I heard that the average temp of the earth was only 5 deg.s colder during the Ice Age than now. Is that true?

Answer 1

It depends on how you define the 'ice age'.

Technically we're in an ice age now and have been for the last 50 million years. Often when referring to the 'ice age' people are referring to the period when large parts of the continents of Asia, America and Europe were covered by glaciers. Glacial retreat and advance is a comparatively rapid process and has happened hundreds of times during the current ice age.

The most recent period of glaciation (the one often called the ice age) began to come to an end 18,000 years ago and at that time temperatures were 8 degrees C colder than they are now. We have two ice core samples taken from Concordia and Vostok in Antarctica that give us a 650,000 year climate record, although taken from different locations they're almost identical giving a high confidence that the findings are accurate.

As we look back over the preceding glacial / interglacial periods we see that, over time, the difference between high and low temperatures reduces. If we go back some 20 or so cycles to about 1.5 million years ago the temperatures at their coldest were about 5 degrees C colder than they are now.

Here's some graphs that probably explain it much better than I can using words alone...

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Ice_Age_Temperature_Rev_png
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Five_Myr_Climate_Change_Rev_png
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:65_Myr_Climate_Change_Rev_png

Answer 2

It was proberly about 5 degrees celsius cooler, on average, during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum, 21 thousand years ago) then today. It is hard to measure but the figures are close to that. It was proportonally colder at the poles and less of a difference between then and present at the equator.

Answer 3

now i aint sure about that one but it depends on what time during which ice age ur meaning. the ice age thing wasnt a thing that happened once not to be repeated it happened several times. its also depends to on what part of the earth u was on at the time if u could live back then. if u were in the tropics for example u wouldnt have known anything was going on. ppl think that the earth turned into a ice ball it didnt. even when the earth was having one it was more like an extended winter and shorter spring and summer. even during the ice age the ice melted and came back. heck science has proven we are in the middle of one kinda. if it is wasnt for the appearnce of man and his invention of machines and agriculture. we'ld probably be in one rite now. but u could still go surfing and get a sunburn in hawaii for example.

Answer 4

"back?" The Earth's axis has constantly been tilted. that's the reason we've seasons. The _direction_ of that tilt changes slowly over a 26,000 year era, stated as precession of the equinoxes, which has been conventional for hundreds of years. The ice a while weren't brought about by changes interior the lean of the Earth's axis, and no geologist believes that they are over. besides the incontrovertible fact that it takes better than one thousand years for the climate to alter that extensively. in spite of you're writing, it is not English. English makes use of apostrophes in possessives like "Earth's axis," and commas between clauses. It makes use of capital letters to start up sentences and does not randomly capitalize words interior the middle of sentences which at the instant are not suitable nouns. It by no ability starts a sentence with "and." It does not contain words like "OMG" and does not use "all caps."

Answer 5

HYE!
YEAH, IN SOME WAYS YOU CAN BE RIGHT. WHEN THE ICE AGE HAD BEGUN, THE TEMPERATURE WAS 3.782 DEGREE CELCIUS LOWER THAN THE AVERAGE TEMPERATUR ON EARTH. WHEN THE ICE AGE HAD COME TO ITS MAXIMUM, THE TEMPERATURE AT SOME COLDEST PLACES WAS JUST 5 DEGREE CELCIUS LESS THAN THE COLDEST TEMPERTURE ON EARTH. BUT STILL IT WAS AN ICE AGE BECAUSE THE TEMPERATURE AT REST OF THE PLACES HAD ALSO DROPPED DRAMATICALLY WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ORIGINAL TEMPERATURE. THAT IS WHY, EVEN IF THE TEMPERATURE WAS ONLY 5 DEGREE CELCIUS LESS, THE PERIOD WAS KNOWN AS THE ICE AGE.
I HOPE YOU GOT WHAT YOU WANTED.
BYE!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

According to ( http://vathena.arc.nasa.gov/curric/land/global/climchng.html ), yes, that'd be right. I'm not positive though on all the specifics. Keep in mind that it is an average, and they're Celsius degrees, not Fahrenheit degrees (that's like 8 degrees F) and that it's a worldwide average.

Answer 7

Yep. The Earth is very sensitive to small changes in temperature.

And our modern society, with massive coastal development and intensive agriculture, is even more sensitive.

So, we shouldn't mess the climate up.