The Ice Age · Interactive Guide to Tentsmuir Forest

Here are some diagrams of what was happening at Tentsmuir during the Ice Age:

As mentioned, an Ice Age is a long period of time when the temperatures on Earth are colder than normal. Large masses of ice build up called glaciers slowly covering more and more of the Earth.

When the Ice covers an area for hundreds of years it is so heavy that the land underneath it sinks. Not into the sea- it just squishes, or compresses, down like a mattress.

Eventually when all of the ice has melted the land will slowly bounce back up again to its original height. This means that over thousands of years the sea level will look like it is falling- it is actually the land that is VERY slowly rising. This is call Isostatic rebound and we see evidence of this at Tentsmuir, as we can see from the sealine which is constantly retreating.

The area would have looked a bit like this during the Ice Age.

Thank goodness Toby brought his hat and gloves.

Here are Toby's thoughts on Tentsmuir at this time:

Now play the Quiz below and see how much you know!

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