Ice Age 1

                                                                                        B-H
​​While growing up in communist-run Poland, I attended public school. Private schools were nonexistent, but the level of education was surprisingly high, especially when compared to contemporary American public schools. This isn't the place for a political discussion—that's reserved for a different blog. For those familiar with my writings there, it’s clear that I despise totalitarian regimes, including communism. However, I want to give credit where credit is due.
The curriculum was designed in such a way that there was no doubt in our minds that the Earth had existed for millions of years. In subjects like physics and chemistry, the Big Bang theory was already being taught in the 1970s, and the spontaneous assembly of atoms into complex compounds was considered an established fact. (Subatomic particle physics, however, hadn’t yet emerged as a field of study at the time.)
In biology, we learned about the spontaneous emergence of life from inorganic compounds, with some “magic” amino acids evolving into living organisms. Life then progressed naturally into more sophisticated forms, ultimately culminating in the evolution of primates into Homo sapiens. History lessons painted the story of humanity as the final chapter of this process.
We were presented with images of early Homo sapiens hunting mammoths, with their families processing the animals' meat, bones, and skin while surrounded by ice. It all made sense to us. It created a comprehensive picture of human origins, and no one questioned the finer details of this process.

The presence of ice was something we understood intuitively. Although central Europe has a moderate climate, the evidence of past glaciation was clear in the 1970s. Erratic boulders were scattered everywhere, especially in the northern parts of Poland. Huge stones sat on flat land, near lakes, ponds, and swamps. There were no mountains around to explain where these boulders had come from. Yet, by looking at the pictures of the Scandinavian mountains, it seemed obvious that the boulders had traveled from there, across the Baltic Sea, transported by glaciers from hundreds of kilometers to the north.

Below three samples of Erratic Boulders from Poland out of hundreds such stones in the country and thousands in northern Europe.

​Interestingly, we have similar erratic boulders here in the U.S. and Canada, including in New York State. Perhaps the most well-known among my readers is the Indian Rock in Ramapo, NY, located along Route 59 between Monsey and Suffern. 

This particular boulder didn’t travel far, as rocks of the same mineral structure can be found just miles away. However, it was clearly transported from its original location to its current one, in front of the Indian Rock Shopping Center.

Reflecting on my earlier life, I must admit that I firmly believed in the concept of evolution—so much so that even after I became a Hasidic Jew, I tried to reconcile the evolutionary narrative with the Biblical account of creation. How I managed to do this is a subject for another time. Those of us who attempt such reconciliations often find creative ways to merge seemingly disparate views in our minds.
However, it wasn’t until I began traveling through the American West—visiting the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and deserts between these mountain ranges—that my perspective shifted. I began to see that our planet is far younger than I had been led to believe. I no longer felt the need to engage in intellectual gymnastics to harmonize science with my belief system. I found that belief in evolution is more a religious worldview than a scientific one.

Visiting the Grand Canyon, the deserts of Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming, and the exposed rock layers in nearby mountain ranges, I saw clear evidence of a massive catastrophe. The layers of rock seemed to tell the story of mud and debris deposited in rapid succession. The number of dead animals and plants encased in those rocks brought to mind the biblical description of Noah's Flood. The uplift of these rock layers and the formation of mountains also reminded me of the verse from Psalms that describes such events occurring as a result of a global catastrophe.
For some time, however, I struggled to fit the Ice Age into this timeline. The changes the Earth underwent since its creation seemed not long enough, and I couldn’t immediately reconcile these two events - Mabul and Ice Age.

Above - Glacial lakes scenery in Minnesota, today thousands of miles from closest glacier capable of forming geographical features as those lakes.
Below similar scenery but in Arctic.

Some Drone footage from the same place as the map above. From my trip to Arctic.

​The erratic boulders, lakes, ponds, and swamps left behind by glaciers, as well as the visible glacial scratches on rocks near my location, like those in Minnewaska State Park and Bear Mountain—were undeniable evidence of the Ice Age.
Traveling through Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and even New York, I observed significant differences in the topography. In certain areas, rugged hills and rock formations gave way to gentler slopes. It was as if something had crushed, smashed, and smoothed the rocks, creating rolling hills instead of sharp rock edges.

Glacier grooves on the rock in Minnewaska SP NY. Parallel lines on the top surface of the rock.

Glacier grooves on the rock in Alaska

Giant boulders being pushed by glacier living grooves on the surface

​Other evidence, such as Scabland channels in Washington State and the Finger Lakes in New York, further confirmed the Ice Age's existence. Similar features could be found along the northern shores of the Great Lakes in Ontario, Canada. Then there are coastal lines in Missoula, Montana, and upstate New York. Niagara Falls and the massive whirlpools in Pennsylvania also fit into this puzzle.

Channeled Scabland East Washington

Huge Whirlpool in Pennsylvania near Scranton. No source of water for such formation in proximity of hundreds of miles.

Finger Lakes Up State NY. Channeled by melting rapidly glacier

Channels carved by melting glacier on the bottom of lake Superior.

Giant exit channel from lake Nipigon Canada in to Lake Superior.

​Another thing I noticed during my travels is that many canyons—like those I visited in the American West—showed giant basins upstream of the rivers that now flow through them. These canyons were clearly formed by the overflow of ancient lakes. At some point, these lakes swelled rapidly and broke through natural barriers, sometimes even trough uplifted plateaus (like the Kaibab Plateau). This surge of water must have been caused by an unprecedented series of precipitations or the rapid melting of glaciers. For a future article, I hope to explore this topic in more detail.

Overflow of ,probably first, Grand Lake in Colorado Utah and then Lake Hopi carved Grand Canyon

​At that point, there was no doubt in my mind that the Ice Age had occurred. But where did it fit into the 5,760-year timeline of creation?
BeEzras Hashem, I began to gather more information and conduct deeper research. Eventually, I pieced together a consistent and harmonious narrative that aligned with the insights our sages have left us in our collective memory.
The most surprising discovery came when I examined more contemporary maps of the Ice Age glaciers. These new maps were different from the ones I had studied in school or read about in books. While older maps showed glaciers descending from the north, covering much of the northern hemisphere, the newer maps depicted a different scenario. On these maps, parts of Siberia, Alaska, and even the Arctic Ocean were free of ice! (See maps.)
This new view initially didn’t make sense to me. 

On this Wikipedia map Dark area indicates Glacier. Islands on the artic Ocean from Novaya Ziemlia to Spitsbergen were covered with ice during glaciation as there are clear indications of it, ocean around not necessary. Open part of Arctic Ocean is free of Ice!

While southern border of glacier can be clearly indicated, northern edges are entirely hypothetical as glacier was ending there in the water.

Another reconstruction of possible glaciation. Siberia, Most of Alaska and part of the Canadian Arctic are free of Glaciation. This is probably as it was looking toward the end of Ice Age. Note open corridor between Cordilleran and Laurentian Glaciers East of Rockies. 

​How could we determine which regions were covered by ice and which were not? I continued to analyze the evidence—erratic boulders, ice marks on rocks, and postglacial bodies of water—the answer became clear. More than that – Moraines, both terminal and lateral are strong indicators of glacial deposits, and we can recognize them in valleys carved by today’s glaciers.
In any place where we can identify these features, we can confidently assert that glaciers once existed there. Where such features are absent, it’s clear that no glaciation occurred.

B-H There are further articles on topic of Ice Age in progress so please check for new installments.
​A lot of other topics are also in preparation but we need more time and material to finish those articles.