ICE AGE | The Evolution of Ireland Challenge #1:
The Ice Age
For the last number of months, each post has been related to some aspect of the warm and toasty early Eocene, but, with the summer ending and the weather about to turn colder, it might be more appropriate at this point to turn our attention to a time in Ireland's history when its surface and the lives of its inhabitants were dominated by the forces on the other side of the climatic coin: cold and ice.
So, for the coming months we will be taking a look at the nature of Ireland during the great Pleistocene Ice Age, which began around 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago with the beginning of our current epoch, the Holocene. This may serve a purpose beyond mere illumination by making the coming winter seem positively balmy in comparison. However, lest we risk frostbite by plunging into the icy depths too suddenly, I have constructed a 10-question quiz which will provide a gentle introduction to some of the topics that will be discussed.
