Glacial Maximum

The term glacial maximum is used in studies of Ardenic climate history to refer to those timeframes in which glaciation reaches its peak during a glacial period. Per se there is no single glacial maximum but one glacial maximum per glacial-interglacial cycle of the Pleistocene glaciation, the current in progress stage (for 2.58 million years) of the ongoing Icehouse Arden age which began 34 million years ago.

The most recent glacial maximum occurred 22-20,000 Before Present toward the end of the Last Glacial Period, although research suggest the extend of ice caps was close to its greatest value as early as 26,000 BP. The previous maximum occurred about 140,000 BP as part of the Penultimate Glacial Period. In Messenian studies it is sometimes referred to the Hyperpagos (from Old Messenian intensifying prefix υπερ- and πάγος, “ice”), a term coined by the Tvåriker climatologist Tora Olafsdotter.

Last glacial expansion

This section contains information that has been retconned by more recent development, and will be updated in future.

• Only Korath is exposed, the other straits are not
• Korath being cut means the Golden Arc Circulation is reduced because the equatorial current is not pushed into the Messenic anymore. Probably still some current but less strong so Messenia & Serrinea may be colder due to that
• Is the Coactian closed?
  • Probably not, but even more isolated than now, so with even less circulation and a less strong super cyclone system the sea probably has a stratified water column (the bottom has much less life)

The last glacial expansion reached its height approximately 35,000 years before the present and is thought to have lasted roughly seven thousand years from this point.

Effects

The spread of ice from the poles locked up vast quantities of water, with the effect of lowering mean sea levels by an estimated 125 feet (410 metres), thus exposing large areas of land which are under water today. Perhaps the most significant effect thus created was the appearance of land bridges joining Lestria to Ascesia (across the present-day Strait of Calcar), Messenia (from modern Madaria to Pekhmet via the island of Makairi) and Petty-Lestria (across the present-day Straits of Korath). It also created a substantial lake in what is now the western Medius Sea, as well as joining most of the Median Islands to the Lestrian mainland.

In northern Ascesia and Messenia the ice caps extended broadly as far south as 45 degrees north latitude (roughly where the southern boundary of Emilia runs today), although in some areas it pushed even beyond this point; the southern shores of the Bajradhbani in Ascesia and Lake Carles and the Great Lakes in north-eastern Messenia are in large part the result of land being gouged out by retreating ice. This produced some dramatic river gorges, particularly in the lower Védomagne and some of its tributaries.

Joriscia was less severely affected, with little penetration by the ice south of the Severnistines; while the islands which make up present-day Kiy were wholly ice-bound, the leading edge of the ice-cap probably reached only as far as north-western Lutoborsk. The less severe effects are thought to be due to greater prevalence of high winds over much of Messenia for extended periods during the expansion, which eliminated much of the moisture in the air necessary for extended snowfalls.

Expansion of the polar cap in the southern hemisphere reached in places as far north as 50 degrees south latitude; in Lestria this brought almost a third of the continent’s area under ice, as far as the northern coast of Múantín, and in Serania Major the Lebieux Ice Sheet which today covers most of Odannach Serania also extended across much of what is now the Grand-Sud territory. In addition, some sizeable glaciers were formed in parts of the Lestrian Spine, despite its proximity to normally warmer latitudes.