ABSTRACT
The earliest known ice age occurred 2.3 billion years ago. The most recent ice age occurred during the Pleistocene epoch. It began 2 million years ago and ended 11,500 years ago.
Many theories have attempted to explain the climatic alternation between ice ages and interglacial periods. Changes in climate have been linked to continental movements as well as to changes in the inclination of the Earth's rotational axis. The most widely accepted theory involves changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun that affect the distribution of energy, driving the climate in and out of ice ages.
