Sahul
17.05.2024
Sahul
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For Prelims: About Sahul, Key facts about the Ice age period, Characteristics of the Ice Age |
Why in the news?
Recently, archeologists have found evidence of a lost landscape known as Sahul in the ancient days that helped humans travel across continents.
About Sahul:
- It can be termed as a supercontinent which stood exposed on the Earth's surface when humans were in the middle of what can be termed as the last ice age.
- Since the ice age led to glaciation of water levels on the planet, it ended up exposing parts of land like Sahul which connected to currently known Australia to Papua New Guinea in the north and Tasmania in the south,
- It helped humans in ancient times to cross continents from Asia to Australia almost 7,000 decades ago.
Key facts about the Ice age period
- It is any geologic period during which thick ice sheets cover vast areas of land. Such periods of large-scale glaciation may last several million years and dramatically reshape surface features of entire continents.
- The earliest known took place during Precambrian time dating back more than 570 million years.
- The most recent periods of widespread glaciations occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).
- Ice ages are not uniformly cold. There can be colder and warmer periods during the overall ice-age period.
- Colder periods lead to more extensive areas of continental ice sheets, valley glaciers and sea ice, while warmer periods lead to reduced areas of ice.
Characteristics of the Ice Age:
- Formation of heavy layers of ice, covering the major part of the landmass on earth’s crust.
- Continental glaciations resulting in the freezing of rivers and freshwater bodies.
- Drastic reshaping of the continental shapes due to shrinking of mass and expansion of water.
- Ice ages affected the tectonic movements of the continental and oceanic plates resulting in the formation of new landmasses and continents.
- Ice seemed to exist for millions of years in prime areas are polar caps, alpine glaciers, and a major portion of the continental landmass.
- It is also called glaciations, stadials, etc.
Source: The Hindu
Q - Sahul, a supercontinent which helped humans travel across continents, connected:
- Africa and Europe
- South America and North America
- Europe and Asia
- Australia and Papua New Guinea
Answer D