[Brad from Tennessee]

Summary:

*Ice sheets are like bulldozers. As they grow, they push rocks, boulders, clams, fossils and other debris into piles called moraines.

*By dating ancient clams in moraines, scientists have come up with a new technique for determining when glaciers were smaller than they are today.

*The technique suggests that the Greenland Ice Sheet was at its smallest point in recent history 3-5,000 years ago — information that could improve our understanding of how ice responds to climate change.

[cripplecreek]

The Irish hills here in Southern Michigan are a glacial moraine. Lots of gravel pits and sandstone quarries in my neck of the woods.

[Bulwinkle]

The glaciers in Glacier National Park are only a few thou and years old... Must have been a lot warmer 4-5000 years ago
http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/glac/

[Verginius Rufus]

First evidence for the existence of SUVs between 3000 and 5000 years ago. Now if they could just find some fossils....

[NormsRevenge]

The Earth is warming?

Even as solar activity dawdles at historically record low levels??

Clue me in, Batman.

What bat guano you been smoking lately?

[Zeneta]

Great Website to compare Arctic Ice Extent

http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=11&fd=20&fy=2003&sm=11&sd=20&sy=2013

This is Nov. 20 2003 vs. Nov. 20 2013

[Soul of the South]

As I recall from history, the Vikings began settling Greenland about 980 during the medieval warm period. The island had forests and grasslands near the coast at that time which was warmer than today. The Norse settlers were able to farm the land until about 1400 when the settlements disappeared, likely due to the cooling of the climate.

[traderrob6]

Perhaps that’s why they called in Greenland?

[PATRIOT1876]

It’s a clue to what happened many years ago and disproves Algore’s fable about this being the “hottest decade ever”! ARRRRRRRRGHHHH!

[Iron Munro]

[Elsiejay]

FWIW:

The last documentary evidence from Greenland’s settlements dates to AD 1408—a letter home concerning a wedding at Hvalsey Church—but it is believed that people continue to live there until at least the mid-15th century. By 1540, when a ship arrived from Norway, all the settlers were gone, and the Norse colonization of Greenland had ended.

[Mike Darancette]

Air warms up then ocean warms up while ice shrinks then warm ocean causes snow over ice sheet which gets bigger and cools water and air. Repeat as needed.

[Lexinom]

And you know that the WWII fighter aircraft recovered in the interior of the ice cap, 200 feet down, have been there for 200 million years.

[aruanan]

Hmmm, let's see, 3000 to 5000 years ago was the period of time covering the Minoan Warm Period that was much, much warmer than the tiny blip we have experienced since 1850 or so and its duration was about 12 times longer. The Minoan Warm Period was as much warmer than the Roman Warm Period was as much warmer than the Medieval Warm Period was as much warmer than the current warm period that came to a stop in 1997. So I would guess that we could expect to see a reduced ice load over this period of time.