The Ice Age was a period of time lasting many thousands of years, during which a lot of the earth's surface was covered with ice. one of the long periods of time, thousands of years ago, when ice covered many northern countries. or glacial age Any geologic period during which thick ice sheets cover vast areas of land. Such periods of large-scale glaciation may last several million years and drastically reshape surface features of entire continents. A number of major ice ages have occurred throughout the Earth's history; the most recent periods were during the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million-10,000 years ago)
Single ice cap, Greenland. Covering about 80% of the island of Greenland, it is the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere, second only to the Antarctic. It extends 1,570 mi (2,530 km) north to south, has a maximum width of 680 mi (1,094 km) near its northern margin, and an average thickness of about 5,000 ft (1,500 m). The ice sheet rises to two domes; the northern dome, reaching more than 10,000 ft (3,000 m), is its thickest and coldest point. In volume it contains 12% of the world's glacial ice. If it melted, the sea level would rise 20 ft (6 m)
Ice shelf in the northwestern Weddell Sea, adjoining the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is named for Capt. Carl A. Larsen, who explored the ice front by boat in 1893. The shelf originally covered an area of 33,000 sq mi (86,000 sq km), excluding the numerous small islands within it, but, as air temperatures over the Antarctic Peninsula warmed slightly in the second half of the 20th century, the shelf shrank dramatically. By the early 21st century, it covered only 40 percent of its former area
Principal glacial cover of North America during the Pleistocene epoch (1.8 million-10,000 years ago). At its maximum extent it spread as far south as latitude 37° N and covered an area of more than 5 million sq mi (13 million sq km). In some areas its thickness reached 8,000-10,000 ft (2,400-3,000 m) or more
The period from 1400 to 1800, characterized by expansion of mountain glaciers and cooling of global temperatures, especially in the Alps, Scandinavia, Iceland, and Alaska
A vast area in Antarctica bordering on Ross Sea, an arm of the southern Pacific Ocean. In the western part of the sea is Ross Island, site of the active volcano Mount Erebus. World's largest body of floating ice. It lies at the head of the Ross Sea, which forms an enormous indentation in Antarctica. Its area is estimated to be about the size of France. The great white barrier wall of the shelf's front, first seen in 1841 by British explorer Capt. James C. Ross, rises in places to 200 ft (60 m). The ice shelf has been an important gateway for explorations of the Antarctic interior, including expeditions (1911-12) to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott and Richard E. Byrd's expeditions (1928-41). It is the site of several permanent research stations
[ 'Is ] (noun.) before 12th century. From Middle English is, from Old English īs, from Proto-Germanic *īsan (compare West Frisian iis, Dutch ijs, German Eis, Swedish is), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eiH- (compare Lithuanian ýnis (“glazed frost”), Russian иней (ínej, “hoarfrost”), Ossetian их (ix), ех (ex, “ice”)).