Paragraph on “The Ice Age” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

The Ice Age

Today the North Pole and South Pole are the biggest expanse of ice on Earth. What we see today is only one third of the ice that covered our planet in those days. Millions of years ago large parts of Canada, Greenland and Northern Europe were covered with huge expanses of ice. In the last million years there were many such periods called the ‘Ice Ages’. In the last 8,50,000 years there have been about ten ice ages, with the last occurring about 12,000 years ago. Even scientists do not know why these ice ages occurred. The ice ages could have been caused because of the Earth’s path around the Sun or changes in the angle of it’s axis. Theoretically it is said that there have been warm periods between these ice ages and we may be presently living in a warm period before the onset of the next ice age. This theory however has not been proven.

It is believed that during the ice ages snow accumulated in large quantities and sheets of ice extended and formed over North America and Europe. There was much more ice in the seas with large icebergs floating around. Hairy animals like the ‘Woolly Mammoth’ roamed the frozen areas in these ice ages and were hunted by prehistoric hunters. Water level in the oceans was much lower than what we have today.

In the warmer periods between ice ages, large quantities of snow melted, glaciers deposited huge quantities of Moraine (rocks and gravel) in many areas, large portions of land were submerged in water because of a rise in sea water levels, rivers too altered their courses and flooded many areas. Besides all this the climates around the world also underwent a change along with a change in ocean currents and winds. Today if all the ice on Earth were to melt then the Oceans and seas would rise by about 70 metres and most areas currently at this height from sea level, Netherlands and Denmark for example, would be flooded.