ice age: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Nov. 12, 2026

News •

Hundreds of Ice Age rock art engravings discovered hidden in plain sight • Nov. 4, 2026, 6:00 PM ET (Phys.org)

A 700,000-year-old elephant tooth reveals a lost world where early humans lived • Oct. 29, 2026, 8:39 AM ET (Science Daily)

Paleolithic human DNA reveals east-west connections across Ice Age Europe • Oct. 23, 2026, 2:00 PM ET (Phys.org)

Famous Siberian cave yields remains of yak-like Ice Age mammal • Oct. 20, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (Straits Times)

Facts

Also Known As	glacial epoch

Photos and Videos

Polar projection map depicting the five major ice caps during the Ice Age: Cordilleran, Keewatin, Labrador, Greenland, and European. Each ice cap is labeled and shown with arrows radiating outward, indicating the direction of ice movement from these central regions across North America, Greenland, and Europe. The North Pole is marked at the center of the map.

Map of the northern United States illustrating the extent of Pleistocene ice sheets, with shaded and outlined areas showing the maximum reach of the Wisconsinan, Illinoian, Kansan, and Nebraskan glaciations. The map uses different colors and line styles to distinguish each glacial advance and includes a labeled Driftless Area that remained unglaciated.

Map of Europe showing the maximum extent of ancient ice sheets, with the Scandinavian Ice Sheet covering much of northern Europe and the Siberian Ice Sheet extending into northeastern Europe. Major ice-covered regions, including the British Isles, North Sea, German-Polish area, Alps, Pyrenees, and Caucasus, are labeled.

Examine glacial scratches on rocks from Switzerland to New York City for evidence of Earth's icy past

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Topics

Little Ice Age What Was the Little Ice Age?Heinrich event last glacial maximum glacial stage How long was the Ice Age?ice sheet Dansgaard-Oeschger event glaciation interglaciation Global warming Greenhouse effect The Perils of an Early Spring Is Climate Change Real?What’s the Difference Between Global Warming and Climate Change?A Recent History of Climate Change Season Snowball Earth hypothesis Methane burp hypothesis Timeline of Climate Change

Key People

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Loren Eiseley

American anthropologist

Zittel, Karl Alfred, Ritter von

Karl Alfred, knight von Zittel

German paleontologist

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Eduard Brückner

Austrian geographer and climatologist