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Why did we have an ice age?
Over the course of Earth's history the surface temperature has undergone huge variations, varying from intensely hot conditions to intense cold. These alternating hot and cold conditions lasted for hundreds of millions of years. For example, we know that at the time of the dinosaurs the surface temperature was high and the climate was essentially a tropical one. At present, and for the last 50 million years or so, we have been in a time when the temperature is quite cold; therefore we are in a kind of global ice age.Since 2 million years ago ice has been present at the poles as it is today. However, during this time the ice extent has fluctuated greatly, sometimes extending into the mid latitudes and beyond. During these expansions ice engulfed Ireland bringing with it glacial processes and leaving glacial effects still visible in the landscape.
