This one is grounded in the earth – or below the waves of the North Sea.
At https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/giant-ice-age-landforms-discovered-deep-beneath-north-sea-revealed-in-amazing-detail … it seems the ocean bottom imaging process shows landforms that were carved by ice around one million years ago. In the middle of the Pleistocene era. It was subsequently buried beneath a layer of thick mud and sediment. How that was removed or peered into is not disclosed in the press release. Go to https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq6089 … for the full article.
What they have found are patterns on the sea bed consistent with the idea of a single ice sheet laid down. This seriously contradicts theories that many smaller ice advances repeatedly expanded and retracted around this time – during the mid to late Pleistocene period. Those theories were based on abundant scratch marks caused by numrous glaciers. It now turns out they originated from strong ocean currents. The researchers say they can only see evidence for one big ice advance during that time – although areas outside the research may say otherwise.
High resolution sound wave data was used to reveal the landforms. They say they were not searching for anything in particular and were surprised by the evidence for a single grounded ice sheet. In other words, an ice sheet that was sitting on the surface of the land – prior to the emergence of the North Sea. Grounded ice sheets move sediment around as they grow and shrink, creating erosional and depositional landforms from which scientists can reconstruct a region’s glacial past. When ice is advancing it creates streamlined elongated features that sculpt the sediment in the direction of ice flow. When the ice is retreating you get features that show the imprint of the grounded ice margins as it steps back. These tend to be transverse to the ice flow direction.
The giant ice sheet formed during the period known as the Mid-Pleistocene transition that lasted between 1,3 million and 700,000 years ago. The latter date is not far adrift from the last magnetic reversal event that was permanent. In contrast the Laschamp event reversed back again. Or that was consensus thinking which may have changed. One thought occurs to me and that is how does this affect the ice advance dated around 450,000 years ago. It was responsible for shifting huge boulders of chalk and other rocks which can be seen on the Norfolk coast. No doubt, these findings will play a role in the search of human activity in Pleistocene Britain.
In one of those coincidences there is another research paper just out – see https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/01/250115165055.htm … which reports on the discovery of snow leopard fossils found in France and Portugal going back one million years ago. Snow leopards in Europe remained a feature of western Europe down to the Laschamp Event – 40,000 years ago.
Another interesting research paper is at https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/we-finally-know-what-1-400-year-old-mystery-rings-in-australia-are … the claim is that by using Aborigines to excavate one of the more prominent landscape features, earth rings, we may now understand what they were about. After all, they were made by the Aborigines. these circular structures have defied understanding by the newcomers. These ciruclar earthworks were quite common prior to the arrivsal of Europeans back in the day. Many of the ring structures were were erased by modern farming methodology – such as deep ploughing. It is estimated there were hundreds of them dotting the landscape of Queensland and New South Wales – with lesser numbers in Victoria. Just one hundred remain. The ring chosen for excavation has been dated between 590 and 1400 years ago – so quite recently. What was happening back then? In Britain round earth structures such as henges came into fashion during the Bronze Age and even earlier, in the Bronze ages. If the link above does not work try instead … https://www.gbnews.com/science/science-breakthrough-scientists-mystery-circular-rings-australia …