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Geologists studying the last ice age, which began around 110,000 years ago and ended some 10,000-12,000 years ago, believe a number of different events shaped the period. According to brainly.com, some of the most prominent changes that have been identified by geologists include:
- Glaciers advanced worldwide
- Dense forests grew for the first time
- A mass extinction occurred
Glaciers are vast bodies of ice that cover large portions of land and can extend into the ocean. During the last ice age, glaciers advanced on every continent and displaced large numbers of animals and plants. The most dramatic consequence of this glacier advance was the creation of the Great Lakes in North America.
The spread of glaciers and glacial meltwater also spurred the growth of vast forests in areas where the climate had previously been too cold to support them. These forests may have acted as a barrier to the wide-scale mass extinction that occurred at the same time, in which many species disappeared.
Finally, the melting of the immense ice sheets has been connected to another dramatic shift in the Earth’s climate. According to scientificamerican.com, the melting of the northern ice sheets could have been the trigger that ended the last ice age and ushered in the warmer period of the Holocene epoch that persists to this day.