The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-02-16

spread over southern New England
and the upper Mississippi valley not
less than $4,000 years ago.
The ice-sheets during the Great
Ice Age covered an area of million
square miles in North America and
a large area in Europe and Asia
The ice must have been at least
5000 to 5000 feet thick and may
have been 10000 or more at the
center of dispersal. 1t was thick
enough to cover the Adirondack and
White Mountains. 1t has been
found that the Greenland ice-sheet
reaches a thickness of $500 feet
near its center.
1t is believed by some geologists
that we are still in the Great Ice
Age, and support their arguments
by the fact that the earth today has
large proportion of its surface
covered with ice. Antarctica is
covered by continental glacier more
than 5 million square miles in area.
Another ice sheet of huge dimen-
sions covers Greenland and great
glaciers occur in all the high noun
tains such as the Himalayas, Pamirs,
Tian Shan, Andes, Alps and the
rockies of Canada and Alaska.
There is considerable evidence
that the climate is gradually warm
ing up and that the ice is melting
ing away. 1t is believed that the
ice may ultimately melt away COM
pletely. 1t is possible, however,
that we are at present in an inter-
glacial epoch and that another in
vasion of the ice may occur. 1t is
true that during the Great Ice Age
the ice-sheets melted back and the
climate warmed up, becoming con-
siderably warmer than at present,
and the ice again advanced; this
took place a times during the Pleis-
tocene.
The ice sheets carried great guam
titles of debris, a large part of
which was scraped off the bedrock
of Canada, and deposited in the
United States when they melted.
The fertile soils of the upper Mis-
sissippi valley and the northern
European plain are glacial.
The ice as it passed over the old
land surface produced tremendous
changes in the drainage, completely
obliterating the old stream valleys
in some cases, and making great
changes in others. Countless lakes
were formed in the glaciated areas;
these lakes are among the finest in
the world and include the lake re-
gions of Canada, Minnesota, Wiscon-
sin, Michigan, New York, Vermont,
New Hampshire and Maine and the
famous lakes of Ireland, Scotland
and England, and those of the Alps
in Switzerland and Italy.
Every time the ice advanced the
animals and plants were pushed
southwark and when the ice receded
they followed the ice northward.
During the ice age, the great
hairy Mammoth, Mastodon, Reindeer
and Muskox roamed over central
Europe and through the United
states.
As yet there is no widely accept
ed explanation for the drop in tenn
perature that brought on glacial ch-
mates from time to time during the
geologic past. Periods of gIaciation
occur when the lands are undergo
ing great upheavals, when changes
in elevation and widespread noun
tain-making movements occur. Dur
ing these periods there is continental
elevation, changes in atmospheric
composition, and shifting of the
ocean currents and prevailing winds.
The sun is a variable star and if
it could be proved that the sun gave
off less heat over a sufficient length
of time, the temperature of the earth
could fall enough to bring on the
ice age.
NEXT WEEK
ORIGIN OF COAL DEPOSITS