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Ice Ages

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ice ages, periods when the temperature of the Earth has dropped to low levels.

Jane Francis, Richard Corfield and Carrie Lear join Melvyn Bragg to discuss ice ages, periods when a reduction in the surface temperature of the Earth has resulted in ice sheets at the Poles. Although the term 'ice age' is commonly associated with prehistoric eras when much of northern Europe was covered in ice, we are in fact currently in an ice age which began up to 40 million years ago. Geological evidence indicates that there have been several in the Earth's history, although their precise cause is not known. Ice ages have had profound effects on the geography and biology of our planet.

With:

Jane Francis
Professor of Paleoclimatology at the University of Leeds

Richard Corfield
Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford University

Carrie Lear
Senior Lecturer in Palaeoceanography at Cardiff University.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Available now

42 minutes

Last on

Thu 14 Feb 2013 21:30

LINKS AND FURTHER READING

READING LIST:

Richard Corfield, Architects of Eternity (Headline Book Publishing, 2001)

J. Imbrie and K. P. Imbrie, Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery (Harvard University Press, 1986)

Doug Macdougall, Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages (University of California Press, 2006)

William F. Ruddiman, Earth鈥檚 Climate: Past and Future (W. H. Freeman, 2007)

Gabrielle Walker, Snowball Earth (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2004)

Broadcasts

  • Thu 14 Feb 2013 09:00
  • Thu 14 Feb 2013 21:30

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