"Any Links to Maps of Ice Age Coastlines?" Topic

Does anyone know of good links with maps of the ice coverage and coastlines of Europe, Asia, the Americas and/or Australia during the last Ice Age?

Thanks.

CC

While land topography is pretty easy to come by, good marine topography is a bit tougher. Are you looking for high detail, or more of the "land bridge here" stuff? The "last ice age" was recent enough that the land masses will be in the same places they are now, so a bit of coastline adjustment is all that is necessary.

If possible, I want sufficient detail to get an idea of how islands were once connected to mainlands, which would facilitate travel of animals and people during those times.

CC

Gotcha, mostly larger scale then.

For simplicity, you can assume the 100 foot marine contour is just about the low water mark. This connects Siberia with Alaska across a broad front, makes Australia a bit larger and may bring it closer to SE Asia (if not get a connection, though that connection is generally considered to be further back), and connect a lot of the islands in that area.

Your guess is as good as anyone's regarding Gibraltar in any particular ice age, though it is generally held that the Med hasn't ever completely evaporated during one of these closures.

The various little islands of the Aegean are largely volcanic, and would generally not have many new connections. Ditto for Sicily, Crete, Cyprus, and Malta.

England reconnects to a number of its tiny offshore islands, but nothing major, as the Irish Sea, North Sea, and Channel are all too deep. The area may all be under ice, depending on specific ice age.

Mont Sant Michel, IIRC, would be firmly connected.

The Dutch gain a lot of land without needing to build dikes. Denmark is probably all connected.

Not sure about the north Canadian islands, though they'd all be under ice, so it's a bit moot.

The Amazonian delta gets quite a bit larger. There may be some new connections between islands in the Caribbean. The Yucatan will get drier.

Japan may be connected to Asia by *ice*, but not by actual land. The islands of Japan will, IIRC, still be seperate from each other barring ice bridging. Ditto for Taiwan, though a lot of those funky vertical nearshore islands on the China coast become connected.

Not sure about Ceylon.

GypsyComet,

A recent documentary on the Discovery Channel (I think it was called "Rise of Man") claimed that the oceans were 300 lower when sapiens reached the islands in Indonesia and ventured to sail/raft across to Australia.

Were they way off the mark with the 300 foot estimate? Thanks.

CC

England _was_ connected to the mainland during the Ice Age. The North Sea was dry land up as far as the glaciers (which reached as far south as London at their peak). Mammoth bones are regularly trawled from the sea bed – I've seen two different programmes during this holiday alone where they show it happening – if you drag the sea bed you are virtually assured of some sort of megafauna bone during a day.
The sea level was over 100 metres lower, not 100 feet.

S.

Yes, I think the confusion arose over 100 meters lower (roughly 300 feet, which is the number I have heard in the past) and 100 feet lower.

A Google Image search for "ice age" and "map" turns up a bunch of hits. For example, here's the whole world 18,000 years ago:

picture

Paleolithic Japan:

link

Europe 10,000 years ago:

picture

Depends on the ice age. There have been a lot of them of varying intensities and durations, and the effects on sea level have varied. 100 feet is about the minimum drop to allow the Bering land bridge, but a really deep glacial period would certainly drop the oceans beyond that.

Good point, Gypsy.

As an aside, just about the *only* thing I liked in the execrable Kevin Costner film "Waterworld" was the opening credits montage, showing the ice caps melting and the land masses slowly being swallowed up by the seas. The reverse of what we're talking aobut here.

I had to do a lot of digging when I researched this question on my own last year. The US Geological Survey has some links and documents that can help. The University of Illinois library has some good references (I found several .gifs and the like there). I found that going to some of the big map servers (U Texas) worked when I was after maps.

One of the things that's amazing is just how recent the last Ice Age really was (~12,000 BCE). Taken in geological terms, that isn't all that long ago.

BTW, the number I heard for the drop of sea level circa 18,000 BCE was 400 feet. I don't recall where I read that, but I've used it as a working number. If you contact me off-list I can send you some of the things I found via email.

I would love to have any maps available droped into the Cave Wars "Research Sources" ("Migration and Maps") link folder:

link

Thanks a million.

CC

I'll add my links, plus some other map links I found.

"As an aside, just about the *only* thing I liked in the execrable Kevin Costner film "Waterworld" was the opening credits montage, showing the ice caps melting and the land masses slowly being swallowed up by the seas. The reverse of what we're talking aobut here."

Although if all of the ice melted, the sea level rise would be about 70 metres. Devastaing, but nowhere near enough to cover the majority of land. The most noticeable change to the US would be the loss of Florida and a big 'fjord' up the Mississippi. Lots of coast under water, but the map still looks like North America. Other major inundations would be the drowning of Bangladesh and a big swathe of China. There would also be other areas subject to frequent flooding in the way Bangladesh is today.
From a gaming point of view, the change is quite disappointing – not enoughto make a world different enough to make interesting. From a real life p.o.v, well, obviously not a desirable outcome!

S.