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81-580: The Reichswald is on the ridge of the lower Rhine, which was created by glaciers. In the Ice Age a range of hills were created, which contrasts the flat Rhine plain. 31 of the hills reach heights above 50 meters. One of the highest hills is the Rupenberg with 95 meters, located at the eastern end of the Reichswald. The forest is a closed mixed deciduous forest dominated by copper beech . For some areas

162-1378: A lesser extent in the Southern Hemisphere. They have different names, historically developed and depending on their geographic distributions: Fraser (in the Pacific Cordillera of North America), Pinedale (in the Central Rocky Mountains ), Wisconsinan or Wisconsin (in central North America), Devensian (in the British Isles), Midlandian (in Ireland), Würm (in the Alps ), Mérida (in Venezuela ), Weichselian or Vistulian (in Northern Europe and northern Central Europe), Valdai in Russia and Zyryanka in Siberia , Llanquihue in Chile , and Otira in New Zealand. The geochronological Late Pleistocene includes

243-527: A result of melting ice, the land has continued to rise yearly in Scandinavia, mostly in northern Sweden and Finland, where the land is rising at a rate of as much as 8–9 mm per year, or 1 m in 100 years. This is important for archaeologists, since a site that was coastal in the Nordic Stone Age now is inland and can be dated by its relative distance from the present shore. The term Würm

324-626: A result of mixing of Last Interglacial ice with ice from the preceding or succeeding glacial intervals. The warmest peak of the Last Interglacial was around 125,000 years ago, when forests reached as far north as North Cape, Norway (which is now tundra ) well above the Arctic Circle at 71°10′21″N 25°47′40″E  /  71.17250°N 25.79444°E  / 71.17250; 25.79444 . Hardwood trees such as hazel and oak grew as far north as Oulu , Finland. At

405-458: A single ice age given the continual presence of ice sheets near both poles. Glacials are somewhat better defined, as colder phases during which glaciers advance, separated by relatively warm interglacials . The end of the last glacial period, which was about 10,000 years ago, is often called the end of the ice age, although extensive year-round ice persists in Antarctica and Greenland . Over

486-797: A still lesser extent, glaciers existed in Africa, for example in the High Atlas , the mountains of Morocco , the Mount Atakor massif in southern Algeria , and several mountains in Ethiopia . Just south of the equator, an ice cap of several hundred square kilometers was present on the east African mountains in the Kilimanjaro massif , Mount Kenya , and the Rwenzori Mountains , which still bear relic glaciers today. Glaciation of

567-605: Is derived from a river in the Alpine foreland, roughly marking the maximum glacier advance of this particular glacial period. The Alps were where the first systematic scientific research on ice ages was conducted by Louis Agassiz at the beginning of the 19th century. Here, the Würm glaciation of the LGP was intensively studied. Pollen analysis , the statistical analyses of microfossilized plant pollens found in geological deposits, chronicled

648-518: Is given by Lorié (1887), and Spaink (1958). Since their discovery, Last Interglacial beds in the Netherlands have mainly been recognized by their marine molluscan content combined with their stratigraphical position and other palaeontology. The marine beds there are often underlain by tills that are considered to date from the Saalian , and overlain by local fresh water or wind-blown deposits from

729-770: Is in Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty : at AONB Waldgebiet Reichswald ( c.  3875 ha, in Kleve, Kranenburg and Goch), at AONB Reichswald ( c.  166 ha, in Bedburg-Hau) and at AONB Pfalzdorfer Höhenrand and Nierstal (only subareas at Reichswald, in Goch). The northern forest areas near the core of Kleve could be counted to the Reichswald as well. They are at AONB Standortübungsplatz einschließlich der Umgebung westlich Kleve ( c.  126 ha) and at AONB Waldgebiet des Tiergartenwaldes ( c.  295 ha). In

810-591: Is located. Harting noticed the marine molluscan assemblages to be very different from the modern fauna of the North Sea . Many species from the Last Interglacial layers nowadays show a much more southern distribution, ranging from South of the Strait of Dover to Portugal ( Lusitanian faunal province) and even into the Mediterranean (Mediterranean faunal province). More information on the molluscan assemblages

891-727: Is of particular importance because it is the largest, largely closed, predominant hardwood old-growth forest in the Reichswald and is home to endangered species like the golden oriole , black woodpecker , honey buzzard and stag beetle . In the Second World War , Klever Reichswald was the location of the Battle of the Reichswald, also known as Operation Veritable , in February and March 1945. In this protracted battle against British and Canadian troops on Germany 's Western Front , German lines under General Alfred Schlemm (of

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972-655: Is ongoing. The glaciation and the current Quaternary Period both began with the formation of the Arctic ice cap . The Antarctic ice sheet began to form earlier, at about 34 Mya, in the mid- Cenozoic ( Eocene–Oligocene extinction event ), and the term Late Cenozoic Ice Age is used to include this early phase with the current glaciation. The previous ice age within the Quaternary is the Penultimate Glacial Period , which ended about 128,000 years ago,

1053-584: Is provided by Bosch, Cleveringa and Meijer, 2000. The Last Interglacial climate is believed to have been warmer than the current Holocene. The temperature of the Last Interglacial peaked during the early part of the period, around 128,000 to 123,000 years Before Present , before declining during the latter half of the period. Changes in the Earth's orbital parameters from today (greater obliquity and eccentricity, and perihelion), known as Milankovitch cycles , probably led to greater seasonal temperature variations in

1134-518: The American lion ( Panthera atrox ) appeared and become widespread across North America, having descended from populations of the Eurasian cave lion ( Panthera spelaea ) that had migrated into Alaska during the preceding Penultimate Glacial Period. The range of cold-adapted taxa like the woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius ) contracted towards refugia . Neanderthals managed to colonise

1215-592: The Canadian Arctic Archipelago : currently, the northern limit is further south at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec . Coastal Alaska was warm enough during the summer due to reduced sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to allow Saint Lawrence Island (now tundra) to have boreal forest, although inadequate precipitation caused a reduction in the forest cover in interior Alaska and Yukon Territory despite warmer conditions. The prairie-forest boundary in

1296-590: The Eemian , was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Period . It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e . It was the second-to-latest interglacial period of the current Ice Age, the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day (having followed

1377-748: The Great Plains of the United States lay further west near Lubbock, Texas , whereas the current boundary is near Dallas . Interglacial conditions ended on Antarctica while the Northern Hemisphere was still experiencing warmth. Sea level at peak was probably 6 to 9 metres (20 to 30 feet) higher than today, with Greenland contributing 0.6 to 3.5 m (2.0 to 11.5 ft), thermal expansion and mountain glaciers contributing up to 1 m (3.3 ft), and an uncertain contribution from Antarctica. A 2007 study found evidence that

1458-640: The Last glacial cycle , occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the beginning of the Holocene , c.  115,000  – c.  11,700 years ago, and thus corresponds to most of the timespan of the Late Pleistocene . The LGP is part of a larger sequence of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation which started around 2,588,000 years ago and

1539-607: The Lesotho Highlands and parts of the Drakensberg . The development of glaciers was likely aided in part due to shade provided by adjacent cliffs. Various moraines and former glacial niches have been identified in the eastern Lesotho Highlands a few kilometres west of the Great Escarpment , at altitudes greater than 3,000 m on south-facing slopes. Studies suggest that the annual average temperature in

1620-583: The Luftwaffe ) had been reequipped. The Siegfried Line was the most fortified in this area, and the troops were re-enforced by elite and experienced soldiers well prepared for protracted fighting. The terrain largely nullified the Anglo-Canadians' advantages in equipment, armament and munitions, and manpower. On the German side, over 90,000 men fought in this battle, and 52,000 were taken prisoner. On

1701-594: The North Atlantic Current , lasting hundreds of years and causing temperature drops of a few degrees and vegetation changes in these regions. In Northern Europe, winter temperatures rose over the course of the Last Interglacial while summer temperatures fell. During an insolation maximum from 133,000 to 130,000 BP, meltwater from the Dnieper and Volga caused the Black and Caspian Seas to connect. During

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1782-727: The Owen Stanley Range , and the Saruwaged Range . Mount Giluwe in the Central Cordillera had a "more or less continuous ice cap covering about 188 km and extending down to 3200-3500 m". In Western New Guinea , remnants of these glaciers are still preserved atop Puncak Jaya and Ngga Pilimsit . Small glaciers developed in a few favorable places in Southern Africa during the last glacial period. These small glaciers would have been located in

1863-720: The Sierra Nevada in northern California . In northern Eurasia, the Scandinavian ice sheet once again reached the northern parts of the British Isles , Germany , Poland , and Russia, extending as far east as the Taymyr Peninsula in western Siberia. The maximum extent of western Siberian glaciation was reached by about 18,000 to 17,000 BP, later than in Europe (22,000–18,000 BP). Northeastern Siberia

1944-732: The Upper Mississippi River , which in turn was formed during an earlier glacial period. In its retreat, the Wisconsin episode glaciation left terminal moraines that form Long Island , Block Island , Cape Cod , Nomans Land , Martha's Vineyard , Nantucket , Sable Island , and the Oak Ridges Moraine in south-central Ontario, Canada. In Wisconsin itself, it left the Kettle Moraine . The drumlins and eskers formed at its melting edge are landmarks of

2025-525: The Weichselian . In contrast to e.g. the deposits in Denmark, the Last Interglacial deposits in the type area have never been found overlain by tills, nor in ice-pushed positions. Van Voorthuysen (1958) described the foraminifera from the type site, whereas Zagwijn (1961) published the palynology , providing a subdivision of this stage into pollen stages. At the end of the 20th century, the type site

2106-537: The Younger Dryas , began around 12,800 years ago and ended around 11,700 years ago, also marking the end of the LGP and the Pleistocene epoch. It was followed by the Holocene , the current geological epoch . The LGP is often colloquially referred to as the "last ice age", though the term ice age is not strictly defined, and on a longer geological perspective, the last few million years could be termed

2187-484: The global wave of megafauna extinctions that occurred during the following Last Glacial Period, has been suggested as a "baseline" reference point for the analysis and restoration of modern European ecosystems. Following the melting of the Laurentide Ice Sheet , a number of North American megafauna species migrated northwards to inhabit northern Canada and Alaska during the Last Interglacial, including

2268-584: The grooves left by these glaciers can be easily observed. In southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, a suture zone between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets formed the Cypress Hills , which is the northernmost point in North America that remained south of the continental ice sheets. The Great Lakes are the result of glacial scour and pooling of meltwater at the rim of

2349-586: The isostatically depressed area, a temporary marine incursion that geologists dub the Yoldia Sea . Then, as postglacial isostatic rebound lifted the region about 9500 BP, the deepest basin of the Baltic became a freshwater lake, in palaeological contexts referred to as Ancylus Lake , which is identifiable in the freshwater fauna found in sediment cores. The lake was filled by glacial runoff, but as worldwide sea level continued rising, saltwater again breached

2430-485: The last glacial period ). During the Last Interglacial, the proportion of CO 2 in the atmosphere was about 280 parts per million. The Last Interglacial was one of the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, with temperatures comparable to and at times warmer (by up to on average 2 degrees Celsius) than the contemporary Holocene interglacial, with the maximum sea level being up to 6 to 9 metres higher than at present, with global ice volume likely also being smaller than

2511-463: The oak is predominant; for some other parts conifer forest is dominant. In the west the Reichswald merges into woodland of the province Gelderland in the Netherlands . These are almost closed over the municipalities of Milsbeek , Mook en Middelaar , Berg en Dal and Heumen to Nijmegen . Except small subareas the complete Reichswald is under landscape and nature protection. The majority

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2592-778: The Alpine foreland . Local ice fields or small ice sheets could be found capping the highest massifs of the Pyrenees , the Carpathian Mountains , the Balkan Mountains , the Caucasus , and the mountains of Turkey and Iran . In the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau , there is evidence that glaciers advanced considerably, particularly between 47,000 and 27,000 BP, but the exact ages, as well as

2673-647: The Alps, conditions were 1–2 °C cooler than today. The model (generated using observed greenhouse gas concentrations and Last Interglacial orbital parameters) generally reproduces these observations, leading them to conclude that these factors are enough to explain the Last Interglacial temperatures. Meltwater pulse 2B, approximately 133,000 BP, substantially weakened the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). Trees grew as far north as southern Baffin Island in

2754-434: The American camel Camelops hesternus , mastodons (genus Mammut ) the large ground sloth Megalonyx jeffersonii , and the bear sized giant beaver Castoroides , with the lower latitudes of Canada being inhabited (in addition to the aformentioned taxa) by species like Columbian mammoth ( Mammuthus columbi ), stag-moose ( Cervalces ), and the llama Hemiauchenia . The steppe bison ( Bison priscus ) migrated into

2835-613: The Anglo-Canadian side, nearly 200,000 men were engaged in the fighting, with 23,000 casualties. As the Reichswald is on a glacial ridge, it is not subjected to flooding. The glacial gravel contains much loam from the northern German plain and this makes the surface extremely muddy when using the unmetalled roads during a rainy period. [REDACTED] Media related to Klever Reichswald at Wikimedia Commons 51°44′35″N 6°02′35″E  /  51.74306°N 6.04306°E  / 51.74306; 6.04306 Last Glacial Period The Last Glacial Period ( LGP ), also known as

2916-524: The Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate at the University of Tromsø , published a study in June 2017 describing over a hundred ocean sediment craters, some 3,000 m wide and up to 300 m deep, formed by explosive eruptions of methane from destabilized methane hydrates , following ice-sheet retreat during the LGP, around 12,000 years ago. These areas around the Barents Sea still seep methane today. The study hypothesized that existing bulges containing methane reservoirs could eventually have

2997-474: The Greenland climate was dry during the LGP, with precipitation reaching perhaps only 20% of today's value. The name Mérida glaciation is proposed to designate the alpine glaciation that affected the central Venezuelan Andes during the Late Pleistocene. Two main moraine levels have been recognized - one with an elevation of 2,600–2,700 m (8,500–8,900 ft), and another with an elevation of 3,000–3,500 m (9,800–11,500 ft). The snow line during

3078-470: The Greenland ice core site Dye 3 was glaciated during the Last Interglacial, which implies that Greenland could have contributed at most 2 m (6.6 ft) to sea level rise . Recent research on marine sediment cores offshore of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet suggest that the sheet melted during the Last Interglacial, and that ocean waters rose as fast as 2.5 meters per century. Global mean sea surface temperatures are thought to have been higher than in

3159-428: The Holocene interglacial. The Last Interglacial is known as the Eemian in northern Europe (sometimes used to describe the global interglacial), Ipswichian in Britain, the Mikulino (also spelled Milukin) interglacial in Russia, the Kaydaky in Ukraine, the Valdivia interglacial in Chile , and the Riss-Würm interglacial in the Alps . Depending on how a specific publication defines the Sangamonian Stage of North America,

3240-435: The Holocene, but not by enough to explain the rise in sea level through thermal expansion alone, and so melting of polar ice caps must also have occurred. Because of the sea level drop since the Last Interglacial, exposed fossil coral reefs are common in the tropics, especially in the Caribbean and along the Red Sea coastlines. These reefs often contain internal erosion surfaces showing significant sea level instability during

3321-570: The LGP as the Devensian . Irish geologists, geographers, and archaeologists refer to the Midlandian glaciation, as its effects in Ireland are largely visible in the Irish Midlands . The name Devensian is derived from the Latin Dēvenses , people living by the Dee ( Dēva in Latin), a river on the Welsh border near which deposits from the period are particularly well represented. The effects of this glaciation can be seen in many geological features of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland . Its deposits have been found overlying material from

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3402-446: The Last Interglacial is equivalent to either all or part of it. The period falls into the Middle Paleolithic and is of some interest for the evolution of anatomically modern humans , who were present in Western Asia ( Skhul and Qafzeh hominins ) as well as in Southern Africa by this time, representing the earliest split of modern human populations that persists to the present time (associated with mitochondrial haplogroup L0 ). As

3483-431: The Last Interglacial. Along the Central Mediterranean Spanish coast, sea levels were comparable to those of the present. Scandinavia formed an island due to the area between the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea being drowned. Vast areas of northwestern Europe and the West Siberian Plain were inundated. The warmness of the interval allowed temperate-adapted taxa to extend their range considerably northward, with

3564-505: The North American Laurentide ice sheet. At the height of glaciation, the Bering land bridge potentially permitted migration of mammals, including people, to North America from Siberia . It radically altered the geography of North America north of the Ohio River . At the height of the Wisconsin episode glaciation, ice covered most of Canada, the Upper Midwest , and New England , as well as parts of Montana and Washington . On Kelleys Island in Lake Erie or in New York's Central Park ,

3645-436: The Northern Hemisphere. As the Last Interglacial cooled, p CO 2 remained stable. During the northern summer, temperatures in the Arctic region were about 2–4 °C higher than in 2011. The Arctic Last Interglacial climate was highly unstable, with pronounced temperature swings revealed by δ O fluctuations in Greenlandic ice cores, though some of the instability inferred from Greenland ice core project records may be

3726-410: The Polish River Vistula or its German name Weichsel). Evidence suggests that the ice sheets were at their maximum size for only a short period, between 25,000 and 13,000 BP. Eight interstadials have been recognized in the Weichselian, including the Oerel, Glinde, Moershoofd, Hengelo, and Denekamp. Correlation with isotope stages is still in process. During the glacial maximum in Scandinavia, only

3807-437: The Southern Hemisphere was less extensive. Ice sheets existed in the Andes ( Patagonian Ice Sheet ), where six glacier advances between 33,500 and 13,900 BP in the Chilean Andes have been reported. Antarctica was entirely glaciated, much like today, but unlike today the ice sheet left no uncovered area. In mainland Australia only a very small area in the vicinity of Mount Kosciuszko was glaciated, whereas in Tasmania glaciation

3888-452: The Wisconsin episode. It began about 30,000 years ago, reached its greatest advance 21,000 years ago, and ended about 10,000 years ago. In northwest Greenland, ice coverage attained a very early maximum in the LGP around 114,000. After this early maximum, ice coverage was similar to today until the end of the last glacial period. Towards the end, glaciers advanced once more before retreating to their present extent. According to ice core data,

3969-400: The dramatic changes in the European environment during the Würm glaciation. During the height of Würm glaciation, c.  24,000  – c.  10,000  BP, most of western and central Europe and Eurasia was open steppe-tundra, while the Alps presented solid ice fields and montane glaciers. Scandinavia and much of Britain were under ice. During the Würm, the Rhône Glacier covered

4050-423: The formation of a single contiguous ice sheet on the Tibetan Plateau, is controversial. Other areas of the Northern Hemisphere did not bear extensive ice sheets, but local glaciers were widespread at high altitudes. Parts of Taiwan , for example, were repeatedly glaciated between 44,250 and 10,680 BP as well as the Japanese Alps . In both areas, maximum glacier advance occurred between 60,000 and 30,000 BP. To

4131-400: The heartlands of North America from Alaska at the beginning of the Last Interglacial, giving rise to the giant long-horned bison Bison latifrons (which is first known from the Snowmass site in Colorado, dating to around 120,000 years ago) and ultimately all North American bison species, and marking the beginning of the Rancholabrean faunal age in North America. Also during this time period

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4212-448: The higher latitudes of Europe during this time interval, after having retreated from the region due to unfavourable conditions during the Penultimate Glacial Period. However, unlike previous interglacials, they were absent from Britain, likely due to Britain being an island during this time. During the Last Interglacial, Neanderthals engaged in a variety of food-gathering activities, including fishing, as well as big-game hunting, including

4293-447: The last glacial advance was lowered approximately 1,200 m (3,900 ft) below the present snow line, which is 3,700 m (12,100 ft). The glaciated area in the Cordillera de Mérida was about 600 km (230 sq mi); this included these high areas, from southwest to northeast: Páramo de Tamá, Páramo Batallón, Páramo Los Conejos, Páramo Piedras Blancas, and Teta de Niquitao. Around 200 km (77 sq mi) of

4374-444: The last glacial maximum, the Patagonian ice sheet extended over the Andes from about 35°S to Tierra del Fuego at 55°S. The western part appears to have been very active, with wet basal conditions, while the eastern part was cold-based. Cryogenic features such as ice wedges , patterned ground , pingos , rock glaciers , palsas , soil cryoturbation , and solifluction deposits developed in unglaciated extra-Andean Patagonia during

4455-401: The last glaciation, but not all these reported features have been verified. The area west of Llanquihue Lake was ice-free during the last glacial maximum, and had sparsely distributed vegetation dominated by Nothofagus . Valdivian temperate rain forest was reduced to scattered remnants on the western side of the Andes. Last Interglacial The Last Interglacial , also known as

4536-442: The late glacial (Weichselian) and the immediately preceding penultimate interglacial ( Eemian ) period. Canada was almost completely covered by ice, as was the northern part of the United States , both blanketed by the huge Laurentide Ice Sheet . Alaska remained mostly ice free due to arid climate conditions. Local glaciations existed in the Rocky Mountains and the Cordilleran ice sheet and as ice fields and ice caps in

4617-401: The lower Connecticut River Valley . In the Sierra Nevada , three stages of glacial maxima, sometimes incorrectly called ice ages , were separated by warmer periods. These glacial maxima are called, from oldest to youngest, Tahoe, Tenaya, and Tioga. The Tahoe reached its maximum extent perhaps about 70,000 years ago. Little is known about the Tenaya. The Tioga was the least severe and last of

4698-448: The main Wisconsin glacial advance. The upper level probably represents the last glacial advance (Late Wisconsin). The Llanquihue glaciation takes its name from Llanquihue Lake in southern Chile , which is a fan-shaped piedmont glacial lake. On the lake's western shores, large moraine systems occur, of which the innermost belong to the LGP. Llanquihue Lake's varves are a node point in southern Chile's varve geochronology . During

4779-430: The massive Missoula Floods . USGS geologists estimate that the cycle of flooding and reformation of the lake lasted an average of 55 years and that the floods occurred about 40 times over the 2,000-year period starting 15,000 years ago. Glacial lake outburst floods such as these are not uncommon today in Iceland and other places. The Wisconsin glacial episode was the last major advance of continental glaciers in

4860-401: The middle of the Last Interglacial, a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) began to cool the eastern Mediterranean region. The period closed as temperatures steadily fell to conditions cooler and drier than the present, with a 468-year-long aridity pulse in central Europe at about 116,000 BC, and by 112,000 BC, ice caps began to form in southern Norway, marking

4941-402: The most recent point in time with a climate comparable to the Holocene, the Last Interglacial is also of relevance as a point of reference ( baseline ) for nature conservation. The Last Interglacial was first recognized from boreholes in the area of the city of Amersfoort , Netherlands , by Pieter Harting (1875). He named the beds "Système Eémien", after the river Eem on which Amersfoort

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5022-502: The mountains of Southern Africa was about 6 °C colder than at present, in line with temperature drops estimated for Tasmania and southern Patagonia during the same time. This resulted in an environment of relatively arid periglaciation without permafrost , but with deep seasonal freezing on south-facing slopes. Periglaciation in the eastern Drakensberg and Lesotho Highlands produced solifluction deposits and blockfields ; including blockstreams and stone garlands. Scientists from

5103-448: The northwest area of the Reichswald the protected areas Quellen am Stoppelberg is ( c.  2,9 ha, in Kleve) and in the middle of the forest the protected area Geldernberg ( c.  580 ha, in Kleve, Kranenburg and Goch). Geldernberg is known as the core area of the Reichswald and is stated as the FFH-Area DE-4202-302 Reichswald , which puts it in the European network of protected areas Natura 2000 . The AONB Geldenberg

5184-413: The past few million years, the glacial-interglacial cycles have been "paced" by periodic variations in the Earth's orbit via Milankovitch cycles . The LGP has been intensively studied in North America, northern Eurasia, the Himalayas , and other formerly glaciated regions around the world. The glaciations that occurred during this glacial period covered many areas, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and to

5265-526: The peak of the Last Interglacial, the Northern Hemisphere winters were generally warmer and wetter than now, though some areas were actually slightly cooler than today. A cooling event similar to but not exactly mirroring the 8.2-kiloyear event is recorded from Beckentin during the E5 phase of the Eemian, some 6,290 years after the start of interglacial afforestation. A 2018 study based on soil samples from Sokli in northern Finland identified abrupt cold spells ca. 120,000 years ago caused by shifts in

5346-463: The preceding Ipswichian stage and lying beneath those from the following Holocene , which is the current stage. This is sometimes called the Flandrian interglacial in Britain. The latter part of the Devensian includes pollen zones I–IV, the Allerød oscillation and Bølling oscillation , and the Oldest Dryas , Older Dryas , and Younger Dryas cold periods. Alternative names include Weichsel glaciation or Vistulian glaciation (referring to

5427-430: The proglacial rivers' shifting and redepositing gravels. Beneath the surface, they had profound and lasting influence on geothermal heat and the patterns of deep groundwater flow. The Pinedale (central Rocky Mountains) or Fraser (Cordilleran ice sheet) glaciation was the last of the major glaciations to appear in the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The Pinedale lasted from around 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, and

5508-987: The range of the hippopotamus ( Hippopotamus amphibius ) notably extending as far north as North Yorkshire in northern England, though their range outside of southern Europe did not extend much further east of than the Rhine . The temperate landscapes of Europe were inhabited by large now extinct megafauna including the straight-tusked elephant ( Palaeoloxodon antiquus ), the narrow-nosed rhinoceros ( Stephanorhinus hemitoechus ), Merck's rhinoceros ( Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis ), Irish elk ( Megaloceros giganteus ) and aurochs ( Bos primigenius ), alongside still-living species like red deer ( Cervus elaphus ), fallow deer ( Dama dama ), roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), with predators including lions (the extinct Panthera spelaea ) and cave hyenas ( Crocuta ( Crocuta ) spelaea ), brown bears ( Ursus arctos ) and wolves ( Canis lupus ). The Last Interglacial ecosystems of Europe, which existed prior to

5589-410: The receding ice. When the enormous mass of the continental ice sheet retreated, the Great Lakes began gradually moving south due to isostatic rebound of the north shore. Niagara Falls is also a product of the glaciation, as is the course of the Ohio River, which largely supplanted the prior Teays River . With the assistance of several very broad glacial lakes, it released floods through the gorge of

5670-399: The same fate. During the last glacial period, Antarctica was blanketed by a massive ice sheet, much as it is today. The ice covered all land areas and extended into the ocean onto the middle and outer continental shelf. Counterintuitively though, according to ice modeling done in 2002, ice over central East Antarctica was generally thinner than it is today. British geologists refer to

5751-413: The sill about 8000 BP, forming a marine Littorina Sea , which was followed by another freshwater phase before the present brackish marine system was established. "At its present state of development, the marine life of the Baltic Sea is less than about 4000 years old", Drs. Thulin and Andrushaitis remarked when reviewing these sequences in 2003. Overlying ice had exerted pressure on the Earth's surface. As

5832-521: The start of a new glacial period . The Eemian lasted about 1,500 to 3,000 years longer in Southern Europe than in Northern Europe. Kaspar et al. (GRL, 2005) performed a comparison of a coupled general circulation model (GCM) with reconstructed Last Interglacial temperatures for Europe. Central Europe (north of the Alps) was found to be 1–2 °C (1.8–3.6 °F) warmer than present; south of

5913-480: The surrounding ice sheets. According to the sediment composition retrieved from deep-sea cores , even times of seasonally open waters must have occurred. Outside the main ice sheets, widespread glaciation occurred on the highest mountains of the Alpide belt . In contrast to the earlier glacial stages, the Würm glaciation was composed of smaller ice caps and mostly confined to valley glaciers, sending glacial lobes into

5994-447: The total glaciated area was in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida , and of that amount, the largest concentration, 50 km (19 sq mi), was in the areas of Pico Bolívar , Pico Humboldt [4,942 m (16,214 ft)], and Pico Bonpland [4,983 m (16,348 ft)]. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the moraines are older than 10,000 BP, and probably older than 13,000 BP. The lower moraine level probably corresponds to

6075-548: The western parts of Jutland were ice-free, and a large part of what is today the North Sea was dry land connecting Jutland with Britain (see Doggerland ). The Baltic Sea , with its unique brackish water , is a result of meltwater from the Weichsel glaciation combining with saltwater from the North Sea when the straits between Sweden and Denmark opened. Initially, when the ice began melting about 10,300 BP, seawater filled

6156-728: The whole western Swiss plateau, reaching today's regions of Solothurn and Aargau. In the region of Bern, it merged with the Aar glacier. The Rhine Glacier is currently the subject of the most detailed studies. Glaciers of the Reuss and the Limmat advanced sometimes as far as the Jura. Montane and piedmont glaciers formed the land by grinding away virtually all traces of the older Günz and Mindel glaciation, by depositing base moraines and terminal moraines of different retraction phases and loess deposits, and by

6237-464: Was at its greatest extent between 23,500 and 21,000 years ago. This glaciation was somewhat distinct from the main Wisconsin glaciation, as it was only loosely related to the giant ice sheets and was instead composed of mountain glaciers, merging into the Cordilleran ice sheet. The Cordilleran ice sheet produced features such as glacial Lake Missoula , which broke free from its ice dam, causing

6318-658: Was more severe than the Last Glacial Period in some areas such as Britain, but less severe in others. The last glacial period saw alternating episodes of glacier advance and retreat with the Last Glacial Maximum occurring between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. While the general pattern of cooling and glacier advance around the globe was similar, local differences make it difficult to compare the details from continent to continent (see picture of ice core data below for differences). The most recent cooling,

6399-468: Was more widespread. An ice sheet formed in New Zealand, covering all of the Southern Alps, where at least three glacial advances can be distinguished. Local ice caps existed in the highest mountains of the island of New Guinea , where temperatures were 5 to 6 °C colder than at present. The main areas of Papua New Guinea where glaciers developed during the LGP were the Central Cordillera ,

6480-512: Was not covered by a continental-scale ice sheet. Instead, large, but restricted, icefield complexes covered mountain ranges within northeast Siberia, including the Kamchatka-Koryak Mountains. The Arctic Ocean between the huge ice sheets of America and Eurasia was not frozen throughout, but like today, probably was covered only by relatively shallow ice, subject to seasonal changes and riddled with icebergs calving from

6561-613: Was re-investigated using old and new data in a multi-disciplinary approach (Cleveringa et al., 2000). At the same time a parastratotype was selected in the Amsterdam glacial basin in the Amsterdam-Terminal borehole and was the subject of a multidisciplinary investigation (Van Leeuwen, et al., 2000). These authors also published a U/Th age for late Last Interglacial deposits from this borehole of 118,200 ± 6,300 years ago. A historical review of Dutch Last Interglacial research

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