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Information Sought on Ice Age Conditions


Sentinel

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Everyone:

I'm writing a sci-fi/fantasy story that is going to be set 14,000 years ago, during Earth's last ice age. What I'm looking for is information (preferably centralized) that details what the world, as a whole, was like back then.

Some details I would be interested in include: climates, flora, fauna, moon's distance from Earth, conditions on Mars, and so on. Other areas I have questions in: Is it true that the Med basin, while filled with water, was cut off from the Atlantic? Also, was the Black Sea cut off from the Med, and much smaller and lower than it is now?

There are some things I do know, such as the fact that sea levels were much lower, exposing more land for settlement and whatot, especially in the Americas and southeast Asia, Indonesia and Australia. Also, I believe it was much drier, especially near the ice sheets, since a lot of moisture would have been locked up in them.

While the story isn't meant to be utterly realistic — I mean, c'mon, I'm talking about a fairly advanced human civilization during the last ice age, for goodness' sake — I want to at least give it some authenticity. Any help you kind folks can provide would be much appreciated.

Sentinel

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Frogfish:

A-ha! Some of those links are, indeed, quite useful. I thank you, kind sir, for providing them. Now I have no excuse for not giving a veneer of real science, at the very least, to an otherwise sci-fi/fantasy story.

Heh. A person's got to be careful, though, for *good* stories revolve around characters, not necessarily vast, panoramic worlds with cardboard cutouts. Just ask George Lucas! ;)

Sentinel

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[edit] Glaciation in North America

Northern hemisphere glaciation during the last ice ages. The set up of 3 to 4 km thick ice sheets caused a sea level lowering of about 120 m.During the most recent North American glaciation, the Wisconsin glaciation (70,000 to 10,000 years ago), ice sheets extended to about 45 degrees north latitude.

This Wisconsinian glaciation left widespread impacts on the North American landscape. The Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes were carved by ice deepening old valleys. Most of the lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin were gouged out by glaciers and later filled with glacial mel****ers. The old Teays River drainage system was radically altered and largely reshaped into the Ohio River drainage system. Other rivers were dammed and diverted to new channels, such as the Niagara, which formed a dramatic waterfall and gorge, when the waterflow encountered a limestone escarpment. Another similar waterfall near Syracuse, New York is now dry.

Long Island was formed from glacial till, and the watersheds of Canada were so severely disrupted that they are still sorting themselves out — the plethora of lakes on the Canadian Shield in northern Canada can be almost entirely attributed to the action of the ice. As the ice retreated and the rock dust dried, winds carried the material hundreds of miles, forming beds of loess many dozens of feet thick in the Missouri Valley. Isostatic rebound continues to reshape the Great Lakes and other areas formerly under the weight of the ice sheets.

The Driftless Zone, a portion of western and southwestern Wisconsin along with parts of adjacent Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois was not covered by glaciers.

For more

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[edit] Glaciation in North America

Northern hemisphere glaciation during the last ice ages. The set up of 3 to 4 km thick ice sheets caused a sea level lowering of about 120 m.During the most recent North American glaciation, the Wisconsin glaciation (70,000 to 10,000 years ago), ice sheets extended to about 45 degrees north latitude.

This Wisconsinian glaciation left widespread impacts on the North American landscape. The Great Lakes and the Finger Lakes were carved by ice deepening old valleys. Most of the lakes in Minnesota and Wisconsin were gouged out by glaciers and later filled with glacial mel****ers. The old Teays River drainage system was radically altered and largely reshaped into the Ohio River drainage system. Other rivers were dammed and diverted to new channels, such as the Niagara, which formed a dramatic waterfall and gorge, when the waterflow encountered a limestone escarpment. Another similar waterfall near Syracuse, New York is now dry.

Long Island was formed from glacial till, and the watersheds of Canada were so severely disrupted that they are still sorting themselves out — the plethora of lakes on the Canadian Shield in northern Canada can be almost entirely attributed to the action of the ice. As the ice retreated and the rock dust dried, winds carried the material hundreds of miles, forming beds of loess many dozens of feet thick in the Missouri Valley. Isostatic rebound continues to reshape the Great Lakes and other areas formerly under the weight of the ice sheets.

The Driftless Zone, a portion of western and southwestern Wisconsin along with parts of adjacent Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois was not covered by glaciers.

For more

Your heart was in the right place, Aztec Warrior, so thanks anyway. (The information you provided was in one of the links previously provided in this thread and, on top of that, was a link I'd originally knew of before asking my questions.)

Sentinel :tu:

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I can't really help on Pleistocene fauna unless you state where the story takes place.

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I can't really help on Pleistocene fauna unless you state where the story takes place.

It's going to be set mainly in the Americas, the Middle East (including the Black Sea region) and North Africa. There will also be sidetrips to modern-day India, southeast Asia, Indonesia and Australia.

Sentinel

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  • 3 weeks later...

Raptorial:

I eagerly await any assistance you might be able to provide ...

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