Knowra Little Ice Age Little Ice Age The Little Ice Age was a centuries-long period of cooler climate, especially around the North Atlantic, lasting roughly from the 14th through the 19th century. Its regional timing and severity varied rather than forming a uniform global cold spell.
Volcanic winter : A period of widespread cooling after a major volcanic eruption injects sunlight-reflecting aerosols into the atmosphere. Repeated eruptions could reinforce cooling by reducing incoming sunlight.
Maunder Minimum : A period from about 1645 to 1715 when sunspots were exceptionally rare. It overlapped with cold decades in Europe but was not the sole cause of the Little Ice Age.
François E. Matthes : An American geologist who introduced the term “Little Ice Age” in a 1939 study of Sierra Nevada glaciers. His use of the name shaped how later researchers described the period.
European witch trials : Legal prosecutions for alleged witchcraft that peaked in parts of Europe during the early modern period. Some historians have examined links between climate stress and accusations, without treating cold as a sufficient cause.
Medieval Climate Anomaly : A period of relatively warm conditions in some regions, especially around the North Atlantic, roughly from the tenth to thirteenth centuries. It preceded the Little Ice Age, but the two periods were not globally uniform opposites.
Solar variation : Changes in the Sun’s energy output across time, including variations in sunspot activity. Low solar activity coincided with some cold intervals, though it cannot explain the whole period.
Year Without a Summer : The unusually cold summer of 1816, caused chiefly by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora. This sharp cooling episode came near the end of the broader period.
Paleoclimatology : The study of past climates using natural archives, historical records, and physical evidence. The period’s dates and regional patterns depend on methods developed in this field.
European famine : Severe food shortages in Europe caused by crop failures, conflict, disease, and other pressures. Cold and wet growing seasons sometimes worsened harvest failures during the period.
Modern global warming : The long-term rise in Earth’s average surface temperature driven primarily by human greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the regionally uneven Little Ice Age, modern warming is observed across the globe.
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