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How many ice ages has the earth had?

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Ice ages were first proposed by the Swiss-born creationist and naturalist Louis Agassiz (1807-73). There is a myth that ice ages covered the whole earth in ice. The theory says they only covered as much as 30%. The theoretical extent of these ice sheets during the ice age 1.5 mya is shown in white on the map below. read more

Ice ages are said to have occurred every 150 million years, and last for at least 1 million years. According to the ice age theory, our current warm period will end with the beginning of another cold phase in 23,000 years time. Geologists claim that there have been 5 major ice ages. read more

The next well-documented ice age, and probably the most severe of the last billion years, occurred from 850 to 630 million years ago (the Cryogenian period) and may have produced a Snowball Earth in which glacial ice sheets reached the equator, possibly being ended by the accumulation of greenhouse gases such as CO 2 produced by volcanoes. read more

Between ice ages there were warmer interglacial periods and we are now living during such a time. There have been many ice ages during the last 2.6 million years but when people talk about the Ice Age, they are often referring to the most recent glacial period, which peaked about 21,000 years ago and ended about 11,500 years ago. read more

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