Timeline of glaciation
Hi there! Do you know what glaciers are? They're really big and heavy piles of ice that move really slowly over land. If you imagine a big ice cube slowly sliding down a slope, that's kind of what a glacier is!
Now, long, LONG ago, the whole world was a lot colder than it is now. So cold, in fact, that big glaciers covered huge parts of the land, even in places you might not expect, like Africa or Australia! This time period is called the "Ice Age."
During the Ice Age, there were lots of times when the glaciers got bigger or smaller, depending on the weather and other factors. Scientists have studied these changes and made something called a "timeline of glaciation," which is basically a really long list that shows when the glaciers were big and when they shrunk down.
For example, one time when the glaciers were at their biggest was about 20,000 years ago. That's a REALLY long time! Can you count to 20,000? That's how many years ago it was! But then, over time, the climate started to change and get warmer, and the glaciers started to melt.
Nowadays, there are still some glaciers in really cold places like Antarctica, but they're not as big as they used to be during the Ice Age. Does that make sense? Basically, the timeline of glaciation is just a way to organize all the changes in the glaciers over really, really, REALLY long periods of time.
Now, long, LONG ago, the whole world was a lot colder than it is now. So cold, in fact, that big glaciers covered huge parts of the land, even in places you might not expect, like Africa or Australia! This time period is called the "Ice Age."
During the Ice Age, there were lots of times when the glaciers got bigger or smaller, depending on the weather and other factors. Scientists have studied these changes and made something called a "timeline of glaciation," which is basically a really long list that shows when the glaciers were big and when they shrunk down.
For example, one time when the glaciers were at their biggest was about 20,000 years ago. That's a REALLY long time! Can you count to 20,000? That's how many years ago it was! But then, over time, the climate started to change and get warmer, and the glaciers started to melt.
Nowadays, there are still some glaciers in really cold places like Antarctica, but they're not as big as they used to be during the Ice Age. Does that make sense? Basically, the timeline of glaciation is just a way to organize all the changes in the glaciers over really, really, REALLY long periods of time.
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