Temperature proxies for the last 40,000 years

The Last Glacial Maximum refers to the time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation, approximately 21 thousand years ago. At this time, all of Northern Europe, almost all of Canada and the northern half of the West Siberian Plain were covered by huge ice sheets extending roughly to the southern boundary of the Great Lakes in North America and to a line from the mouth of the Rhine River through Kraków, Moscow up to the mouth of the Anabar River in Russia. Image File history File links From the Vostok and EPICA (Antarctica) and GRIP (Greenland) ice cores: d-o-18, last 40kyr. ... Image File history File links From the Vostok and EPICA (Antarctica) and GRIP (Greenland) ice cores: d-o-18, last 40kyr. ... An ice sheet is a mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km² (19,305 mile²). The only current ice sheets are Antarctic and Greenland; during the last ice age at Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Laurentide ice sheet covered much of Canada... Glaciation, often called an ice age, is a geological phenomenon in which massive ice sheets form in the Arctic and Antarctic and advance toward the equator. ... Northern Europe is marked in purple Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. ... The West Siberian Plain (Russian: За́падно-Сиби́рская равни́на) is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei River in the east. ... The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. ... The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1. ... Motto: none Voivodship Lesser Poland Municipal government Rada miasta Kraków Mayor Jacek Majchrowski Area 326,8 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 757,500 (2004 est. ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA:   listen?) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. ... The Anabar River is a river in Sakha, Russia, located just west of the Lena River. ...

Ice sheets covered the whole of Iceland and all but the southern extremity of the British Isles, whilst the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern Chile down to about 41 degrees south. Ice sheets also covered Tibet ( it is still discussed between scientists worldwide, whether the Tibet Plateau was totally covered with ice, or there were only larger glaciers than today), Baltistan, Ladakh and the Andean altiplano. In Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, many smaller mountain glaciers formed, especially in the Atlas, the Bale Mountains, and New Guinea. The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ... The Patagonian Ice Sheet was a large ice sheet that covered all of Chile south of approximately present-day Puerto Montt during the Last Glacial Maximum. ... Tibet (Tibetan: བོད་, Bod, pronounced pö in Lhasa dialect; Chinese: 西藏, pinyin: Xīzàng; older spelling Thibet) is a region in Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. ... Baltistan is a region in the far north of Kashmir, bordering the Chinese region of Xinjiang. ... Tikse monastery, Ladakh Hemis Monastery in the 1870s Ladakh is the largest district of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, covering more than half the area of the state (of which it is the eastern part). ... The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain), where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest continent and second most populous after Asia. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in northwest Africa extending about 2400 km (1500 miles) through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and including The Rock of Gibraltar. ... The Bale Mountains are a range of mountains in the Somali Region of southeast Ethiopia, south of the Awash River. ...

The Ob and Yenisei Rivers had their flows stopped by the vast ice sheets, creating huge lakes. Обь Length - measured from the river-head of the Katun - 3650 km - measured from the river-head of the Irtysh - 5410 km Elevation of the source  ? m Average discharge 12,500 m³/s Area watershed 2,930,000 km² Origin  Altai Krai Mouth  Karskoe Sea Basin countries Russia This article is... Енисей Length 5,550 (4,102) km Elevation of the source m Average discharge 19,600 m³/s Area watershed 2,580,000 km² Origin  ? Mouth Arctic Ocean Basin countries Russia The Yenisei basin, Lake Baikal, and the cities of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk Yenisei (Енисе́й) is a river... Lake Clearwater, Ontario, Canada A lake is a large body of water, usually fresh water, surrounded by land. ...

Permafrost covered Europe south of the ice sheet down to present-day Szeged and Asia down to Beijing. In North America, latitudinal gradients were so sharp that permafrost did not reach far south of the ice sheets except at high elevations. This article is about frozen ground. ... Votive Church Szeged   listen? (in Serbian Segedin, in Polish Segedyn, in Romanian Seghedin, in Slovak Segedín) is the fourth largest city of Hungary, the regional centre of South-Eastern Hungary and the capital of Csongrád county. ...   Beijing? (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking) is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

Despite having present-day climates similar to those of glaciated areas in North America, East Asia and parts of Alaska were unglaciated except at the highest elevations. This anomaly was caused by the fact that the ice sheets in Europe produced extensive anticyclones above them. These anticyclones generated westerly winds that were so dry on reaching Siberia and Manchuria that sufficient precipiation to form glaciers could never occur except in Kamchatka where these westerly winds lifted moisture from the Sea of Japan. The relative warmth of the Pacific Ocean due to the shutting down of the Oyashio Current and the presence of large east-west mountain ranges were secondary factors preventing continental glaciation in Asia. This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, etc. ... State nickname: The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun Other U.S. States Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Governor Frank Murkowski (R) Official languages English Area 1,067,653 mi² / 1,717,854 km² (1st)  - Land 1,481,347 km²  - Water 236,507 km² (13. ... In meteorology, an anticyclone is a weather phenomenon associated with atmospheric high pressure. ... Wind is the quasi-horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by a horizontal pressure gradient force. ... Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... Extent of Manchuria according to Definition 1 (dark red), Definition 3 (dark red + medium red) and Definition 4 (dark red + medium red + light red) Manchuria (Manchu: Manju, Simplified Chinese: 满洲; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; pinyin: ) or Northeast China (Simplified Chinese: 东北; Traditional Chinese: 東北; pinyin: ; literally east-north) are names given to a vast territorial... Kamchatka is the land of volcanoes. ... ...

In warmer regions of the world, climates at the Last Glacial Maximum were extremely dry and generally cold. In extreme cases, such as South Australia and the Sahel, rainfall could be diminished by up to ninety percent, with floras diminished to almost the same degree as in glaciated areas of Europe and North America. Even in less affected regions, rainforest cover was greatly diminished, especially in West Africa where a few refugia were surrounded by tropical grassland. The Amazon rainforest was split into two large blocks by extensive savanna, and it is probable that the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia were similarly affected, with deciduous forests expanding in their place except on the east and west extremities of the Sundaland shelf. Only in Central America and the Chocó region of Colombia did tropical rainforests remain substantially intact - probably due to the extraordinarily heavy rainfall of these regions. Motto: United for the Common Wealth Nickname: Festival State Other Australian states and territories Capital Adelaide Government Governor Premier Const. ... The Sahel (from Arabic ساحل, sahil, shore or border) is the boundary zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the more fertile region to the south, known as the Sudan (not to be confused with the country of the same name). ... Rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall due to the Intertropical convergence zone. ... West Africa is the region of western Africa that, most strictly speaking, includes the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte dIvoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. ... An Inner Mongolia Grassland. ... A river in the Amazon rainforest The Amazon is a rainforest in South America. ... Savanna is a grassland dotted with trees, and occurs in several types of biomes. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Central America is the region of North America located between the southern border of Mexico and the northwest border of Colombia, in South America. ... Motto: Capital Quibdó Governor Area 46,530 km² Population  - Total (2003)  - Density   413,173 8,9 people/km² Adjective chocoano Chocó is a department of Colombia. ...

Most of the world's deserts expanded. Exceptions were in the American West, where changes in the jet stream brought heavy rain to areas that are now desert and large pluvial lakes formed, the best known being Pluvial Lake Bonneville. This also occurred in Afghanistan and Iran where a major lake formed in the Dasht-e Kavir (possibly also in North Africa but this remains unclear). In Australia, shifting sand dunes covered fifty percent of the continent, whilst the Chaco and Pampas in South America became similarly dry. Present-day subtropical regions also lost most of their forest cover, notably in eastern Australia, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, and southern China, where open woodland became dominant due to drier conditions. In northern China - unglaciated despite its present cold climate - a mixture of grassland and tundra prevailed, and even here, the northern limit of tree growth was at least twenty degrees further south than today. The American West (or The West), is an informal but well-recognized name for the region comprising the 17 or 13 (depending on historical time period and authority) of the most western states in the continental United States. ... 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. ... Dasht-e Kavir (دشت كوير in Persian) is a great salt desert lying in the middle of the Iranian Plateau. ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. ... Landscape in the Gran Chaco, Paraguay The Gran Chaco, dubbed by some as the last South American frontier, is an arid, sparsely-populated, very hot, semi-desert, lowland region of the La Plata basin and is a region divided between Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and a small portion in Brazil called... The pampas (from Quechua for plain) are the fertile lowlands that extend across c. ... Subtropical climate is the form of climate found immediately poleward of the zone of tropical climate. ... A typical ecosystem of Mata Atlântica at Serra do Mar Mata Atlântica is the Atlantic Rain Forest formerly covering the wet coastal hills along the Atlantic coast of Brazil (mostly in the Serra do Mar). ... Biologically, a woodland is differentiated from a forest. ... In physical geography, tundra is an area where tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. ... In this view of an alpine tree-line, the distant line looks particularly sharp. ...

Though the last ice age is popularly seen as a long period, in fact the conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum are now believed to have persisted only for a very short time, probably only two thousand years. In the period immediately before the Last Glacial Maximum, many areas that became completely barren desert were actually wetter than they are today, notably in southern Australia where Aboriginal occupation is believed to coincide with a wet period between 40,000 and 60,000 years BP (before present, that means: before 1950 AD). Australian Aborigines are the main indigenous people of Australia. ...

See also

• Kansan Glaciation
• Ice age
• PMIP
• Sea level rise

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. ... 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). ... The Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project is a project, somewhat along the lines of AMIP or CMIP, to coordinate and encourage the systematic study of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) and to assess their ability to simulate large climate changes such as those that occurred in the distant past. ... Measurement of recent sea level rise from 23 long tide gauge records in geologically stable environments Changes in sea level since the end of the last glacial episode Sea level rise is an increase in sea level. ...

External links

• PMIP Publications : Last Glacial Maximum
• Useful refs
• GLOBAL ATLAS OF PALAEOVEGETATION SINCE THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM