when was the last Ice age, and how long did it last？?
469140
Technically speaking we are in the middle of an ice age at the moment actaully.
340196
Era: Cenozoic; means "new/recent life"; age of the mammals began about 65 million years ago. Marks demise of the dinos.\n\nPeriod: Quarternary; started about 1.8 million years ago.\n\nEpoch: Holocene; you may see this as Neogene (think this has to do w/ plants) Began about 10,000 years ago when last major ice age ended.
1000629
I think it's gonna be real cold.  Like Michigan (where i live).  But no, If it is in fact a ice age, that means that  huge amounts of water  are frozen into glaciers (and because we only have so much water on earth) sea levels will actually go down because water is locked in the glaciers.  Global warming causes glaciers to melt and hence rises sea level.  And by the way, we are still technically in an ice age (we still have huge ice sheets) we are in what's known as an inter-glacial period.  The last glacial maximum was about 22,000 years ago.  Sea levels were so low that humans could walk across dry land from Ireland to Britain then to the mainland of Europe! Check out a map!
145826
It really sucks.  I just watched a report on 60 Minutes about this subject and we are in deep trouble.  They showed a picture of the arctic in 1979 and one just taken six months ago.  It is unbelievable how much ice has melted in just 26 years.  The most noted authority on this catastrophe said that even if we were to stop putting greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, it wouldn't change the fact that our global temperature will still rise.  It probably wouldn't rise quite as fast, but it will still happen because of all the gases we have already emitted.  We can only sove this problem collectively as a human race and not separately as nations.
133788
there is no unbias news sorce they are all liberal and it has been proven. but my opinion is it dosent exist. because think about it we are coming out of an ice age. it makes sense dosent it? fact: there have been ice ages. fact: there is a lot of ice in ice ages. so if you know about water then you know the same amount of it is here that was here when the earth began so literally it is dinasor piss. well during an ice age lots of stuff is covered in water/ice ( i know i live in minnesota and it is known that it was fully covered with ice.). so where is all the water? in ice bergs, glachiers, ect. so it would make sense that to leave an ice age most things would melt right? so they are still melting they will finish melting and cover parts of the world, then it will slowly freze causing an ice age. why would humans make that big of a difference? we are insignificant to the world.(everyone in the world could fit in texas and it would only be as densly populated as ny city). so our vehicles and combustable engines couldent have that big of an effect. but you say "what about the ozone thinning?" well i am not saying it hasent but it was because of the cfc's(cloral floral carbons) which broke up the ozone by atatching to ozone molocules. but the cfc's are no longer around. the ozone is healing itself as it is meant too. ther was no real hole only a thining which is also bad. but now it is closing up and returning to normal. if you think that the co2 we produced cant be good well think about it it isnt that mutch and while the earth was cooling after beieng created it released tons of co2. so what people will notice in the next 1-9000 years is it will warm up but in that time it will also cool down and eventually there will be an ice age. just because the great human race is here dosent mean that the earth will stop having ice ages as it has done by its self for billoins of years. think about it.
392244
This is complex theoram, and it happens to be taken from the exact idea of the previous ice age about 7000-10000 years ago in which only northern hemisphere froze over\nanother reason is dat the rate of pollution is higher in north then south (due to development) and effects of global warming shall be more drastic there.
157711
It is Global Warming.  Geologically speaking we are still coming out of the last ice age.  We are on in a natural cycle which has been accerated by pollution.
33842
I have an MS in paleoclimatology, and I have to say that it is one of the most fascinating topics Ive ever delved into.  It's also amusing to see non-scientist's responses here and on other message boards!\n\nIf you wanted to ask a scientist, you would have to define what you mean when you say "ice age."  There are varying degrees of "ice ages."  For brevity sake, I will assume you mean the relatively cold periods that last approximately 100,000 years that have dominated global climate for the last 2 million years.  Contrary to popular belief, there are periods during the "ice ages" that are almost as warm as today.\n\nBased on paleoclimate evidence that suggest the ice ages have come and gone at least six times in the last 2 million years, the probability is that it will occur again.\n\nThe difficult and possibly dramatic question is: when?  Seeing as though the last "ice age" generally ended about 12,000 years ago (this is debatable, since there is no one date where everywhere across the globe it suddenly became warm), and the average interglacial is 10,000 years, we are overdue.\n\nConsider the widely accepted hypothesis that "global warming"--whether it be natural, human-induced, or a combination--can ultimately (Ill spare you the details) lead to an ice age.  Melting polar sea ice, indicator species dying off in the tropics, large disintigrations of ice shelves in the Antarctic, estimations that global sea level may rise 4 inches in the next 100 years, "wild" weather in many parts of the US...  are these all tell-tale signs that we have already begun down the road to the next glacial period?!?!?\n\nNew-ish data suggest that past climates have changed rapidly--like someone else mentioned either in this thread or another similar one--several degrees Celsius in a matter of decades or less!  The great ice sheets that once reached as far south as Long Island and Iowa wont reappear for tens of thousands of years, but it could get chilly across much of the country real quick!  And possibly as soon as 2020!
138305
because they are to dumb to look back at history because it dosent exist. because think about it we are coming out of an ice age. it makes sense dosent it? fact: there have been ice ages. fact: there is a lot of ice in ice ages. so if you know about water then you know the same amount of it is here that was here when the earth began so literally it is dinasor piss. well during an ice age lots of stuff is covered in water/ice ( i know i live in minnesota and it is known that it was fully covered with ice.). so where is all the water? in ice bergs, glachiers, ect. so it would make sense that to leave an ice age most things would melt right? so they are still melting they will finish melting and cover parts of the world, then it will slowly freze causing an ice age. why would humans make that big of a difference? we are insignificant to the world.(everyone in the world could fit in texas and it would only be as densly populated as ny city). so our vehicles and combustable engines couldent have that big of an effect. but you say "what about the ozone thinning?" well i am not saying it hasent but it was because of the cfc's(cloral floral carbons) which broke up the ozone by atatching to ozone molocules. but the cfc's are no longer around. the ozone is healing itself as it is meant too. ther was no real hole only a thining which is also bad. but now it is closing up and returning to normal. if you think that the co2 we produced cant be good well think about it it isnt that mutch and while the earth was cooling after beieng created it released tons of co2. so what people will notice in the next 1-9000 years is it will warm up but in that time it will also cool down and eventually there will be an ice age. just because the great human race is here dosent mean that the earth will stop having ice ages as it has done by its self for billoins of years. think about it.
883188
The theory that the world was once ice that you are talking about is called snow ball earth. Off the top of my head i can not remember the names of the scientists that came up with the theory. The claimed that they found evidence of rocks deformed by ice in Africa (near the equator). Which was not disbuted. The problem is that once the earth was covered in ice how did it melt? There are several theories to this but i dont really believe them. One is that volcanics in areas of weak ice erupted masses of co2 which allowed for thew atmosphere to rapidly (a few hundred thousand years). But on the other hand the solar radiation (i.e heat) would have been reflected by the ice. For more informatio look it up on ther web. \n\nIn the earths history there have been  many phases of glacial (cold) and interglacial periods so what you are saying is theoretically correct. However there is undisbuted evidence that we have accelarated the proccess of global warming. Naturally these cycles of heating and cooling take thousands of years but we have seen increases of 1-2 degrees in a few decades which, according to records is unprecedented.
131597
In theory we are still coming out of the last ice age which was 10,000 years ago.  On Wikipedia.org it states the frequency of ice ages are 40,000 to 100,000 years.  So in 30,000 to 90,000 years there may be another ice age.
20343
About 250 million yrs.\n\nOne lap ago was the age of the dinosaurs.
706890
Ice cores:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleoclimatology
734739
Glaciers flow because of gravity.\n\nView this page:\nhttp://www.answers.com/topic/last-glacial-maximum\nFor info and a pic of what the world probably looked like during the last ice age. The grey denotes glaciers. The land (brown) has been adjusted for the drop in sea level and the ocean temperature difference is shown.\n\nThe ocean levels dropped. Much of the continental shelf which is now under water was exposed, dry land. The water that now covers them was locked up in the the glaciers.\n\nAlso look:\nhttp://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/RefPages/RefMedia.aspx?refid=461527006&artrefid=761570002&pn=3&sec=-1
250515
dude educate your self before you make a broad statement like that. please dont be ignorant. in my opinion is it doesn't exist. because think about it we are coming out of an ice age. it makes sense doesn't it? fact: there have been ice ages. fact: there is a lot of ice in ice ages. so if you know about water then you know the same amount of it is here that was here when the earth began so literally it is dinosaurs piss. well during an ice age lots of stuff is covered in water/ice ( i know i live in Minnesota and it is known that it was fully covered with ice.). so where is all the water? in ice bergs, glaciers, etc. so it would make sense that to leave an ice age most things would melt right? so they are still melting they will finish melting and cover parts of the world, then it will slowly freeze causing an ice age. why would humans make that big of a difference? we are insignificant to the world.(everyone in the world could fit in Texas and it would only be as densely populated as NY city). so our vehicles and combustible engines couldn't have that big of an effect. but you say "what about the ozone thinning?" well i am not saying it hasn't but it was because of the CFC's(chloral floral carbons) which broke up the ozone by attaching to ozone molecules. but the CFC's are no longer around. the ozone is healing itself as it is meant too. their was no real hole only a thinning which is also bad. but now it is closing up and returning to normal. if you think that the co2 we produced cant be good well think about it it isn't that much and while the earth was cooling after being created it released tons of co2. so what people will notice in the next 1-9000 years is it will warm up but in that time it will also cool down and eventually there will be an ice age. just because the great human race is here doesn't mean that the earth will stop having ice ages as it has done by its self for billions of years. think about it. am i a genius or what i mean i just looked at what has happened in history wow who would have thought history would repeat its self
36490
Global warming is associated with sun spots. So if the sun spots disappear we will probably have a period of global cooling but maybe not an ice age. The last period of global cooling was around the year 1650 AD.  That period is called the "Maunder Minimum".
489288
hmmm ..... go here !>>> under google >>> http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=glaciological%20volcanic%20index:%20definition,%20scale,%20implications&hl=en&lr=&oi=scholart\nNew modeling of the Vostok ice flow line and implication for the glaciological chronology of the … - group of 10 »\nF Parrenin, F Rémy, C Ritz, MJ Siegert, J Jouzel - JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, 2004 - ggy.bris.ac.uk \n... 2. Description of the Glaciological Dating Model Used [ 5 ] To compute the age of ...\nNote that there is a circular problem in the model definition: the thinning ...