What if Earth entered the next ice age?

According to National Geographic, Earth has gone through several major ice ages - so when will the next big freeze happen?

How did the ice age change the Earth?

According to Discover Magazine, ice ages usually take years to begin and then end abruptly. It is a fact that ice ages usually last very long, and the most recent ice age lasted about 1.9 million years. However it only takes a short amount of time to finish.

According to Live Science, numerous waterways such as lakes and rivers are formed when glaciers melt, transforming the rocks around them with the force of the melting water.

By drilling deep holes in the ocean floor, paleontologists have a pretty clear picture of how extreme weather trends have affected that area throughout history. After studying the chemical composition of rocks that are millions of years old, scientists are able to gain clues to tell us how the previous ice ages played out.

The Sun will fade out during the ice age, so the temperature will be as low as minus 58 degrees. These glacial temperatures are so dramatic that during previous ice ages, single-celled organisms were the only thing that could survive - no humans, animals and plants could have evolved under these conditions. harshness of the first ice ages.

The Sun will fade out during the ice age, so the temperature will be as low as minus 58 degrees. (Illustration).

Humans have survived the last ice age!

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the only thing that survived the first few ice ages was a single-celled algae that formed near hot spots. And the remaining life on Earth at that time was just unicellular algae. Scientists think this is because the temperature is too low for multicellular life to grow and develop.

But real humans did exist, grow and develop during one of the most recent ice ages, which occurred between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago. They have to wear fur clothes to keep warm, use spears and javelins to hunt large animals that can feed many people.

If an ice age were to suddenly begin today, this would be the scenario predicted by scientists: according to National Geographic, as the Earth cools, people will begin to move toward the center. of the Earth - the equator, where temperatures are warmer than the rest of the planet.

Accordingly, this will be a great human migration with hundreds of millions of people forced to leave their homes to new areas with warmer temperatures. According to some estimates, the whole of North America, Canada, Europe and northern Asia will be completely covered in thick layers of ice and snow.

Cave paintings of prehistoric people.

There will be no more vast oceans

When the ice age occurs, the low temperature of the Earth will cause entire oceans to freeze and areas such as the Mediterranean and the Bering Strait will also disappear, which means that moving things by boat will be more difficult.

However, this also opens up new lands, and is a lot easier on foot. Theoretically, you could walk from Asia to North America on a land bridge between two continents that were once inhabited by mammoths and steppe bison, now extinct.

But these icy conditions make the land unusable for agriculture. Accordingly, we will not be able to have enough food to be able to move everywhere. Especially with the population size about to reach 8 billion people, much more than humans have ever lived on Earth before.

 The low temperature of the Earth will cause the entire ocean to freeze

According to The ABC News, ice ages took decades to form instead of occurring suddenly. The snow will stop melting and instead form huge mounds of snow and ice. According to the research of archaeologists, the Earth has experienced at least 5 ice ages, with the first occurring more than 2 billion years ago. During this time, ice sheets can grow exponentially, thanks to the planet's extreme cold, and it can be tens of kilometers thick.

Will the Earth enter the 6th ice age?

Although we are on the verge of the next ice age, it is all relative, as it certainly won't happen in our lifetime, according to Live Science.

With the development of science and technology, along with human actions that cause climate change, the timeline of the ice age has been pushed back and took place slower than the previous natural laws.

 We may have at least another 100,000 years left before the next ice age arrives.

An excess of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere now would make it difficult for ice to form, so we could have at least another 100,000 years left before the next ice age arrives.

According to NASA, we have caused climate change so bad that a next ice age is unlikely in the near future. Ice ages only occurred when the amount of carbon dioxide in the air fell below 300 parts per million - and currently, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is around 400 parts per million. So, according to the previous theory and law of time, the 6th ice age may have started about 6,000 years ago, but under the influence of human climate change the 6th ice age has "died" before. when it started.