The Kansan Glaciation (known in UK as the Anglian Glaciation and sometimes referred to as the Illinoian Glaciation, Elster glaciation in northern Europe and the Mindel glaciation in the Alps) was a very severe glacial period in the Pleistocene. The Kansan Glaciation is generally taken as covering the period between 410,000 and 380,000 years before the present, though with the increasing evidence that glacial maxima are actually quite short, its peak is not clearly known. It is considered that the Kansan Glaciation marks the absolute maximum extent of continental ice sheets in the Quaternary. The Alps is the collective name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria in the east, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany, through to France in the west. ... The Pleistocene epoch is part of the geologic timescale, usually dated as 1. ... An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 square kilometers (12 million acres). ... This article is about the geologic period. ...

The name, used generally only in North America, comes from the evidence that ice sheets reached as far south as Douglas County, Kansas, which is more than 500 kilometres further south than the limits of maximum glaciation during the Last Glacial Maximum. In Europe, ice sheets extended as far south as present-day Slovakia and London. World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and in population after Eurasia and Africa. ... Douglas County (standard abbreviation: DG) is a county located in the state of Kansas. ... The Last Glacial Maximum refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation, approximately 21 thousand years ago. ... Greater London and the Regions of England. ...

Because the last glacial maximum has buried most evidence of the severe Kansan glaciation, establishing environmental conditions elsewhere during this period is very difficult and can be done only via oceanic studies. These, however, indicate that the jet stream during the Kansan glaciation might have been as much as five degrees further south than it was during the last glacial maximum. (This would place it over Sonora state in Mexico and over southern Morocco in Africa). Jet streams are fast flowing, confined air currents found in the atmosphere at around 12 km above the surface of the Earth, just under the tropopause. ... This article is about the Mexican state of Sonora. ... World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ...

These findings suggest very strongly that the Kansan glaciation would have had much greater effects on the distribution of flora and fauna than more recent glacial periods. Most especially, many small ice-free refugia in North America are likely to have been completely ice-covered during this period, whilst in West and Central Africa, and southern Australia, most of the hypothesised forest refugia of the last ice age are likely to have not been able to retain their forest cover. It is also probable that glaciers occupied much larger areas in mountains than they did at the last glacial maximum. (For instance, periglacial features in the Drakensberg suggest glaciation at some period in the Quaternary, but other evidence suggest the mountains were not glaciated during the last glacial). The term flora has several meanings in English: Flora is a collective term for plant life; as distinct from Fauna (animals). ... Fauna is a collective term for animal life, as distinct from Flora (plant life) Fauna is an ancient Roman goddess. ... West Africa is the region of western Africa generally considered to include these countries: Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Côte dIvoire (Ivory Coast) Equatorial Guinea Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Mali Niger Nigeria Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) Senegal Sierra Leone Togo Chad, Mauritania, and... This article is about forests as a massing of trees. ... Austrias longest glacier, the Pasterze, winds its 8 km (5 mile) route at the foot of Austrias highest mountain, the Grossglockner A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity. ... This article or section should include material from Drakensberg hiking The Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains in Afrikaans) mountains are the highest in South Africa, ranging up to 3,482 m (11,422 ft) in height. ...

The Amazon rainforest, which retained a considerable portion of its present extent at the last glacial maximum, may have been constricted to a few refugia during the Kansan glaciation. These refugia have been shown to have the highest biodiversity as well as the wettest climate. A river in the Amazon rainforest The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. ... Biodiversity or biological diversity is a neologism and a portmanteau word, from bio and diversity. ...

Anglian glaciation

The Anglian glaciation is a name for an ice age period which occurred between 450,000 and 300,000 years ago. The name is used by British geologists and archaeologists who named it after the region of East Anglia where most of the deposits it created have been found. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ... A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology. ... Archaeology or sometimes in American English archeology (from the Greek words αρχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ... Norfolk and Suffolk, the core area of East Anglia. ...

It is a Pleistocene stage of the Quaternary period. It was a full glacial phase and its deposits directly overlie material from the preceding Cromerian interglacial and lie beneath those from the following Hoxnian interglacial The Pleistocene epoch is part of the geologic timescale, usually dated as 1. ... This article is about the geologic period. ... The Cromerian interglacial is a name for an interglacial period which occurred between 700,000 and 450,000 years ago. ... The Hoxnian interglacial is a name for an interglacial period which occurred between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. ...

It was formerly known as the Lowestoft glaciation. Sunrise at Ness Point, Lowestoft. ...

See also

• Ice age
• Last Glacial Maximum
• PMIP
• Sea level rise