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ice ages

Cultural  
  1. Periods in the history of the Earth when large glaciers covered much of the surface of the continents.


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The last ice age ended less than twenty thousand years ago.

Scientists believe that there will be more ice ages in the future, caused by tiny changes in the Earth's orbit and rotation.

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The main long-term risks are corrosion of the copper canisters or earthquakes during future ice ages, which could potentially damage the capsules and cause radioactive fuel to leak, Kyllonen said.

From Barron's Jun. 1, 2026

And this flexibility is probably what “kept them going when they were dealing with ice ages, all kinds of environmental changes to their feeding grounds over the last several thousand years.”

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 14, 2024

Competition with other plant life and factors like altitude, temperature, precipitation and volcanic activity caused new baobab species to emerge across Madagascar, as did fluctuating sea levels during various ice ages.

From New York Times May 15, 2024

At this time, something caused the ice ages to grow longer and more intense, stretching out from mild 40,000-year cycles to deeper 100,000-year cycles.

From Science Magazine Apr. 21, 2024

It has been suggested that the major ice ages on our planet, which recur every hundred million years or so, may be due to the interposition of interstellar matter between the Sun and the Earth.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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