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GlacierPass

Glacier Pass, part of the landscape of a valley impacted by the ice age.

"Well, why not call it The Big Chill? Or the Nippy Era? I'm just saying, how do we know it's an ice age?
Because. of all. THE ICE!
"
―Two Macrauchenia on the migration south.[src]

The ice age was an era of constant temperature reduction on Earth's atmosphere and surface, resulting in the growing of alpine glaciers and continental and polar ice sheets, furthered by constant snowstorms and blizzards in which snow and ice built up over periods of thousands of years.

History[]

"This whole "ice age" thing is getting old. You know what I could go for? Global warming."
Sid on the ice ages.[src]

The ice age marked the changing of the planet Earth, in which the air became colder, with much of the world being covered in ice and snow. Winters lasted much longer and winds blew harder and colder, prompting many creatures, save humans, to head south to warmer climates so as to escape the freezing cold weather.

Though springtime occasionally brought thaws, much of the ice and snow remained throughout the land, notably built up ice that had accumulated over thousands of years, resulting in at least one ice cavern that had formed when river waters flowed through the ice.[1] The cold brought on by the ice age also brought on notable changes for the animals of the era, such as the decimation of dandelions, flowers prized by herbivores for their taste, and prompted others to plan ahead, such as dodos, who had banded together in paramilitary flocks and trained for the cold, stockpiling food for the oncoming cold weather, believing that the subarctic temperatures would drive them all underground for ages to come.

The ice ages came and went, bringing cold weather followed by spring and summer thaws, one notable thaw nearly destroying Ice Valley, a vast dale surrounded by great walls of ice, of which behind was a vast amount of meltwater.

Behind The Scenes[]

  • There have been at least eleven ice ages to date, throughout the 4.5 Billon Years Long, history of planet Earth. This particular Ice Age featured in the Ice Age franchise is the Quaternary Glaciation which started about 3 million years ago reaching its peak around 20,000 years ago which is the time where the movies take place (As revealed in Ice Age and Surviving Sid). This is the one that comes to mind when people usually hear about these periods.
  • Scientifically speaking, we are actually still in an ice age, as these are the periods where there are widespread glaciers in the polar regions. Ice ages go through glacial and interglacial periods where the glaciers retreat and expand constantly. We are now in a warmer interglacial period and the next glacial period may not arrive in another 50,000 to 500,000 years into the near future.

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. Ice Age: The Essential Guide, p24: "Wild Ride"
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