For the prehistoric era commonly referred to as The Ice Age, see the
Pleistocene and the
Paleolithic period. An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the
temperature of
Earth's
climate, resulting in an expansion of the continental
ice sheets, polar ice sheets and mountain
glaciers.
Glaciologically, ice age is often used to mean a period of ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres; by this definition we are still in an ice age (because the
Greenland and
Antarctic ice sheets still exist). More colloquially, when speaking of the last few million years, ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the
North American and
Eurasian continents: in this sense, the most recent ice age ended about 10,000 years ago. This article will use the term ice age in the former, glaciological, sense; glacials for colder periods during ice ages; and
interglacials for the warmer periods.
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