TECHNOLOGY · VERIFIED DEVELOPMENT
Laurentide Ice Sheet May Have Started to Re-grow 2,000 Years Ago
WHY IT MATTERS
This discovery highlights the complex and dynamic nature of Earth's climate, and underscores the significant impact that human activities have had on the planet's natural systems.
What happened
Researchers have found direct physical evidence that the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which once buried most of Canada under two miles of ice, may have started to re-grow about 2,000 years ago. The study, published in Science, suggests that the ice sheet reached its smallest size around 3,600 years ago before beginning to expand again.
However, human-caused climate warming reversed this trend around 1960, halting the potential new ice age.
The researchers were able to determine the ice sheet's history by studying the temperature at the base of the Barnes Ice Cap, the last remaining fragment of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Ice sheet expansion may have started 2,000 years ago, but we canceled that
Ars Technica · Jacek Krywko · Discovery only; Condé Nast copyright terms apply