Melting Glaciers at the End of the Ice Age May Have Sped Up Continental Drift, Fueled Volcanic Eruptions

Have you watched the movie ‘Ice Age’? I personally love it, and I would recommend it to anyone. But have you ever dived deep into the historical and scientific aspects of the movie? Around roughly 10 thousand years ago, the last Ice Age ended. Huge glaciers began to melt quickly. Simple, right?

However, recent findings have proven that this did more than just raise sea levels, it made continents move faster and caused volcanic eruptions.

When these glaciers become heavy, they put pressure on the land beneath them by pressing down. When the glaciers melted, all the weight vanished. The land began to rise back, which is a process called “glacial isostatic adjustment”. 

But scientists found out something new: the land didn’t just move up, it also moved sideways, making the continents drift faster than before

Computer models were used to note the events of 26000 years in the past.They focused on the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which once covered much of North America. As this ice melted, the North American plate, which is the giant slab of Earth’s crust that holds the continent, started to move 25% faster than usual. In the Atlantic Ocean, where the North American and Eurasian plates are spreading apart, the movement sped up by as much as 40%. Quite an alarming discovery, I’d say. We’re closer to pangea than ever before, perhaps?

However a question that arises is, what happens to the volcanic eruptions in this case? With the ice gone, the pressure on the Earth’s mantle fell to nil. This allowed more magma to rise up, leading to an increase in volcanic eruptions.

In places like Iceland, which sits on top of a boundary between two plates, this effect was drastic. Scientists believe this could explain why there were more volcanic eruptions at the end of the Ice Age

‘What’s the big deal?’ You may ask. Glaciers in Greenland are melting. Volcanic eruptions might be traced back to this study. And ofcourse, the next time someone asks you about the movie ‘Ice Age’, you’d be able to give them a cool backstory that links the events of the present :)