Knowra Quaternary glaciation Quaternary glaciation Quaternary glaciation is the repeated expansion and retreat of continental ice sheets during the Quaternary Period, beginning about 2.58 million years ago. It reshaped landscapes and repeatedly changed sea levels and climate.
Milankovitch cycles : Periodic changes in Earth's orbit and axial orientation that alter the distribution of incoming sunlight. Their changing seasonal sunlight helped pace the timing of Quaternary glacial cycles.
Quaternary : The current geological period, beginning about 2.58 million years ago and encompassing the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. Quaternary glaciation names the ice-age cycles that characterize this geological period.
Laurentide Ice Sheet : A major Pleistocene ice sheet that covered much of Canada and extended into the northern United States. Its repeated advances shaped much of North America's glacial landscape.
Eustatic sea level : The globally averaged sea level, which changes as water moves between oceans, ice sheets, and glaciers. Glacial growth stored ocean water on land, lowering global sea level; melting raised it.
Paleoclimatology : The study of past climates using natural records such as ice, sediments, fossils, and tree rings. It combines proxy records to reconstruct Quaternary climate beyond instrumental observations.
Ice-albedo feedback : A climate feedback in which expanding snow and ice reflect more sunlight, promoting further cooling. It amplified cooling as ice sheets spread across high-latitude continents.
Pleistocene : The epoch from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, marked by repeated glacial cycles. Most major continental ice-sheet advances occurred during this epoch.
Fennoscandian Ice Sheet : A major Pleistocene ice sheet centered on Scandinavia and extending across parts of northern Europe. Its growth and retreat shaped northern Europe's glacial history.
Glacial landform : A landscape feature created or modified by moving ice, meltwater, or glacial sediment. Many familiar landforms are durable traces of Quaternary ice-sheet movement.
Ice-sheet dynamics : The processes governing ice-sheet flow, growth, thinning, and interaction with bedrock and ocean. Uncertainty in these processes limits estimates of past and future ice-sheet change.
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