This video details the geography of Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum, commonly known as the Ice Age.
In the last video,
I introduced the process of ice sheet formation in the Northern Hemisphere
during the Glacial period in the Quaternary glaciation.
I also mapped the habitats of hominins that lived simultaneously.
From 35,000 years ago,
the Last Glacial Period of the Quaternary glaciation is coming.
The period between 26,500 and 19,000 or 20000 years before the present,
when glaciers reached their maximum, is called the Last Glacial Maximum, or LGM.
This period was one of the most challenging times for humanity to overcome the cold.
This video will introduce the LGM terrain
and the area where modern humans lived to avoid the cold based on the facts discovered by scientists.
Please take a look at the linked video for changes in glaciers
during the entire period of the Quaternary glaciation.
Neanderthals were still alive and not extinct.
You can see on a map where Neanderthals and Homo sapiens lived until just before the LGM began.
Habitats shown on the map only show where DNA analysis was performed.
The white label is where Neanderthals lived,
and the black label is where Home Sapiens DNA was analyzed.
In the case of Homo Sapiens, the mitochondrial DNA and Y-DNA haplogroups are indicated,
and the estimated year is also marked.
The information shown in white in parentheses is mitochondrial DNA,
and the red text in the middle is Y-DNA.
The far right is the earliest possible
The glacier grew again between 33,000 and 30,000 years ago
and reached its maximum around 19,000 or 20,000 years ago.
The accumulated snow froze and became a large discharge.
How much fresh water was preserved in the form of glaciers during the LGM?
First, you will know the information about the amount of water on our planet,
and you will have a quick understanding of its scale.
Only 2.5% of total global water is freshwater.
Its volume is about 35,000,000 km3.
This is the amount filled when a 1.8km bank is built at the edge of the land combining Canada and the United States,
and freshwater is poured into it.
The screen you are seeing now shows the water level of each country modeled by NASA.
So let's guess the amount of groundwater!
What is the sum of all the rivers in the world?
It's much smaller than we think.
It is less than 1% of all water in rivers and soil.
So where is the rest of the freshwater?
It is in the form of glaciers or ice caps.
The proportion is 79% of the total fresh water.
The proportion is 79% of the total fresh water. This is because most fresh water on Earth exists in the form of glaciers and ice caps.
Glaciers exist in Greenland and Antarctica,
and there are ice caps in some high mountains, such as the Himalayas and the Alps.
The combined volume of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is estimated at 20 million km3.
During the LGM,
glaciers were giant than present-day Greenland and Antarctic glaciers combined.
The Europe Ice Sheet and the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
Its volume was 48 million km3.
This is equivalent to 3.8% of the total ocean water volume.
Because 48 million km3 of water was in the form of ice,
the sea level was 120 meters (393.7 feet) lower than it is now.
From now on, we will learn about the earth's geography at this time.
Please stay tuned!
And I would appreciate it if you could watch it until the end.
Using NASA's Ocean Drain Model,
let's now simulate the process of lowering the sea level by 120m.
First, let's animate the changes in the coastline around the northern coast of Europe and the Arctic Ocean.
It is a process of lowering to 120 meters by 10 meters from the present.
Next, let's look at the Ocean Drain process until it becomes the LGM Coastline around the Mediterranean Sea.
Indonesia and Australia, where the Sundaland and Sahul continental shelves are located,
also had very different coastlines in the LGM than they do today.
Also, the Yellow Sea between Korea and China was land at the time.
Alaska in the United States and Chukchi in Russia were also connected by a land bridge called Beringia.
Now you're looking at the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea,
and the northeastern part of South America when sea levels dropped by 120 meters.
The screen you see here is the coastline that is newly drawn when the sea level is lowered to the LGM level,
with the continental shelf of the eastern coast of Argentina and Antarctica lifted.
The coastline, rivers, lakes, and climate were different during the LGM.
From now on, NASA's Ocean Drain Model, scientists' glacier research results,
and Paleo River and Lake are all mapped together to show the LGM topography comprehensively.
So let's start with Europe.
First of all, the difference from the current European terrain is that there were glaciers.
Let's show the Coastline lowered by 120 meters
by the Ocean Drain Model described above on the map.
Glaciers mainly covered the British Isles, Scandinavia, Baltic, and Barents Seas.
On the other hand, there was no ice in northern Russia.
Lakes are formed by glacial melt water along the ice sheet's edge.
The white line is the Paleo River line.
Because of the low sea level in the Black Sea,
the coastline was pushed to the continental shelf.
Khvalynian Lake, now the Caspian Sea, was much larger than it is now.
The Aral Sea was more than three times bigger than it is now.
The United Kingdom and the European continent were connected by a land bridge called Dogger land,
and an extensive channel flowed through the current English Channel.
The Adriatic Sea was overland as far as Peschici in Italy.
River Po in Italy flowed down to the Adriatic Sea.
I will again show you the topography of Europe about 20000 years ago,
which I have explained so far, on a globe.
What was the temperature in Europe during the LGM?
Find the average temperature of the coldest month.
Studies have shown that northern Scandinavia and northern Siberia,
with thick glaciers, were colder than-40°C (-40°F).
The coldest regions reached-60°C (-76°F).
The warmest regions were the tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and the Balkans.
The average temperature of the coldest month was around 9°C (48.2°F).
Neanderthals in Europe and Denisovans in Central Asia, Sundaland, and Sahul went extinct at the beginning of the LGM.
Before the LGM, there was hybridization between them and Homo Sapiens.
The proof is the DNA inherited from those left to modern humans today.
For information on Neanderthals and Denisovans, see the linked videos.
Unfortunately, only Hominin Homo Sapiens survived this cold season.
Where was the hiding place where they survived the ice age?
And what kind of DNA did these people have?
The people who lived in Europe during the Ice Age were the Gravettians,
succeeding the Aurignacians who lived alongside the Neanderthals in Europe
the period they survived ranged from 33,000 bp to 21,000 bp when the LGM was beginning.
Scientists examined the remains of Gravettians.
Their Y-DNA Haplobroup included CT, I, IJK, BT, C1a2, and F.
Of the 14 mtDNA samples, there were 13 U samples and 1 M sample.
Most of the U samples belonged to U5 and U2.
The Gravettians were hunter-gatherers who lived during a frigid period in prehistoric European times,
and the climate shaped their way of life.
They were forced to adapt due to changes in the preglacial environment.
Gravettian culture thrived on their ability to hunt animals.
They utilized a variety of tools and hunting strategies.
Compared to the theorized hunting techniques of Neanderthals and early hominids,
Gravettian hunting culture seems far more fluid and complex.
They usually lived in caves or semi-subterranean or circular dwellings arranged in small "villages."
The Gravetians are thought to have been innovative in developing tools such as blunt back knives, tanged arrowheads, and boomerangs.
Innovations included the use of woven nets and oil lamps made of stone.
Blades and blades were used to make ornaments and bone tools from animal remains.
Eastern Gravettians were expert mammoth hunters.
Their remains are usually found outdoors, not in caves.
Gravettian art includes numerous cave paintings, small, portable figurines of Venus made of clay or ivory, and jewelry.
Most of the fertility deities started early.
There are over 100 known surviving examples.
Animals were the primary food source for humans during Gravett's time.
During this period, Europe was extremely cold, which favored food sources with high energy and fat content.
Around 20000 bp, the coldest period, it succeeded as Solutrean in Spain and France
and developed or continued as Epigravettian in Italy, the Balkans, and Ukraine.
So far, we have introduced the topography and climate of Europe during the LGM
and the people who lived during this period.
In the following video,
I will introduce the vegetation of Eurasia and Beringia and the animals and plants that lived there.
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