Sean Birkel will lead an online presentation called, Ice Age Cycle, hosted by Merryspring Nature Center, on Tuesday, April 1, at 12 p.m.  

During the last 1 million years of the Pleistocene, Earth’s climate experienced quasi-cyclical ice ages each lasting about 100,000 years.  The last glacial cycle over North America peaked 18,000–24,000 years ago, when the southeast lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered all of Maine, extending beyond the modern coastline to George’s Bank. Deglaciation occurred across the state 12,000 – 14,000 years ago, leaving behind an array of characteristic landforms and surficial deposits, including moraines, deltas, erratic boulders, ice-polished bedrock, and scoured basins that are now lakes and ponds. 

This presentation explores the post-glacial Maine landscape, why the Laurentide Ice Sheet grew and collapsed, and how studying ice ages helps inform our scientific understanding of human-driven climate warming. 

This talk is part of Merryspring’s Online Winter Talk series, co-sponsored by Camden Riverhouse Hotel, Renys, A Maine Adventure, and Camden National Bank.   

This one link, https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83922205228, will allow access to all online talks and can also be found on the calendar https://merryspring.org/calendar/, or you may request the link by sending an email to info@merryspring.org.   

Online talks are held as Zoom webinars and are open to everybody, free of charge.

Merryspring is your community nature center offering walking trails, cultivated gardens, wildlife, and ecology and horticulture educational programs all year round. The park is located at the end of Conway Road, just off of Route 1 in Camden behind Hannaford Shopping Plaza. For more information on this program, please contact info@merryspring.org or call 207-236-2239.