ice age
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Neko Harbour, Antarctica circa 2000
See also: Ice Age
English
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Alternative forms
Etymology
Perhaps a calque of German Eiszeit.
Noun
- (sciences) A period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence of major polar ice sheets that reach the ocean and calve icebergs.
- The earth is currently in the Late Cenozoic Ice Age, an ice age that began 33.9 million years ago with the Antarctic Ice Cap.
- (colloquial) Any of several glacial periods (within a scientific ice age) marked by episodes of extensive glaciation alternating with episodes of relative warmth (interglacial).
- 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, published 2003, page 377:
- The cause of ice ages, Köppen decided, is to be found in cool summers, not brutal winters.
Translations
period of glaciation at the poles
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any of several glacial periods
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References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ice age”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ UMass Lowell - A human-induced hothouse climate? https://web.archive.org/web/20190510115634/http://faculty.uml.edu/lweeden/documents/HumaninducedhothouseGSAToday.pdf
