Studied the theory of relativity. The theory of relativity in simple words. The principle of movement along geodesic lines

Although it may be difficult to understand, our planet is constantly changing. Continents are constantly shifting and colliding with each other. Volcanoes erupt, glaciers expand and retreat, and life must keep pace with all of these changes that are taking place.

Throughout its existence in different periods, which lasted millions of years, the Earth was covered with a kilometer-long polar ice sheet and mountain glaciers. The subject of this list will be ice ages, characterized by very cold climates and ice that extends as far as the eye can see.

10. What is an ice age?

Believe it or not, the definition of an ice age is not as straightforward as some might think. Of course, we can characterize it as a period when global temperatures were much colder than they are today, and when both hemispheres were covered in a sheet of ice that stretched thousands of miles to the equator.

However, the problem with this definition is that it describes any ice age from today's point of view and does not, in fact, take into account the entire planetary history. Who can say that today we do not live in conditions of lower than average temperatures? In this case, we are actually in an ice age right now. Only a few scientists who have devoted their lives to the study of such phenomena can confirm this. Yes, we are indeed living in an ice age, and we will see this in a minute.

A better definition of an ice age would be that it is a long period of time when the planet's atmosphere and surface are cold, leading to the presence of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers. This can last for several million years, during which there are also periods of glaciation, characterized by ice cover and the growth of glaciers on the surface of the planet, as well as interglacial periods - intervals lasting several thousand years, when the ice retreats and becomes warmer. In other words, what we know as the "last ice age" is, in fact, one such glacial stage, part of the larger Pleistocene ice age, and we are currently in an interglacial period known as the Holocene, which began around 11,700 years ago.

9. What causes an ice age?

At first glance, the ice age looks like some kind of global warming in reverse side. This is true to a certain extent, but there are several other factors that can initiate and contribute to the beginning of the ice age. It is important to note that the study of ice ages began not so long ago, and our understanding of this process is not yet complete. However, there is some scientific consensus on several factors that contribute to the onset of the Ice Age.

One such obvious factor is the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. There is evidence that the concentration of these gases in the air rises and falls along with the retreat and growth of ice sheets. But some argue that these gases do not necessarily set off every ice age and only affect its severity.

Another key factor that plays an important role is the tectonic plates. Geological records indicate a correlation between the position of the continents and the onset of the Ice Age. This means that in a certain position, the continents can interfere with the so-called Global Ocean Conveyor - a global system of currents that carry cold water from the poles to the equator and vice versa.

The continents can also be right on top of the pole, like Antarctica is today, or cause the polar waters to be completely or partially surrounded by land, like the North Arctic Ocean. Both of these factors contribute to ice formation. Continents can also gather around the equator, blocking ocean currents, leading to an ice age.

This is exactly what happened during the Cryogenic period, when the supercontinent Rodinia covered most of the equator. Some experts even say that the Himalayas played an important role in the current ice age. After these mountains began to form about 70 million years ago, they contributed to the increase in precipitation on the planet, which in turn led to a steady decrease in CO2 in the air.

Finally, we have the orbits in which the Earth moves. It also partially explains the periods of glaciation and interglacial periods during any particular ice age. undergoes a series of periodic changes during its circular motion around the Sun, which are called Milankovitch Cycles. The first of these cycles is the Earth's eccentricity, which is characterized by the shape of our planet's orbit around the Sun.

Every 100,000 years or so, the Earth's orbit becomes more or less elliptical, which means it will receive more or less sunlight. The second of these cycles is the tilt of the planet's axis, which on average changes by a few degrees every 41,000 years. This tilt affects the seasons on Earth and the difference in solar radiation received by the poles and the equator. Thirdly, we have the precession of the Earth, which is expressed as a wobble as the Earth rotates around its own. This happens about every 23,000 years and results in Northern Hemisphere winter when the Earth is farthest from the Sun and summer when it is closest to the Sun. If this happens, the difference in severity between seasons will be greater than today. In addition to these major factors, we can also sometimes suffer from a lack of sunspots, large meteor impacts, massive volcanic eruptions, or nuclear wars that could potentially start an ice age, among other things.

8. Why do they take so long?

We know that ice ages usually last millions of years. The reason for this can be explained by a phenomenon known as albedo. This is the reflectivity of the Earth's surface when it comes to shortwave radiation from the Sun. In other words, the more of our planet's surface covered in white ice and snow, the more solar radiation is reflected back into space, and the colder it gets on Earth. This results in even more ice and even more reflectivity in the positive cycle. feedback that lasts for millions of years. This is one of the reasons why it is so important that the Greenland ice stays where it is. Because if it doesn't, the reflectivity of the island will decrease, leading to an increase in global temperature.

However, the ice ages eventually end, and so do their glacial periods. As the air gets colder, it can no longer hold as much moisture as it used to, which in turn leads to less snowfall and the inability to expand and even maintain ice caps. As a result, a cycle of negative feedback begins, which marks the beginning of the interglacial period.

By this logic, a theory was proposed in 1956 suggesting that the Arctic Ocean, which was not covered by ice, would cause more snowfall at higher latitudes, above and below the Arctic Circle. This snow can be so abundant that it does not melt during the summer months, increasing the Earth's albedo and decreasing the overall temperature. Over time, this will allow ice to form at lower latitudes and mid-latitudes, a push that starts the glaciation process.

7. But how do we know that the ice age really was?

The reason people started thinking about ice ages was, in the first place, some huge boulders that ended up in the middle of an empty area with no explanation as to how they got there. The study of glaciation began in the mid-18th century, when the Swiss engineer and geographer Pierre Martel began to document the chaotically scattered mountain formations within the Alpine valley and below the glacier. The locals told him that these huge boulders were pushed by a glacier that once extended much further up the mountain.

Over the decades, other similar cases were documented around the world, which became the basis for the theory of ice ages. Since then, other forms of evidence have been taken into account. Geological features, including previously mentioned rocks containing glacial deposits, carved valleys such as fjords, glacial lakes, and various other forms of rugged land surface. The problem with them is that they are difficult to date, and subsequent glaciations can distort or even completely erase previous geological formations.

More accurate data comes from paleontology - the study of fossils. Although not without some shortcomings and inaccuracies, paleontology speaks of the history of the ice ages, showing us the distribution of cold-adapted organisms that once lived at lower latitudes, and organisms that normally thrive in warmer climates that have either declined. closer to the equator, or they completely disappeared.

However, the most accurate evidence comes from isotopes. Differences in isotope ratios between fossils, sediments, and ocean sediments can reveal a lot about environment in which they were formed. Speaking of the current ice age, we also have access to ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland, which are the most reliable form of evidence to date. When formulating their theories and predictions, scientists rely on a combination of them where possible.

6. Great Ice Ages

On this moment scientists are sure that during the long history of the Earth there were five major ice ages. The first of these, known as the Huronian glaciation, occurred about 2.4 billion years ago and lasted about 300 million years, is considered the longest. The Cryogenic Ice Age occurred about 720 million years ago and continued until 630 million years ago. This period is considered the most severe. The third massive glaciation occurred about 450 million years ago and lasted about 30 million years. It is known as the Ando-Saharan Ice Age and caused the second largest mass extinction in Earth's history after the so-called Great Dying. Lasting for 100 million years, the Karoo Ice Age occurred between 360 and 260 million years ago and was triggered by the appearance of land plants, the remains of which we now use as fossil fuels.

Finally, we have the Pleistocene Ice Age, also known as the Pliocene-Quaternary glaciation. It began approximately 2.58 million years ago, and since then there have been several periods of glaciation and interglacial periods with a difference of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. However, over the past 250,000 years, the climate has changed more frequently and dramatically, with the previous interglacial interrupted by numerous cold spells lasting several centuries. The current interglacial period, which began approximately 11,000 years ago, is atypical due to the relatively stable climate that has existed up to that point. It's safe to say that people wouldn't be able to lead Agriculture and reach the current level of civilization, if not for this unusual period of temperature stability.

5. Witchcraft

"I'm sorry, what?" We know what you thought when you saw this title on our list. But now we'll explain everything...

For several centuries, beginning around 1300 and ending around 1850, the world experienced a period known as the Little Ice Age. For global temperatures to drop, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, causing mountain glaciers to grow, rivers to freeze, and crops to die, several factors were required. In the middle of the 17th century in Switzerland, several villages were completely destroyed due to invading glaciers, and in 1622 even the southern part of the Bosphorus around Istanbul completely froze. Things got worse in 1645 and continued to do so for the next 75 years, during a period known to scientists today as the Maunder Low.

During this time, there were few sunspots on the sun. These spots are areas on the surface of the Sun where temperatures are much cooler. They are caused by concentration magnetic fluxes in our star. On their own, these patches are likely to help cool the Earth's temperature, but they are surrounded by very bright regions known as faculae. The faculae have a much higher radiation power, which far exceeds the weakness of the glow caused by sunspots. Thus, the Sun without spots actually has more low level radiation than usual. During the 17th century, it is estimated that the Sun dimmed by 0.2 percent, which partly explains this Little Ice Age. During this time, more than 17 volcanic eruptions occurred in the world, which further weakened the sun's rays.

The economic hardships caused by this centuries-old cold period had an incredible psychological impact on people. Frequent crop losses and firewood shortages led to serious cases of mass hysteria erupting in Salem, Massachusetts. In the winter of 1692, twenty people, fourteen of whom were women, were hanged on charges of being witches and responsible for all the misfortunes of the rest. Five others, two of whom were children, later died in prison, where they were placed on the same charge. Due to adverse weather in places like Africa, even today people sometimes accuse each other of being witches.

4. Earth is a snow globe

The first ice age on Earth was also the longest. As we mentioned earlier, it lasted as much as 300 million years. Known as the Huronian glaciation, this incredibly long and cold period began about 2.4 billion years ago, at a time when only single-celled organisms existed on Earth. The landscape looked very different than it does today, even before the ice covered everything around. However, a series of events took place that eventually led to an apocalyptic event of global proportions, as a result of which most of the planet was covered in thick ice. Before the Huronian glaciation, anaerobic organisms that did not need oxygen predominated on Earth. Oxygen was, in fact, poisonous to them and an extremely rare element in the air, it only made up 0.02% of the atmosphere. But at some point, another form of life arose - cyanobacteria.

This tiny bacterium was the first to ever use photosynthesis as a way of feeding. The by-product of this process is oxygen. As these tiny creatures thrived in the oceans, they released millions and millions of tons of oxygen, raising its concentration in the atmosphere to 21% and causing the extinction of all anaerobic life. This event is called the Great Oxygen Event. The air was also filled with methane, and in contact with oxygen, it turned into CO2 and. However, methane is 25 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than CO2, which means that this transformation caused global temperatures to drop, which in turn triggered the Huronian glaciation and the first mass extinction on Earth. Sometimes volcanoes added extra CO2 to the air, leading to interglacial periods.

3. Baked Alaska

If its name isn't clear enough, the Cryogenic Ice Age was the coldest period in Earth's long history. Today it is also the subject of many scientific disputes. One of the topics of discussion is the question of whether the Earth was completely covered in ice, or whether there was a line of open water along the equator - the Snowball or Snowball Earth theory, as some call these two scenarios. The cryogenic period lasted from about 720 to 635 million years ago and can be divided into two major glaciation events known as the Startan (720-680 million years) and Marinoan (approximately 650 to 635 million years). It is important to note that multicellular life did not exist at this point, and some believe that the Snowball Earth scenario catalyzed its evolution during the so-called Cambrian Explosion.

A particularly interesting study was published back in 2009, focusing in particular on the Marinoan glaciation. According to the analysis, the Earth's atmosphere was relatively warm and its surface was covered with a thick layer of ice. This is possible only if the planet is completely or almost completely covered in ice. This phenomenon has been compared to Baked Alaska, where the ice cream does not melt immediately after being placed in the oven. It turns out that there were a lot of greenhouse gases in the composition of the atmosphere, but contrary to expectations, this did not prevent and was in no way connected with the ice age. These gases were present in such large quantities due to increased volcanic activity following the breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent. This prolonged volcanic activity is believed to have helped kickstart the Ice Age.

However, the scientific community warns that something similar could happen again if the atmosphere reflects too much of the sun's rays into space. One such period could be triggered by a massive volcanic eruption, a nuclear war, or our future attempts to mitigate the effects of global warming by spraying too much sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere.

2. Flood myths

When the glacial ice began to melt about 14,500 years ago, water did not flow into the ocean in the same way across the Earth. In some places, such as North America, huge glacial lakes have begun to form. These lakes appear as a result of an obstacle in the way of water in the form of an ice wall or glacial deposits. In 1600 years, Lake Agassiz covered an area of ​​440,000 sq. km - more than any lake that exists today. It was formed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. When the dam finally broke, fresh water poured into the Arctic Ocean through the Mackenzie River valley.

This great influx fresh water weakened the ocean current by 30%, plunging the planet into a 1200-year glacial period known as the Early Dryas. It is assumed that this unfortunate turn of events led to the destruction of the Clovis culture and the North American megafauna. Records also show that this cold period ended abruptly around 11,500 years ago, with temperatures in Greenland rising to -7 degrees Celsius in just ten years.

During the Early Dryas, the ice of the glaciers replenished, and when the planet began to warm up again, Lake Agassiz appeared. However, this time it connected with an equally large lake known as Ojibway. Shortly after their merger, another breakthrough occurred, but this time into Hudson Bay. Another cold period that occurred 8,200 years ago is known as the 8.2 kiloyear event.

Although low temperatures lasted only 150 years, this event allowed sea levels to rise by 4 meters. Interestingly, historians have been able to link the origins of many flood myths around the world to this time period. This sudden rise in sea levels also caused the Mediterranean to carve its way through the Bosphorus and flood the Black Sea, which at the time was only a freshwater lake.

1 Martian Ice Age

Ice ages beyond our control are natural phenomena that happen not only on Earth. Like our planet, Mars also experiences periodic changes in orbit and axial tilt. But unlike Earth, where an ice age means the growth of polar ice caps, Mars is experiencing a different process. Because its axis is tilted more than the Earth's axis, and the poles get more sunlight, the Martian Ice Age means that the polar ice caps are actually retreating and the mid-latitude glaciers are expanding. This process stops during interglacial periods.

Over the past 370,000 years, Mars has been slowly emerging from its ice age and entering an interglacial period. Scientists estimate that approximately 87,115 cubic kilometers of ice accumulates at the poles, most of which accumulates in the Northern Hemisphere. Computer models have also shown that Mars can become completely covered in ice during a glaciation. However, these studies are in their early stages, and given the fact that we are still far from fully understanding Earth's own ice ages, we cannot expect to know everything that happens on Mars. However, this study may prove useful given our future plans for the Red Planet. It also helps us a lot on Earth. “Mars serves as a simplified laboratory for testing climate models and scenarios, without oceans and biology, which we can then use to better understand earth systems said planetary scientist Isaac Smith.

Everyone knows that there was an Ice Age on Earth! And some believe that not one. But in this matter, you need to be extremely careful. Many scientists urge not to exaggerate the power and vastness of glaciers - to put it mildly.

Here is the opinion of our scientist, Professor Valery Nikitich Demin: “In scientific, educational and reference literature At first glance, an indisputable opinion prevails: the northern territories of Eurasia were inhabited by humans no earlier than the 15th millennium BC, and before that all these lands were completely covered with a powerful continental glacier, which in principle excluded all life and migration. In essence, the glacier forged history itself!
However, the above absolutized dogma is contradicted primarily by archaeological data. The dated age of the oldest sites within the boundaries of the postulated glacial zone in the North of Eurasia begins with a two hundred thousand year mark, and then smoothly and consistently passes through all the centuries up to the observable and already reflected in written monuments times.

For example, according to various sources, the age of the Byzovskaya site on the Pechora ranges from 20 to 40 thousand years. In any case, material facts testify: life flourished here just at the time when, according to the "glacial theory", there could be no life. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of such sites and other material monuments in the Arctic zone of Russia. glaring contradiction, but if only one!
You can look at the problem, so to speak, from the other end. Why is the continental glaciation not repeated in the current, no less severe conditions, say, in Eastern Siberia, at the "pole of cold"? These and many other indisputable facts have long cast doubt on the scale and consequences of the glacial cataclysm that once befell our planet.

Seven books directed against glacial dogma, which paralyzed science and ironed history like a glacier, were written by Academician Ivan Grigoryevich Pidoplichko (1905-1975), who until the end of his life headed the Institute of Zoology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. But try to find these books today. In the Russian State Library, the four-volume (!) monograph “On the Ice Age” (edition 1946-1956) has been archived and is not given to readers. Books containing and summarizing unique geological, climatological, botanical and zoological material that refutes the "glacial theory" in its current dogmatic form are not freely available in other libraries either.

This tragicomic situation is reminiscent of the incident told by the author himself. taboo subject. When glacialists, that is, supporters of the “glacial theory”, once discovered a second fossil soil in the pits, and according to their attitudes, there should be only one, the “extra” was simply covered up, and the expedition was declared “allegedly never-before”. In the same way, non-glacial processes of formation of boulder deposits are hushed up. The origin of boulders is usually explained by the “flattening” of ice, although boulders are found at a considerable depth in polar quarries.

The opinion of the founder of paleoclimatology in Russia Alexander Ivanovich Voeikov (1842-1916) is also ignored by supporters of absolutized dogmas. who considered the existence of an extensive European glaciation unlikely and allowed only a partial one in the north of Eurasia and America.

As for central Russia, here Voeikov was more than categorical: in accordance with his calculations, an ice shell at the latitude of Russian chernozems would automatically entail the transformation earth's atmosphere over this territory into a solid block of ice. Naturally, this did not happen, and therefore there was no picture of glaciation, which is usually drawn on the pages of textbooks. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the glacial hypothesis with known historical realities more than carefully.

Summing up the accumulated facts and summing up the general state of the problem of the so-called ice ages, I.G. Pidoplichko concluded that THERE ARE NO FACTS - GEOLOGICAL, PALEONTOLOGICAL OR BIOLOGICAL - CONFIRMING THE EXISTENCE ANYWHERE ON THE EARTH IN ANY PERIOD OF ITS DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL (NOT MOUNTAIN) glaciation.

“And there is no reason to predict,” the scientist emphasized, “that such facts will ever be discovered.”
Ustin Chashchikhin is even more categorical: "IN THE PRESENT GEOCHRONOLOGY THERE IS PLACE ONLY FOR ONE ICE AGE, WHICH IS NOT CONTRADICTING WITH THE FACTS."

A. Sklyarov in his article “Does the fate of Phaeton await the Earth?” writes: “The popularity of the theory of plate tectonics and the commitment of official scientific circles to it at one time gave rise to such a widely known myth as the Great Gondwana glaciation, which supposedly lasted right from the Ordovician to the end of the Permian (that is, it lasted about 200 million years!) And captured all the components of Gondwana continents (Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia). ... It should, however, be noted that a certain cooling, although not on such a scale, did take place during the specified period. Tell me, my reader, can anything living exist for 200 million years on Earth covered with ice?
The point of view of the above-mentioned scientists seems convincing to me, and I will not talk about the ice age, but about a sharp short-term jump in cooling on Earth. Immediately after the geocosmic cataclysm, a sharp drop in atmospheric temperature is coming. Estimated separation from -50 ° C to -100 "C. Estimated duration - two years. The nature of the remains of "prehistoric" animals found throughout the world clearly indicates their almost instantaneous freezing.

About the animals found in Alaska, A. Alford says literally the following: “These animals ... died so suddenly that they immediately froze before they could decompose - and this is confirmed by the fact that local residents often thawed carcasses and ate meat” . That's how, even the meat was preserved?! Really 75 million years has lain and has not deteriorated? Or is it still better to admit that the disaster was recent?

The disaster ended with education permanent ice at the poles. The permafrost front passes through the northern latitudes, it seems to have fixed the border of the ancient ecumene and the lands formed as a result of the movement of tectonic plates, which indicates that when the catastrophe ended, the geomagnetic position of our planet was already the same (or approximately the same) as we are we see it today. There was, however, a second shift of tectonic plates; although strong enough, it will not have such a destructive character. The second shift is still to be discussed.

Based on ancient primary sources, the map of Mukhiddin Piri Reis depicts a large island (which is no longer there) in Atlantic Ocean east of the South American coast. Is it just a coincidence that this supposed island is depicted just above the underwater Meridional Mid-Atlantic Ridge, just north of the equator and 700 miles east of the coast of Brazil - where the tiny rocks of Saints Peter and Paul barely peep out of the waves?

But the miracles don't end there. Antarctica is also shown on the same map, and it can be seen that the coastlines and terrain are presented with a certainty that can only be achieved with high-altitude aerial photography, and even shooting from space. The southernmost continent of the planet on the Reis map is devoid of ice cover! The Reis map not only shows the coastline, but also rivers, mountain ranges and mountain peaks! Tropical animals are depicted: a monkey, a roe deer, a lemur, an animal similar to a cow. Two large tailless monkeys, standing on their hind limbs, hold hands, as if dancing. Or maybe it's people?

It is curious that ships with a perfect sailing system are also shown on the map! And we are told that Antarctica was discovered in January 1820 Russian expedition F.F. Bellingshausen - M.P. Lazarev.
Greenland on Reis's maps also has no ice cover and consists of two islands (a fact recently confirmed by a French expedition)! In short, Greenland is depicted in the way that, according to the official version, it could only be related to the geographical picture of the planet five thousand years ago!

An analysis of the maps of Piri Reis by Dr. Afetinan Tarikh Kurumu in the book “The Oldest Map of America” (Ankara, 1954) and an examination conducted by the American Institute of Marine Hydrocartography revealed the incredible accuracy of these maps, which depict even the recently discovered mountain ranges of Antarctica and Greenland. And among other things, such accuracy, according to experts, can be obtained exclusively with the help of aerial photography.
Piri Reis explains the origin of these cards in this way. They were found in the hands of a Spanish navigator who participated in three expeditions of Christopher Columbus, who was taken prisoner by the Turkish officer Kemal during a naval battle. Piri Reis indicates in his notes that, according to the Spaniard, according to these maps, Columbus sailed to New World!!! The Piri Reis maps are kept in Istanbul (Constantinople) in the Imperial Library, of which the admiral was an honorary reader. Thus, based on all of the above, we can conclude that quite recently Antarctica and Greenland were without ice!

At the end of 1959, Charles X. Hapgood, a professor at Keene College (New Hampshire, USA), discovered a map compiled by Oronteus Phineus at the Library of Congress in Washington. And on the Phineus map (1531), Antarctica is also shown without its ice shell! The general outline of the continent coincides with what is shown on modern maps. Almost in place, almost in the center of the continent, lies South Pole. The mountain ranges bordering the shores resemble numerous ridges open in last years, and enough not to consider this an accidental result of the cartographer's imagination.
These ridges have been identified, some on the coast, some in the distance. From many of them, rivers flowed to the sea, very naturally and convincingly fitting into the folds of the relief. Of course, this assumes that the coast was ice-free at the time the map was drawn. The central part of the continent on the map is free from rivers and mountains. As shown by seismographic studies in 1958, the relief depicted on the map is true.

Question: how could the boundaries of the Antarctic land be depicted if the glaciation of the mainland (again according to the official chronology) began 25 million years ago?

Gerard Kre-mer, known to the whole world under the name of Mercator, also trusted the maps of Phineus. The result of a study of ancient maps by a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Richard Strachan: their compilation requires knowledge of the methods of geometric triangulation and an understanding of spherical trigonometry. And apparently, the compilers of the "primary sources" used by Piri Reis and other compilers of ancient maps had such knowledge.
In particular, Hapgood also discovered a Chinese map copied in 1137 from an earlier original on a stone pillar. This map contains the same exact longitude data as the others. It has the same grid and also uses spherical trigonometry.

Modern science knows other "strange" maps, which are united by the presence of geographical objects unknown at the time of their creation and the incredible accuracy of coordinate values. These, besides those listed, are Dulcert's portolan (1339), Zeno's map (1380), Yehuda Ben Zara's "Portolano", Hadji Ahmet's maps (1559), Mercator's maps (1538), Gutierre's maps (1562). .), Philippe Boucher (XVIII century).
But the most interesting thing is that I have not seen Australia on any map! And Antarctica has a different shape and is twice as large as modern. The mainland is so large that it rests on South America and almost reaches Africa. And the northeastern borders of Antarctica exactly copy the northern borders of modern Australia.

Well, isn't it suspicious? We must finally muster up the courage to admit that the history of the geography of the Earth and the chronology of events in reality look very different.

Just at the time of the powerful development of all forms of life on our planet, a mysterious ice age begins with its new temperature fluctuations. We have already spoken about the reasons for the appearance of this ice age before.

Just as the change of seasons brought about the selection of better, more adaptable animals and the creation of diverse breeds of mammals, so now, in this Ice Age, man emerges from the mammals in an even more painful struggle against the advancing glaciers than ever before. the fight against the millennium-spanning change of seasons. Here it was not enough just one adaptation by a significant change in the body. What was needed was a mind that would be able to turn nature itself to its advantage and conquer it.

We have finally reached higher level life development: . He took possession of the Earth, and his mind, developing further and further, learned to embrace the entire universe. With the advent of man, a completely new era of creation truly began. We are still on one of its lower levels, we are the simplest among beings endowed with a mind that dominates the forces of nature. The beginning of the path to unknown majestic goals has come!

There have been at least four great ice ages, which, in turn, break up again into smaller waves of temperature fluctuations. Warmer periods lay between the ice ages; then, thanks to the melting glaciers, the damp valleys were covered with lush meadow vegetation. Therefore, it was during these interglacial periods that herbivores could develop especially well.

In the deposits of the Quaternary epoch, which closes the ice ages, and in the deposits of the Deluvian epoch, which followed the last general glaciation the globe, and the direct continuation of which is our time, we come across huge pachyderms, namely the mammoth mastodon, the fossilized remains of which we still often find in the tundra of Siberia. Even with this giant, the primitive man dared to get involved in the struggle, and, in the end, he emerged victorious from it.

Mastodon (restored) of the Deluvian era.

We involuntarily return in thought again to the emergence of the world, if we look at the flowering of the beautiful present from the chaotic dark primitive conditions. The fact that in the second half of our investigations we remained all the time only on our small Earth is due to the fact that we know all these different stages of development only on it. But, taking into account the identity of the matter that forms the world everywhere and the universality of the forces of nature that control matter, we will come to complete agreement of all the main features of the formation of the world that we can observe in the sky.

We have no doubt that in the distant universe there must be millions more worlds like our Earth, although we do not have any exact information about them. On the contrary, it is among the relatives of the Earth, the rest of the planets of our solar system, which we can better explore, due to their greater proximity to us, there are characteristic differences from our Earth, as, for example, the sisters are very different ages. Therefore, we should not be surprised if we do not find traces of life on them, similar to the life of our Earth. Also, Mars with its channels remains a mystery to us.

If we look up at the sky strewn with millions of Suns, then we can be sure that we will meet the gazes of living beings who look at our daylight in the same way we look at their Sun. Perhaps we are not at all so far from the time when, having mastered all the forces of nature, a person will be able to penetrate these giveaways of the universe and send a signal beyond our globe to living beings located on another planet. celestial body, - and get a response from them.

Just as life, at least otherwise we cannot imagine it, came to us from the universe and spread over the Earth, starting with the simplest, so man, in the end, will expand the narrow horizon that encompasses him. earthly world, and will communicate with other worlds of the universe, from where these primary elements of life on our planet came. The universe belongs to man, his mind, his knowledge, his strength.

But no matter how high fantasy lifts us, we will someday fall down again. The cycle of development of the worlds consists in rise and fall.

ice age on earth

After terrible downpours, like a flood, it became damp and cold. WITH high mountains the glaciers slid lower and lower into the valleys, because the sun could no longer melt the masses of snow continuously falling from above. As a result of this, even those places where the temperature was still above zero during the summer were also covered with ice for a long time. We are now seeing something similar in the Alps, where individual "tongues" of glaciers descend well below the boundary of eternal snows. In the end, much of the plains at the foot of the mountains were also covered with ever higher piles of ice. A general ice age has come, the traces of which we can indeed observe everywhere on the entire globe.

It is necessary to recognize the great merit of the world traveler Hans Meyer from Leipzig for the evidence he found that both on Kilimanjaro and on the Cordillera South America, even in tropical regions - everywhere glaciers at that time descended much lower than at present. The connection here between that extraordinary volcanic activity and the onset of the ice age was first proposed by the Sarazen brothers in Basel. How did this happen?

The following question can be answered after careful research. The entire chain of the Andes, during geological periods, which, of course, are calculated in hundreds of thousands and millions of years, was formed simultaneously, and its volcanoes were the result of this grandiose mountain-forming process on Earth. At this time, almost the entire Earth was dominated by approximately tropical temperature, which, however, very soon after that should have been replaced by a strong general cooling.

Penk established that there were at least four great ice ages, with warmer periods in between. But it seems that these great ice ages are divided into more more smaller periods of time in which more insignificant general temperature fluctuations took place. From this one can see what turbulent times the Earth was going through and in what constant agitation the air ocean was then.

How long this time lasted can only be indicated very roughly. It has been calculated that the beginning of this ice age can be placed about half a million years ago. Since the last “little glaciation”, in all likelihood, only 10 to 20 millennia have passed, and we are now living, probably, only in one of those “interglacial periods” that happened before the last general glaciation.

Through all these ice ages there are traces of primitive man developing from an animal. The legends about the flood, which have come down to us from primitive times, may stand in connection with the events described above. The Persian legend almost certainly points to volcanic phenomena that preceded the beginning of the great flood.

This Persian legend describes the great flood as follows: “From the south rose a great fiery dragon. Everything was devastated by him. Day turned into night. The stars are gone. The zodiac was covered by a huge tail; only the sun and moon could be seen in the sky. Boiling water fell to the Earth and scorched the trees to the very roots. Raindrops the size of a human head fell among the frequent lightning. Water covered the Earth higher than a man's height. Finally, after the dragon fight lasted 90 days and 90 nights, the enemy of the Earth was destroyed. A terrible storm arose, the water receded, the dragon plunged into the depths of the Earth.

This dragon, according to the famous Viennese geologist Suess, was nothing more than a highly active volcano, the fiery eruption of which spread across the sky like a long tail. All other phenomena described in the legend are quite consistent with the phenomena observed after a strong volcanic eruption.

Thus, on the one hand, we have shown that after the splitting and collapse of a huge block, the size of a mainland, a series of volcanoes should have formed, the eruptions of which were followed by floods and glaciations. On the other hand, we have before our eyes a series of volcanoes in the Andes, located along a huge cliff of the Pacific coast, and we also proved that soon after the emergence of these volcanoes, an ice age began. The tales of the flood complete the picture of this turbulent period in the development of our planet even more. During the eruption of Krakatoa, we observed on a small scale, but in all details, the consequences of the volcano sinking into the depths of the sea.

Taking into account all of the above, we will hardly doubt that the relationship between these phenomena was, indeed, such as we assumed. Thus, the entire Pacific Ocean, in fact, arose as a result of the separation and failure of its present bottom, which before that was a huge continent. Was it "the end of the world" in the sense that it is commonly understood? If the fall happened suddenly, then it was probably the most terrible and grandiose catastrophe that the Earth has ever seen since organic life appeared on it.

This question is now, of course, difficult to answer. But still we can say the following. If the collapse on the coast of the Pacific Ocean had taken place gradually, then those terrible volcanic eruptions would have remained completely inexplicable, which at the end of the “Tertiary era” occurred along the entire chain of the Andes and whose very weak consequences are still observed there.

If the coastal region were to sink there so slowly that whole centuries were required to detect this sinking, as we still observe at the present time near some sea coasts, then even then all movements of masses in the interior of the Earth would occur very slowly, and only occasionally would occur. volcanic eruptions.

In any case, we see that there are counteractions to these forces that produce shifts in the earth's crust, otherwise the sudden tremors of earthquakes could not take place. But we had also to admit that the tensions resulting from these counteractions cannot become too great, because Earth's crust turns out to be plastic, malleable for large, but slowly acting forces. All these considerations lead us to the conclusion, perhaps against our will, that these catastrophes must have manifested precisely sudden forces.

During this era, 35% of the land was under the ice cover (compared to 10% at present).

The last ice age was not just a natural disaster. It is impossible to understand the life of planet Earth without considering these periods. In the intervals between them (known as interglacial periods), life flourished, but then once again the ice inexorably approached and brought death, but life did not completely disappear. Every ice age has been marked by a struggle for survival different types, there were global climate changes, and in the last of them appeared the new kind who became (over time) dominant on Earth: it was a man.
ice ages
Ice ages are geological periods characterized by a strong cooling of the Earth, during which vast expanses of the earth's surface were covered with ice. high level humidity and, of course, exceptional cold, as well as the lowest known modern science sea ​​level. There is no generally accepted theory regarding the causes of the onset of the ice age, however, since the 17th century, various explanations have been proposed. According to current opinion, this phenomenon was not caused by one cause, but was the result of the influence of three factors.

Changes in the composition of the atmosphere - a different ratio of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) and methane - caused a sharp drop in temperature. It's like a phenomenon the opposite what we call now global warming, but on a much larger scale.

The movements of the continents, caused by cyclical changes in the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and in addition, a change in the angle of inclination of the planet's axis relative to the Sun, also had an impact.

The earth received less solar heat, it cooled, which led to glaciation.
The earth has experienced several ice ages. The largest glaciation occurred 950-600 million years ago in the Precambrian era. Then in the Miocene epoch - 15 million years ago.

The traces of glaciation that can be observed at the present time represent the legacy of the last two million years and belong to the Quaternary period. This period is best studied by scientists and is divided into four periods: Günz, Mindel (Mindel), Ries (Rise) and Würm. The latter corresponds to the last ice age.

last ice age
The Wurm stage of glaciation began approximately 100,000 years ago, reached its maximum after 18 thousand years, and began to decline after 8 thousand years. During this time, the thickness of the ice reached 350-400 km and covered a third of the land above sea level, in other words, three times more space than now. Based on the amount of ice that currently covers the planet, one can get some idea of ​​the area of ​​glaciation during that period: today glaciers occupy 14.8 million km2, or about 10% of the earth's surface, and during the ice age they covered an area of ​​44 .4 million km2, which is 30% of the Earth's surface. Northern Canada was estimated to have covered 13.3 million km2 of ice, while 147.25 km2 is now under ice. The same difference is observed in Scandinavia: 6.7 million km2 in that period compared to 3910 km2 today.

The ice age began simultaneously in both hemispheres, although in the North the ice spread to more extensive areas. In Europe, the glacier captured most of the British Isles, northern Germany and Poland, and in North America, where the Würm glaciation is called the "Wisconsin glacial stage", a layer of ice descended from North Pole, covered all of Canada and spread south of the Great Lakes. Like the lakes in Patagonia and the Alps, they were formed on the site of recesses left after the melting of the ice mass.

The sea level dropped by almost 120 m, as a result of which large expanses that are currently covered with sea water were exposed. The significance of this fact is enormous, since large-scale human and animal migrations became possible: hominids were able to make the transition from Siberia to Alaska and move from continental Europe to England. It is possible that during the interglacial periods, the two largest ice massifs on Earth - Antarctica and Greenland - have undergone little change over the course of history.

At the peak of glaciation, the indicators of the average temperature drop varied significantly depending on the location: 100 ° C - in Alaska, 60 ° C - in England, 20 ° C - in the tropics and remained practically unchanged at the equator. Conducted studies of the last glaciations in North America and Europe, which occurred during the Pleistocene era, gave the same results in this geological region within the last two (approximately) million years.

The last 100,000 years are of particular importance for understanding the evolution of mankind. Ice ages have become a severe test for the inhabitants of the Earth. After the end of the next glaciation, they again had to adapt, learn to survive. When the climate became warmer, the sea level rose, new forests and plants appeared, the land rose, freed from the pressure of the ice shell.

The hominids turned out to have the most natural data to adapt to the changed conditions. They were able to move to areas with the largest number food resources, where the slow process of their evolution began.