The last big ice age ended about 11,000 years ago, and not a moment
too soon — it made a lot more of the world livable, at least for humans.
But
exactly what caused the big thaw isn’t clear, and new research suggests
that a wobble in the Earth kicked off a complicated process that
changed the whole planet.
Ice tells the
history of the Earth’s climate: Air bubbles in ice reveal what the
atmosphere was like and what the temperature was. And scientists can
read this ice, even if it’s been buried for thousands of years.
But when it comes to the last ice age, ice has a mixed message.
