Ice Age

Ice Age: see Pleistocene epoch.

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ice age

 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).

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ice age [′īs ‚āj]

(geology)

A major interval of geologic time during which extensive ice sheets (continental glaciers) formed over many parts of the world.

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Ice Age [′īs ‚āj]

(geology)

Pleistocene

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Ice Age 

a relatively long stage in the geological history of the earth during which, against the background of a general relative cooling of the climate, there was repeated alternation of very cold intervals of time (glacials), when extensive continental glaciation occurred, and intervals of time with a warmer climate (interglacials), when a significant part of the continental ice melted. Ice ages have been established in the Lower Proterozoic in North America; in the Upper Riphean in Africa and Australia; in the Wend in Europe, Asia, and North America; in the Ordovician of Africa; and at the end of the Carboniferous and the beginning of the Permian on the continent of Gondwana. The ice age of the Pleistocene has been studied most.