If We Push the Ice A Little Further South

Back home, the Pleistocene ice never reached farther south than New York or London. These ice ages had been coming and going for two and a half million years. On average, there was enough ice to suck down 100 meters of sea level.

In this alternate Earth, the ice ages had been coming and going for five million years. In Europe, we'd see ice reaching as far down south as Paris and as far west as London, and even burying all of Russia, stopping on the slopes of the Urals and the Caucasus, barring Asia from Europe.

In North America, the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached as far down south as Topeka, Kansas and as far west as Rapid City, South Dakota. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet never reached beyond the Canadian Rockies, the Cascades or the Alaska Range. Sea levels dropped by 120-150 meters.

In this alternate ice age, what would the Mercator look like with far lower drops in sea level? How would climate and habitat be affected? And when we get to interglacial, would the landscapes look any different from what we currently have? If so, how?

posted over 8 years ago

JohnWDailey‭

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