how did the earth come out of the ice age?

Answer 1

The cause of ice ages remains controversial for both the large-scale ice age periods and the smaller ebb and flow of glacial/interglacial periods within an ice age. The general consensus is that it is a combination of up to three different factors: atmospheric composition (particularly the fraction of CO2 and methane), changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun known as Milankovitch cycles (and possibly the Sun's orbit around the galaxy), and the arrangement of the continents.

The first of these three factors is probably responsible for much of the change, especially for the first ice age. The "Snowball Earth" hypothesis maintains that the severe freezing in the late Proterozoic was both caused and ended by changes in CO2 levels in the atmosphere. However, the other two factors do matter.

An abundance of land within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles appears to be a necessity for an ice age, probably because the landmasses provide space on which snow and ice can accumulate during cooler times and thus trigger positive feedback processes like albedo changes. The Earth's orbit does not have a great effect on the long-term causation of ice ages, but does seem to dictate the pattern of multiple freezings and thawings that take place within the current ice age. The complex pattern of changes in Earth's orbit and the change of albedo may influence the occurrence of glacial and interglacial phases — this was first explained by the theory of Milutin Milanković.

Answer 2

Because of global warming, but did you know that the hottest time to live on this planet was during the middle ages? Most likely it's a cyclic system just like the seasons. Slowly we might be heading for another Ice age, despite the whole global warming thing.

Look out Scrat, Here we come...

Answer 3

We are still in the ice age. Just because most of the planet is not covered with ice does not mean we are not in the ice age. Until all the ice is in the form of water we will still be in the same ice age we have been in for centuries.

Answer 4

actually the earth has experienced a multitude of periods of glaciation. IN fact we experience one ever 40 to 100 thousand years. While this environmental/geological cycle is not fully understood most agree it has to do with varying and changing atmospheric composition, including amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfer dioxide, carbon monoxide etc. Truth be told geologically speaking we are still coming out of the last ice age, and though many people try and attribute current global warming trends to this, they are almost certainly mistaken.... as geological and ecological changes work on a much slower almost imperceptible scale... changes that we seen over the last 100 years should have taken thousands...

Answer 5

Global warming...Best wishes

Answer 6

The SUN.