conditions" and then understand what happens when those conditions arise.

Why are there glaciations?

Basic conditions. The answer to this question can only be given in the light of some general information about glaciers. In many mid-latitude regions, such as the United States and Europe, part of the precipitation falls as snow. Even in the high mountains, snowfall occurs mainly in winter. If winter temperatures are low enough, the snow remains on the ground, but it melts when spring and summer arrive. However, in very high mountains, as, for example, in the northern part of the Rocky Mountains, temperatures are so low even in summer that individual patches of snow cover remain throughout the summer and are covered with fresh snow the next winter. Accumulating in this way year after year, the snow on the mountain slope is compacted and subjected to the force of gravity directed downward. This impact causes it to slide down the slope. In the course of this sliding, the compressed snow becomes a glacier. If the snowfall is heavy enough and the temperature is so low that the snow does not melt, the glacier can take on a tongue shape and continue to grow in length, moving down the mountain valley like a stream of water, but of course much more slowly.

Hundreds of large blade-shaped ice tongues, located next to each other, can be seen in the mountains, for example, in the Alps. Glaciers in adjacent valleys merge with each other when one valley flows into another. At the foot of the mountains, all the ice moving slowly down the valleys merges, spreading out as a single continuous ice sheet. What can prevent ice from spreading indefinitely? Only one, but very significant circumstance - melting. When descending from the mountains or moving to lower latitudes, the temperature rises. And sooner or later, the temperature on the outer edge of the moving glacier rises so - just so much - that all the ice that is brought here in the form of a slowly moving ice stream melts. From this point on, the edge of the glacier cannot advance further. True, the ice continues to move, but all the incoming ice melts as it enters and turns into streams of melt water.

These are the conditions for the existence of tongue-shaped glaciers, which tourists usually see in the Alps, the Rocky Mountains of Canada and other mountainous regions. Such glaciers occupy mountain valleys, and the position of their lower ends is determined by the ratio of the rate of ice flow and the rate of melting. Under the present climates, glaciers cannot change significantly. But as soon as the temperature on the surface of the Earth drops even a little, and they all begin to increase in length. If temperatures drop sufficiently, the Ice Age will repeat itself, when half of North America was uninhabitable for humans and most animals.

The meaning of what has been said boils down to the fact that the ice age is a natural result of a decrease in temperature ( The immediate cause of glaciation is much more complicated - it consists in an increase in the amount of solid precipitation accumulated on land, which in turn can depend on two different reasons: a decrease in temperature, which reduces melting, and an increase in temperature (the air becomes wetter, precipitation increases). - Approx. ed) on Earth by only a few degrees. What is mysterious about glaciations is not where the snow and ice come from, what is mysterious is the reason for the decrease in temperature. As long as the principle of actualism remains unshakable and as long as the water cycle in nature continues, snow and ice will always exist in the coldest places on the planet. The Ice Age begins only when the temperature drops so much that precipitation falls in the form of snow over large areas, summers become cool and ice melt decreases.

This balance is very unstable. And now we are not as far from glaciation as many people think. Calculation data based on long-term observations of the weather in the mountains of southern Norway, in the area of ​​the ski resorts between Oslo and Bergen, show that a decrease in the average annual temperature of only 3 ° C over a long period will be enough to cause such changes in glaciers that in As a result, a new glaciation of Europe will begin. Indeed, most of the ice that spread in the northwestern part of Europe to its maximum limits about 20,000 years ago had its source in snowfalls in these mountains of southern Norway. Of course, snow was added to this, which fell on a much larger area of ​​​​the glacier itself, and, once it began, the glaciation grew like a snowball rolling down a slope.

It is quite clear that the state of the glacier depends mainly on the climate. Where temperatures are high enough, there are no glaciers. Where temperatures are low, glaciers form, but their boundary is the line where the influx of ice is balanced by melting. From this it follows that the Ice Age, when glaciers are large and numerous, is an era of low temperatures and, therefore, a time when precipitation occurs in the form of snow. The natural result of this is that the equilibrium line of inflow and melting of ice is shifted to lower latitudes, so that large areas are covered by ice. After reaching the "peak" of glaciation, as temperatures rise, the critical line shifts back to high latitudes, glaciers shrink and the ice age comes to an end.

By now, the peak of the last ice age is far behind - 20,000 years ago. Most of the ice, which reached a volume of more than 23 million km 3 20,000 years ago, melted, and the melt water flowed into the sea. But even now, 20,000 years after the coldest moment, ice persists where high altitudes or cold climates prevent it from melting. Even now, there are still over a thousand glaciers in the United States (not counting Alaska) and over 1,200 in the Alps. Greenland still has one large glacier [ice sheet. - Ed.], covering most of the island and having 2400 kilometers in length and 800 kilometers in width. The volume of the Greenland glacier, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere, reaches 3.3 million km3. All this ice was formed as a result of the fact that sometime in the past snow fell here and still has not melted.

Turning to the southern hemisphere, we see in its very center, just around the South Pole, the mainland Antarctica. Compared with the size of the ice sheet of this continent, the huge block of the Greenland glacier seems insignificant. Its volume is more than 20 million km 3 ( The ice volume of Antarctica is 24 million km3, Greenland - 1 million km3. - Approx. ed), which makes up more than 90% of all ice on Earth and more than 75% of the total fresh water in both liquid and solid form. The Antarctic ice sheet occupies almost the entire continent, and its area is almost 1/3 larger than the entire area of ​​the United States, including Alaska. Therefore, it would be fair to assume that in Antarctica, unlike North America, the Ice Age has not ended. Ice still almost completely covers this continent, although it is possible that its area was even larger 20,000 years ago. North America has been glaciated several times, the glacier has come and gone, however, as far as we can tell, Antarctica has been continuously covered in ice for at least the last 10 million years. The ice sheet increased or decreased in volume with climate fluctuations, but probably did not completely disappear, unlike the ice sheets of North America and Europe. The reason for this difference is obvious, since Antarctica is the highest continent with the highest average surface elevations. An even more important circumstance is that it is located at the South Pole, where temperatures are constantly very low. All precipitation falls here in the form of snow and does not melt. Therefore, once formed, ice persists not only throughout the year, but also for millions of years. It slides down to the outer edge of the continent covered by it, like a huge mass of dough in a frying pan. When the ice reached the coast, when it descended into the ocean, blocks broke off from it, forming large flat-topped icebergs. Several measured icebergs were found to be huge. One iceberg is twice the size of the state of Connecticut. Having turned into an iceberg floating in the sea, the ice gradually melts, but the movement of ice on the surface of the continent towards the sea is continuous.

Ripple. Summarizing the basic conditions necessary for the formation of glaciers, we note that for this it is only necessary that the land be located at sufficient heights or at sufficiently high latitudes to ensure temperatures so low that the snow does not melt there throughout the year. As we have seen, highlands are formed by the movement of crustal plates and the collision of continents. From time to time, high mountains are formed, but such movements occur very slowly. The measured rate of crustal plate movements is on the order of several centimeters per year. If plate movements and the formation of new mountains were the only causes of glaciation, then glaciation could not (as it actually did) end in only 20,000 years or less. If everything were explained by the movements of crustal plates, then nothing would prevent a glacier, once formed and spread over most of the continent, to persist for millions of years until the mountains were gradually lowered by erosion or until the continent floating with the crustal plate was moved slowly to warmer latitudes where the ice sheet could melt.

Glaciations, at least those that occurred in the middle latitudes, began and ended much more quickly than would have been the case if they had been caused by the slow and inflexible process of continental movement. Changes took place over not millions, but only thousands of years. Thanks to numerous radiocarbon datings, it has become possible to construct an approximate but fairly reliable chronological scale that reproduces the course of the melting of a huge mass of ice that occupied most of North America only 20,000 years ago. The process of destruction of the glacier began about 15,000 years ago and ended about 6,000 years ago. In other words, it took only about 9,000 years for the melting of this huge ice sheet (Fig. 63). At the same time, about 37 million km 3 of ice was turned into water, which glassed into the nearest rivers and through them into the ocean.

Not only did this process last only 9000 years, but at the initial stages its course was interrupted several times by periods when the thickness of the ice increased and it advanced again, and then its reduction began again. Such periods in Europe, North America and New Zealand occurred at about the same time. Hence, the obvious conclusion is that there is another cause of climate change, which acts quickly and manifests itself simultaneously throughout the world and does not depend on mountain building and the movement of the plates of the Earth's crust.

Rice. 63. Scheme of North American glacier melt at the end of the last ice age (mainly from the Geological Survey of Canada). A. North America 20,000-15,000 years ago

Rice. 63. Scheme of North American glacier melt at the end of the last ice age (mainly from the Geological Survey of Canada). B. About 12,000-10,000 years ago

Rice. 63. Scheme of North American glacier melt at the end of the last ice age (mainly from the Geological Survey of Canada). B. About 9,000 years ago

Rice. 63. Scheme of North American glacier melt at the end of the last ice age (mainly from the Geological Survey of Canada). D. About 7,000 years ago

Many attempts have been made to establish this cause and several hypotheses have been proposed, but none of them is generally accepted among scientists studying this problem. We will have to be content with a single hypothesis that explains the facts, although it has not yet been proven. This theory suggests that the amount of heat energy the Earth receives from the Sun varies in a slow pulsating manner, causing temperatures to constantly fluctuate within small limits. The idea is simple enough, but we don't yet have the means to prove it right or wrong. Having accepted this hypothesis for lack of a better one, we can assert that during the predominance of lowlands and vast seas (say, during the Cretaceous period), only very few glaciers (or none at all) could exist on Earth, and, consequently, the supposed slow pulsations of thermal The energy coming to the Earth's surface could only have a weak effect on the climate. But at a time (suppose, in the Cenozoic), when there were uplands and numerous mountainous areas, and a significant part of the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe continents was at fairly high latitudes, many glaciers could exist on the uplands. In this case, the pulsation, which at least slightly lowered the temperature, could lead to a catastrophic increase in the area of ​​glaciers. Conversely, a small increase in temperature could have the opposite, but equally disastrous, result. We cannot say more yet.

The impact of glaciers on the Earth's surface

Glacial erosion. Mapping of ancient glaciers is possible mainly because moving ice leaves noticeable traces on the surface on which it moves. The ice scrapes, polishes, and in various other ways destroys the surface, and then it deposits the products of the destruction of the rocks. As a result, it is often possible to see how friable products-deposits of the glacier lie on the surface eroded by the glacier, separated from it by a sharp boundary. Both the rocky surface and the deposits lying on it bear distinct, in most cases easily recognizable traces of the former presence of a glacier.

Fragments of rock of various sizes, picked up by moving ice, freeze into the lower surface of the ice and, like sand particles on sandpaper, scrape and scratch the rocky surface, leaving many intermittent furrows and scratches on the glacier bed (photo 51), which are completely different from traces, left behind by streams. In places, whole blocks of rock are separated along cracks from the bedrock and are carried away by the glacier, increasing the number of fragments that have frozen into the base of the glacier.

Photo 51. Glacial strokes and scratches on the surface of sandstones. The wreckage was left behind by a glacier moving away from the camera

Glacial accumulation. Fragments of rocks included in the ice are carried by it and deposited along the path of the glacier, forming a layer of sediments, which in some places, closer to the edge of the glacier, can reach considerable thickness. Since ice is a solid body, the deposition of debris by ice is completely different from that of a river. In a river, particles are deposited according to their size. The deposition of clastic material at the base of the glacier occurs in the same order as during the transfer, that is, without any sorting, coarse particles mixed with fine ones, boulders next to silty particles (photo 52). The resulting deposits often look like a pile of soil that has been bulldozed. In addition, unlike rounded river pebbles, which are overturned and rolled over by the stream, rock fragments in glacial deposits retain an irregular shape and have flat edges formed when a fragment frozen into the base of a glacier rubs against the rocky surface (photo 53).

Photo 52. Clastic deposits from the time of the last glaciation, consisting of unrounded rock fragments of various sizes, unsorted and unstratified. These features distinguish them from water sediments. The handle of the ice ax is 45 cm long. North slope of Mount Rainier, Washington

In some places along and near the outer edge of the glacier, the deposited debris is displaced by water as the glacier melts. In such places, this material loses its typically glacial character and acquires sorting and layering as a result of processing by flowing waters. In this case, a series of layered deposits are randomly interspersed with strata of non-layered material.

Photo 53 Six pebbles randomly selected from glacial deposits in New York State. Each pebble has one or more flat edges smoothed by a glacier

But whether or not they contain layered material, in general glacial deposits tend to form large or small ridges along the edge of the glacier. Such a ridge is a terminal moraine, a characteristic shape created by glaciation. In some areas, several moraines are observed, located one after another, each of which fixes the position of the edge of the glacier at the time of its deposition.

Streams of meltwater flowing from under the edge of the glacier, marked by a terminal moraine, deposited pebbles and sand in their valleys, sorted and layered, like real river sediments. Some of these deposits are up to 30 meters thick or even more, and spread across the entire width of the valley. Many sand-pebble deposits along the valleys of the Ohio or Mississippi rivers, traced along the Mississippi valley to the very delta, have a glacial origin. And yet, despite the large volume of these deposits, even if we add to them the glacial deposits distributed in the glacial boundaries, further north, the total thickness of the layer of weathering products and bedrock removed by the huge ice sheets that once covered North America and Europe is surprisingly small. We do not know exactly, but we can assume that the average thickness of this layer is probably no more than 7.5 meters.

lake depressions. A more obvious result of the influence of the glacier, and in particular the great ice sheets, on the relief was the formation of large and small depressions, many of which filled with water and became lakes. On any good large-scale map of Canada, the United States, or northern Europe, you can see that most of the lakes are concentrated in areas of ancient glaciation. There are hundreds of thousands of lakes in North America alone.

Depressions are created by the glacier in several ways. Some are formed as a result of partial removal of fractured bedrock by moving ice. Others are depressions in the uneven surface of glacial deposits. Still others are river valleys dammed by glacial deposits. (The Great Lakes of America have this origin, at least in part.) Many shallow basins were formed as a result of the melting of blocks of ice ranging in size from several meters to tens of kilometers across, which were buried under glacial deposits. When such a block thaws, a depression is formed, into which sediments that previously lay on the ice sink. Among the many thousands of lakes in Minnesota, many are of this origin.

Weaker climate fluctuations

Climate after 1800 Temperature measurements taken by government agencies in most countries show temperature changes since the beginning of the 19th century. In the most general form, these changes are shown in the curve of Figure 64. It indicates that over the past hundred years, the average annual temperatures have increased by more than half a degree Celsius, and this increase has been uneven. It affected most of the planet, both tropical and high latitudes, both the northern and southern hemispheres. Then, after 1940, a cooling period began. Temperatures dropped, and by 1970 they reached the level that was observed around 1920. Thus, the fact is established that the climates of the Earth are not something constant and unchanged, but are subject to significant changes. The warm winters and hot summers that occurred in the 1930s in the western United States appear to be part of an overall warming climate that was on a large scale.

Not surprisingly, the record of fluctuations in the size of small glaciers in the mountains of North America and in the Alps shows similarities with the temperature curve (Fig. 64). Measurements carried out on the same glaciers over a number of years show that between the end of the 19th century. and the middle of the 20th century. many glaciers have generally shrunk. But from around 1950, some glaciers began to increase again. Their regime reflects a change in trend, which is established by the temperature curve, but so far too little time has passed to be able to judge whether the direction of glacier development has changed.

Rice. 64. Curve of temperature fluctuations (averaged for periods of five years)

Climate for the last 1000 years. Temperature measurements with the thermometer began to be made only shortly before the beginning of the 18th century, but a general idea of ​​temperature fluctuations on a large scale in Europe, as well as in Japan over the past thousand years, can be obtained using various indirect methods. Various data show that approximately from the 11th to the 13th centuries. the climate has been warmer than at any time since then. It was the "Viking period" - a time when the summers were so warm and dry and when the northern seas were so free of floating ice that the Norwegians could sail everywhere in small boats. They even established colonies of 3,000 people or more in the south of Greenland, which traded agricultural products with Europe. However, after about 1500, trade ceased and communication with Europe was almost interrupted. The colonies were isolated, and in the XVIII century. the ship that arrived there did not find the descendants of the settlers of this once prosperous colony.

Carried out in the XX century. archaeological research of one hundred burials in the cemetery of one of the colonies helped to restore part of the later history of the colony. The soil at the burial site was frozen, as it is now in most Arctic regions, although it is clear that at the time of the burial, it was not frozen. The remains belonged to young people, which indicates a short life expectancy, small stature, which, combined with the deformation of the skeletons and unusually badly decayed teeth, suggests poor nutrition. It is likely that these people died from disease, starvation and other causes resulting from a long gradual deterioration of the climate.

After the "Viking period" and until the XVII century. throughout Europe there was a general drop in temperature. In Norway and the Alps, the inhabitants of the mountain villages were forced to retreat before the advancing glaciers. The lower limit of woody vegetation in the Alps also gradually decreased, yields ceased, and vineyards in the mountains of Germany were abandoned. Winters have become longer and colder. Anyone who has looked closely at 17th-century Dutch landscapes will remember that many of them depict winter scenes of people skating on frozen canals. You don't see that often these days.

Summarizing the above, it can be noted that the record of climate change over the past thousand years includes both the early "Viking period", which was warmer than the modern one, and the later cold period, which was colder than the modern one. The warming at the beginning of this century marked the end of this very cold period. On the whole, the given data confirm climate variability.

Last 10,000 years. In Sweden, Finland and other northern countries, vegetation is distributed in clearly defined zones, which are mainly determined by temperature (recall Fig. 35). The territory of these countries is dotted with lake depressions created by the great glaciers of the past, as described above. The age of almost all depressions is younger than 15,000 years, and many are younger than 10,000 years (Fig. 63). Some lakes were completely filled with sediments, mainly plant remains in the form of peat, and turned into swamps. Others, although still lakes, are gradually filled with peat. The deposits include not only plant stems and leaves, but also a large amount of pollen from plants growing around the lake.

Scientists assumed that by drilling a hole in the peat deposits that fill a swamp or lake, and identifying the plants found in each layer, they could reconstruct in detail the change of vegetation that surrounded the lake (Fig. 65). The change in the composition of vegetation during the transition from one layer to another should have reflected climate change, which began with the melting of the glacier. They expected that the vegetation would change from tundra in the lower horizons (represented by arctic grasses and shrubs growing near the glacier) to modern woody vegetation in the upper part of the section.

Rice. 65. A swamp that occupies a depression in glacial deposits, in which pollen from plants growing in the vicinity is deposited annually. Gradually, layers of fallen leaves, stems and other plant residues accumulate in it, forming peat.

After doing this experiment, scientists discovered and identified fossil plants (mainly by pollen), but were surprised by the change in vegetation from the bottom up. The vegetation changed from tundra to spruce and fir forests, then to birch and pine forests and on to oak, beech, alder and hazel, thus showing gradual warming. But higher, in the upper layers, these plants were again replaced by birch and pine, which mainly grow here at the present time. Oak, beech and hazel now grow much further south. However, radiocarbon dating of the layer containing oak, beech and hazel shows that this layer was formed about 5000 years ago.

In this case, it is obvious that the warmest climate was about 5000 years ago (3000 BC). At that time, the average temperatures were higher than modern (at the same points) by about 1 ° C. Then the trend of climate change reversed, the climate became wetter and the sky colder, the oak trees surrounding the swamp died and were replaced by birch and pine. Thus, we have received one more reliable evidence of climate fluctuations; instead of getting gradually warmer since the beginning of the glacier melt during the great glaciation, the climate 5,000 years ago became drier and warmer than it is today. At that time, glaciers in the Alps and Rocky Mountains were less numerous and smaller in size. Many of today's glaciers began to form less than 5,000 years ago and are thus "modern" glaciers and not remnants of glaciers from the last ice age ( Changes in climate and the size of glaciers occur continuously. Cooling and an increase in glaciers were in the XVIII - early XIX centuries. ("Little Ice Age"), in the 40-60s of the XIX century. (minor), warming in the 1920s-1940s, in the 1970s (minor). - Approx. ed).

Future

Scientists who study climate history are often asked two questions. The first of them: "Will there be a new glaciation?", and the second: "If there is, then when?" The first question is the easiest to answer. Most scientists agree to say "Yes, probably" because there have already been several glaciations in the last two million years, and the main conditions necessary for the occurrence of glaciation are land elevation, numerous mountains and the presence of a vast ice sheet at the South Pole. - still exist.

The answer to the second question is much less clear. The information we have about climates is still not accurate enough to judge whether there is a clear pattern in the frequency of glaciations. If we knew that such a pattern exists, and if we could measure the intervals between past glaciations, then we could predict what the climate of the future holds for us. Perhaps such a prediction will become possible in the future, but at present it is impossible.

Literature

Flint R. F. 1971, Glacial and Quaternary geology: John Wiley & Sons, New York. There is a Russian translation: Flint RF., Glaciers and Pleistocene Paleogeography, Moscow, IL, 1963.

Hovgaard William, 1925, The Norsemen in Greenland: "Georg. Rev.", v. 15, p. 605-616.

Lamb H. H., 1965, The early medieval warm epoch and its sequel: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 1, p. 13-37.

Pjst Austin, LaChapelle E. R., 1971, Glacier ice: The Mountaineers: University of Washington Press, Seattle.

Schwarzbach Martin, 1963, Climates of the past: D. Van Nostrand Company, Princeton, N. J. There is a Russian translation: Schwarzbach M., Climates of the past, M., IL, 1955.

An extremely important role in shaping the nature of the Earth and, in particular, the North was played by the ice ages, or the Great Glaciations. They are associated with sea level fluctuations that formed sea terraces, the formation of troughs, the appearance of permafrost, and many other features of the nature of the Arctic.

The influence of the cooling went far beyond the confines of the glaciers: the climates differed sharply from modern ones, and the temperatures of sea waters were much lower. The area of ​​permafrost, or permafrost, was up to 27 million square kilometers (20% of the land area!), And floating ice occupied about half the area of ​​the World Ocean. If the Earth at that time was visited by intelligent beings, it would certainly have been called the Ice Planet.

Such a geography was characteristic of the Earth at least four times during the Quaternary period of its existence, and over the past two million years, researchers have counted up to 17 glaciations. At the same time, the last ice age was not the most grandiose: about 100 thousand years ago, ice bound up to 45 million square kilometers of land. The interglacial situation on Earth, similar to the modern one, turns out to be a purely temporary state. After all, the glaciations of the Earth lasted approximately 100 thousand years each, and the intervals of warming between them were less than 20 thousand years. Even in the rather warm present, glaciers occupy about 11% of the land area - almost 15 million square kilometers. Permafrost stretches in a wide belt across North America and Eurasia. In winter, about 12 million square kilometers in the Arctic Ocean, and in the oceans around Antarctica, more than 20 million square kilometers are bound by floating ice.

Why do ice ages start on Earth? In order for the planet to begin glaciation, two conditions are necessary. A global (that is, covering most of the Earth) cooling should occur - such that snow becomes one of the main types of precipitation and that, having fallen in winter, it does not have time to melt over the summer. And besides, there should be a lot of precipitation - enough to ensure the growth of glaciers. Both conditions seem simple. But what causes the cold? There may be several reasons, and we do not know which of them determined the onset of this or that glaciation. Maybe several reasons worked at once. Possible causes of glaciation of the Earth are as follows.

Continents, being parts of the lithospheric plates, move along the surface of the Earth like rafts on water. Finding themselves in polar or subpolar regions (like modern Antarctica), the continents fall into favorable conditions for the formation of an ice sheet. There is little precipitation, but the temperature is low enough that it falls mainly as snow and does not melt in the summer. The shifts of the geographic poles could lead to the shifts of natural zones, respectively, the continent could get into polar conditions without moving - they "came" to it themselves.

During rapid mountain building, significant land masses can be above the snow line (ie, such a height, upon reaching which the temperature becomes so low that the accumulation of snow and ice prevails over their melting and evaporation). At the same time, mountain glaciers are formed, the temperature becomes even lower. The cooling goes beyond the mountains, the foot glaciers appear. The temperature drops even lower, glaciers grow and the glaciation of the Earth begins.

In fact, during the period from the Pliocene to the middle of the Pleistocene, the Alps rose by more than two thousand meters, the Himalayas by three thousand meters.

The climate and, in particular, average air temperatures are affected by the composition of the atmosphere (greenhouse effect). It is also possible that the atmosphere is dusty (for example, volcanic ash or dust raised by a meteorite impact). The dust reflects sunlight and the temperature drops.

The oceans influence the climate in many ways. One of them is the storage of heat and its redistribution across the planet by ocean currents. The movements of the continents can lead to the fact that the influx of warm water into the polar regions will decrease so much that they will cool greatly. Something like this happened when the Bering Strait, which connects the Arctic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, became almost closed (and there were periods when it was completely closed and when it was wide open). Therefore, the mixing of water in the Arctic Ocean is difficult, and almost all of it is covered with ice.

Cooling can be associated with a decrease in the amount of solar heat coming to Earth. The reasons for this may be related to fluctuations in solar activity or fluctuations in the spatial relationship between the Earth and the Sun. Known are the calculations of the Yugoslav geophysicist M. Milankovich, who in the 1920s analyzed changes in solar radiation depending on changes in the Earth-Sun system. The cycles of such changes roughly coincide with the cycles of glaciations. To date, this hypothesis is the most substantiated.

Each ice age was accompanied by characteristic processes. Continental ice sheets grew in high and temperate latitudes. Mountain glaciers grew all over the planet. Ice shelves appeared in the polar regions. Floating ice spread widely - in high latitudes with moving ice floes and icebergs in the vast waters of the World Ocean. Permafrost areas increased in high and temperate latitudes, outside the glaciers.

Atmospheric circulation changed - temperature drops increased in temperate latitudes, storms in the oceans became more frequent, and the interior of the continents in the tropics dried up. The circulation of oceanic waters was also rebuilt - the currents stopped or deviated due to the growth of ice sheets. The sea level fluctuated sharply (up to 250 m), as the growth and destruction of ice sheets was accompanied by the withdrawal and return of water to the World Ocean. In connection with these fluctuations, sea terraces appeared and are preserved in the relief - surfaces formed by the sea surf on ancient coastlines. At present, they may be above or below the modern coast (depending on whether the ocean level was above or below the modern one at the time of their formation).

Finally, there were enormous changes in the position and size of the vegetation belts and corresponding shifts in the distribution of animals.

The most recent cooling period was the Little Ice Age, recorded in the history of Western Europe, the Far East and other regions. It began around the 11th century, culminated about 200 years ago, and is gradually waning. In Iceland and Greenland, the period from 800 to 1000 AD was characterized by a warm, dry climate. Then the climate deteriorated sharply, and for four hundred years the Viking settlements in Greenland fell into complete disrepair due to the intensifying cold and the cessation of contact with the outside world. The passage of ships off the coast of Greenland has become impossible due to the removal of sea ice from the Arctic. In Scandinavia and a number of other regions, the Little Ice Age was manifested by extremely severe winters, glacier movements, and frequent crop failures.

What happened to the inhabitants of the northern regions of the Earth during the glaciations and the interglacials that separated them? The growth and melting of ice sheets affect all living organisms.

Near the equator, climate change was not particularly great, and many animals (elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos) survived the ice ages quite calmly. In the polar regions, however, the changes were very sharp. The temperature dropped, there was not enough water (there was plenty of ice and snow, but plants and animals also need liquid water), vast territories were occupied by ice. And in order to survive, the inhabitants of the North had to go south. But it is curious that at high latitudes regions remained - shelters, i.e. areas where survival was possible.

A decisive role in the survival of northern species was probably played by the vast ice-free territory that existed during the maximum glaciation 18 thousand years ago in the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and adjacent areas. This area is known as Beringia. Recall that the maximum glaciation is the time when huge amounts of water were bound in glaciers, and therefore the level of the World Ocean was greatly reduced, and the shelves (and in the Arctic Ocean they are extremely large) were drained.

However, ice-free areas like Beringia and the southern regions could not save everyone. And about 10 thousand years ago, not only many species, but also genera of animals and plants became extinct (for example, mammoths - Elephas and mastodons - Mastodon).

It is possible, however, that this extinction was associated not only with changes in the landscape sphere, but also with the appearance of man here. Perhaps it was hunting that played a decisive role in the life and death of many inhabitants of the polar regions.

Mankind was born and grew stronger during the period of the great glaciations of the planet. These two facts are quite enough for us to take a special interest in the problems of ice age. A great many books and magazines are devoted to them and are regularly dedicated to them - mountains of facts and hypotheses. Even if you are lucky enough to master them, fuzzy contours of new hypotheses, conjectures, assumptions will inevitably loom ahead.

In our time, scientists from all countries and all specialties have found a common language. This is mathematics: numbers, formulas, graphs.

Why the glaciation of the Earth occurs is still unclear. Not because it is difficult to find the cause of the cold snap. Rather, because there are too many reasons found. At the same time, scientists cite many facts in defense of their opinions, use formulas and the results of many years of observation.

Here are some hypotheses (out of a huge number):
It's all the Earth's fault
1) If our planet was previously in a molten state, then over time it cools down and becomes covered with glaciers.

Unfortunately, this simple and clear explanation contradicts all available scientific data. Glaciations also occurred in the "young years" of the Earth.

2) Two hundred years ago, the German philosopher Herder suggested that the poles of the Earth are moving.

The geologist Wegner "turned inside out" this idea: it is not the poles that move to the continents, but the blocks of the continents swim to the poles along the fluid, underlying shell of the planet. So far, it has not been possible to convincingly prove the movement of the continents. And is it the only thing? In Verkhoyansk, for example, it is much colder than at the North Pole, and glaciers still do not form there.

3) Up the slopes of the mountains, after each kilometer of ascent, the air temperature drops by 5-7 degrees. The movements of the earth's crust that began millions of years ago have now led to its rise by 300-600 meters. The decrease in the area of ​​the oceans further cooled the planet: after all, water is a good heat accumulator.

But what about multiple advances of the glacier in the same epoch? The surface of the earth could not fluctuate up and down so often.

4) For the growth of glaciers, not only cold is needed, but also a lot of snow. This means that if for some reason the ice of the Arctic Ocean melts, its waters will intensively evaporate and fall out on the nearest continents. Winter snows will not have time to melt in the short northern summer, ice will begin to accumulate. All of this is speculation, with almost no proof. (By the way, I thought it would be great if our education, in addition to standard subjects and topics, included such unusual, but at the same time important topics as the theory of Earth glaciation.)

A place under the sun

Astronomers are accustomed to thinking in terms of mathematics. Their conclusions about the causes and rhythms of glaciation are distinguished by accuracy, clarity and ... cause many doubts. The distance from the Earth to the Sun, the tilt of the earth's axis does not remain constant. They are affected by the influence of the planets, the shape of the Earth (it is not a ball and the axis of its own rotation does not pass through its center).

The Serbian scientist Milanković plotted the increase or decrease over time in the amount of solar heat for a certain parallel, depending on the position of the Earth relative to the Sun. In the future, these charts were refined and supplemented. Their surprising coincidence with glaciations was revealed. It would seem that everything became absolutely clear.

However, Milankovitch compiled his schedule only for the last million years of the Earth's life. And before? And then the position of the Earth relative to the Sun changed periodically, and there were no glaciations for tens of millions of years! This means that the influence of secondary causes has been accurately calculated, while the most important ones have not been taken into account. It's like determining the hours, minutes, seconds of solar eclipses without knowing what days and years the eclipse will occur.

This shortcoming of astronomical theory was tried to be eliminated by assuming the movement of the continents towards the poles. But continental drift itself has not been proven.

Star pulse

Stars twinkle in the sky at night. This beautiful sight is an optical illusion, something like a mirage. Well, what if the stars and ours really twinkle (of course, very slowly)?

Then the cause of glaciation should be sought in the Sun. But how to catch the unhurried fluctuations of its radiation, continuing for millennia?

So far, the connection between the Earth's climate and sunspots has not been reliably established. The upper layers of the atmosphere are sensitive to an increase in solar activity. They transmit their excitement to the surface of the Earth. In years of high solar activity, more precipitation accumulates in lakes and seas, and annual tree rings thicken.

The evidence of eleven-year and hundred-year cycles of solar activity is quite convincing. Incidentally, they can be traced in layered deposits deposited millions and even hundreds of millions of years ago. Our luminary is remarkable for its enviable constancy.

But on the other hand, long solar cycles, with which glaciations can be associated, are almost completely unexplored. Exploring them is a matter for the future.

Nebulae…

Some scientists use cosmic forces to explain glaciations. The simplest: in its galactic journey, the solar system bypasses more or less heated parts of space.

There is another opinion: the intensity of the radiation of the Milky Way changes periodically. At the beginning of the last century, another hypothesis was proposed. Giant clouds of cosmic dust float in interstellar space. When the Sun passes through these clusters (like an airplane in clouds), the dust particles absorb some of the sun's rays destined for the Earth. The planet is cooling. When there are gaps among the cosmic cloud, the heat flux increases and the Earth “warms up” again.

Mathematical calculations disproved this assumption. It turned out that the density of nebulae is low. At a short distance from the Earth to the Sun, the influence of dust will have almost no effect.

Other researchers attributed the increased activity of the Sun to its passage through cosmic hydrogen clouds, believing that then, due to the influx of new material, the brightness of the Sun could increase by 10 percent.

This hypothesis, like some others, is difficult to disprove or prove.

How could it be.

Too often adherents of one scientific theory are intransigent to their opponents, and the general unity in the search for truth gives way to uncoordinated efforts. Currently, this shortcoming is increasingly being overcome. Increasingly, scientists are in favor of generalizing many hypotheses into a single whole.

Perhaps, on its cosmic path, the Sun, falling into different regions of the Galaxy, either increases or decreases the strength of its radiation (or this happens due to internal changes in the Sun itself). A slow decline or rise in temperature begins on the entire surface of the Earth, where the main source of heat is the sun's rays.

If during a slow "solar cooling" significant uplifts of the earth's crust occur, the land area increases, the direction and strength of the winds change, and with them the ocean currents, then the climate in the polar regions can deteriorate significantly. (An additional influence of the movement of the pole or the drift of the continents is not excluded).

Changes in air temperature will come quickly, while the oceans will still store heat. (In particular, the Arctic Ocean will not yet be Arctic). Evaporation from their surface will be high and precipitation, especially snow, will increase.

The earth will enter an ice age.

Against the background of a general cooling, the influence of astronomical factors on the climate will be more clearly revealed. But not as clear as shown in the Milankovitch chart.

It will be necessary to take into account the probable fluctuations in the radiation of the Sun itself. How do ice ages end?

The movements of the earth's crust subside, the Sun "burns hotter". Ice, water, wind smooth mountains and hills. More and more precipitation accumulates in the oceans, and from this, and most importantly - from the melting of glaciers that has begun, the level of the seas rises, water moves towards the land. Due to the increase in the water surface - additional "warming" of the Earth.

Warming, like glaciation, is growing like an avalanche. The first minor climate changes entail others, more and more new ones are connected to them ...

Finally, the surface of the planet will smooth out. Streams of warm air will begin to spread freely from the equator to the poles. The abundance of seas, custodians of solar heat, will contribute to climate mitigation. There will come a long "thermal calm" of the planet. Until the next ice age.

Has the climate always been like it is now?

Each of us can say that the climate is not always the same. A number of dry years are replaced by rainy ones; After cold winters come warm ones. But these climate fluctuations are still not so great that they could significantly affect the life of plants or animals within a short period of time. So, for example, the tundra with its polar birches, dwarf willows, mosses and lichens, with the polar animals inhabiting it - arctic foxes, lemmings (pied), reindeer - does not develop in such a short time in those places where cooling occurs. But has it always been like this? Was it always cold in Siberia, and was it as warm in the Caucasus and Crimea as it is now?

It has long been known that caves in different places, including, for example, in the Crimea and the Caucasus, contain the remains of the culture of an ancient man. Fragments of pottery, stone knives, scrapers and other household items, fragments of animal bones and the remains of long-extinguished fires were found there.

About 25 years ago, archaeologists led by G. A. Bonch-Osmolovsky began excavations of these caves and made remarkable discoveries. In the caves of the Baidarskaya Valley (in the Crimea) and in the vicinity of Simferopol, several cultural layers were found, one above the other. Scientists attribute the middle and lower layers to the ancient stone period of human life, when a person used coarse, unpolished stone tools, the so-called Paleolithic, and the upper layers to the metal period, when a person began to use tools made of metals: copper, bronze and iron. There were no intermediate layers dating back to the new stone period (Neolithic), that is, to the period when a person had already learned to grind and drill stones and make pottery.

Among the finds of the ancient stone period, not a single fragment of a clay shard and not a single bone of a domestic animal was found (these finds were found only in the upper layers). Paleolithic man did not yet know how to make pottery. All his household items were made of stone and bone. He probably also had wooden handicrafts, but they have not been preserved. Stone and bone products were quite diverse: spearheads and darts (the Paleolithic man did not know the bow and arrow), scrapers for dressing leather, chisels, thin flint plates - knives, needles made of bones.

Paleolithic man and domestic animals did not have. In the remains of its fires, many bones of only wild animals were found: mammoth, rhinoceros, giant deer, saigas, cave lion, cave bear, cave hyena, birds, etc. But in other places, at sites of the same time, for example, at the site of Afontova Gora near Krasnoyarsk, in Kostenki near Voronezh, among the animal bones were found the remains of a wolf, which, according to some scientists, belonged to a domesticated wolf, and among the bone crafts on Afontova Gora, some turned out to be very similar to parts of modern reindeer teams. These findings suggest that at the end of the Paleolithic, the first domestic animals probably already appeared in humans. These animals were the dog (the domesticated wolf) and the reindeer.

When they began to carefully study the bones of animals from the Crimean Paleolithic caves, they made another remarkable discovery. In the middle layers, which scientists attribute to the second half of the ancient Stone Age, in other words, to the Upper Paleolithic, numerous bones of polar foxes (Arctic foxes), white hares, reindeer, polar larks, white partridges were found; now they are ordinary inhabitants of the far north - the tundra. But the climate of the Arctic, as you know, is far from being as warm as in the Crimea. Consequently, when polar animals lived in the Crimea, it was colder there than now. The same conclusion was made by scientists after studying the coals from the fires of the Crimean Upper Paleolithic man: it turned out that northern mountain ash, juniper and birch served as firewood for this man. The same thing happened in the sites of the Upper Paleolithic man in the Caucasus, with the only difference that instead of polar animals, representatives of the taiga were found there - elks and representatives of alpine meadows - some sulfur mice (Promethean mice), which now live high in the mountains, and in At that time they lived almost on the very shore of the sea.

Numerous remains of human camps of the Upper Paleolithic period were also discovered in many other places in the Soviet Union: on the Oka, on the Don, on the Dnieper, in the Urals, in Siberia (on the Ob, Yenisei, Lena and Angara); and everywhere in these sites, among the remains of animals, bones of polar animals were found, which now do not live in these places. All this indicates that the climate of the Upper Paleolithic era was more severe than at present.

But if in those distant times it was cold even in the Crimea and the Caucasus, then what was the noise, where Moscow and Leningrad are now? What was at that time in northern and central Siberia, where even now in winter 40 degrees below zero is not uncommon?

Huge territories of Europe and Northern Asia were covered at that time with solid ice, reaching a thickness of two kilometers in places! South of Kyiv, Kharkov and Voronezh, ice descended in two giant tongues along the valleys of the modern rivers of the Dnieper and Don. The Ural and Altai mountains were covered with ice cloaks that descended far into the plains. The same glaciers were in the mountains of the Caucasus, reaching almost to the sea. That is why those animals that now live near the glaciers, high in the mountains, were found in the sites of man of the ancient Stone Age near the sea. Crimea at that time was a refuge for various animals. A huge glacier, which moved into the Russian plain from the north - from Finland and Scandinavia, forced the animals that lived there to retreat to the south. Therefore, in a small area of ​​Crimea, there was such a mixture of steppe and polar animals.

It was the era of the Great Ice Age of the Earth.

What traces did this glacier leave?

The inhabitants of central and northern Russia are well aware of large and small stones - boulders and pebbles, which are found in abundance in plowed fields. Sometimes these stones reach very large sizes (with a house and more). From one such granite boulder, for example, the foundation of the monument to Peter I in Leningrad was made. Some of the boulders are already overgrown with lichens; many of them crumble easily when hit with a hammer. This indicates that they have been lying on the surface for a long time. The boulders are usually round in shape, and if you look closely at them, you can find smooth ground surfaces with grooves and scratches on some of them. Boulders are scattered even on the plains, where there are no mountains. Where did these stones come from?

Sometimes you hear that boulders "grow" from the ground. But this is a profound delusion. One has only to dig with a shovel or carefully look in the ravines, and it will immediately become clear that the boulders are in the ground, in sand or clay. It will wash the earth a little with rain, blow the sand with the wind, and where nothing was visible last year, a boulder will appear on the surface. The next year, the soil will be washed out even more by rain and blown by the wind, and the boulder seems larger. That's what they think he's grown up.

Having studied the composition of boulders, scientists came to the unanimous opinion that many of them are native to Karelia, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. There, rocks of the same composition as boulders form whole rocks, in which gorges and river valleys are cut. The boulders torn off from these rocks represent boulders scattered on the plains of the European part of the USSR, Poland, and Germany.

But how and why did they end up so far from their homeland! Previously, about 75 years ago, they thought that where boulders are now found, there was a sea and they were carried on ice floes, just as now in the polar ocean floating ice (icebergs), breaking away from the edge of a glacier sinking into the sea, take them with them boulders torn off by a glacier from rocky shores. This assumption has now been abandoned. Now, none of the scientists doubts that the boulders were brought with them by a giant glacier descending from the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Having studied the composition and distribution of glacial boulders in Russia, scientists have established that there were also glaciers in the mountains of Siberia, the polar Urals, Novaya Zemlya, Altai and the Caucasus. Descending from the mountains, they carried boulders with them and left them far on the plains, thus marking the paths and boundaries of their advance. Now boulders, consisting of rocks of the Urals and Novaya Zemlya, are found near Tobolsk, in Western Siberia, at the mouth of the Irtysh, and rocks from the lower reaches of the Yenisei are found in the center of Western Siberia, near the village of Samarovo on the Ob River. Two giant glaciers were moving towards each other at that time. One from the Urals and Novaya Zemlya, the other from the extreme north of Eastern Siberia - from the right bank of the Yenisei or Taimyr. These huge glaciers merged into one continuous ice field that covered the entire north of Western Siberia.

Encountering hard rocks on its way, the glacier polished and smoothed them, and also left deep scars and furrows on them. Such polished and furrowed rocky hills are known as "ram's foreheads". They are especially frequent on the Kola Peninsula, in Karelia.

In addition, the glacier captured huge masses of sand and clay and piled it all up at its edge in the form of ramparts, now overgrown with forest. Such ramparts are very clearly visible, for example, in Valdai (in the Kalinin region). They are called "terminal moraines". From them you can well determine the edge of the former glacier. When the glacier melted, the entire territory once occupied by it turned out to be covered with clay with boulders and pebbles. This clay cloak with boulders, on which modern soil was later formed, is now plowed open.

As we can see, the traces of the former once Great glaciation of the Earth are so clear that no one doubts. We are also convinced of it by the fact that the same traces are left on the earth by modern glaciers that exist in many mountains both in our country and in other countries. Only modern glaciers are much smaller than the one that covered the Earth during the Great Glaciation.

Thus, the remains of animals found in the Crimea during excavations of Upper Paleolithic caves gave a correct indication that there was once a colder climate than now.

But, perhaps, the Crimean sites were earlier or later than the Great glaciation? And we have a very definite answer to this question.

The same sites as in the Crimea were found in many places covered with solid ice during the Great Glaciation, but these sites have never been found anywhere under the glacial layers. They met either outside the former distribution of the glacier, or (younger ones) within its southern part - in the layers lying above the glacial formations. This convincingly proves that all the studied sites belong to the era of the Great Glaciation (and some of them to the time of the melting of glaciers).

Extremely important discoveries have been made in the last ten years. On the Dnieper and on the Desna River, near Novgorod-Seversky, sites of ancient man and stone tools were found under the glacial layers. The same type of sites were found on the Black Sea coast. This proved that man lived not only during the Great glaciation and after it, but also before this glaciation.

Studying even more ancient layers of the earth, people were also convinced that there was a time when such trees grew in Siberia, which are now found only on the Black Sea coast. Evergreen laurels, magnolias and fig trees once grew on the banks of rivers and lakes, located on the site of the current Baraba steppe (Western Siberia). Monkeys lived in the forests of Ukraine, and ostriches and antelopes lived in the Baikal and Azov steppes, which are now found only in Africa and South America.