If you were living in Michigan during the past Ice Age, say 2.5 million years ago, you’d not recognize the state. You wouldn’t see the Great Lakes that define the shape of the state’s peninsulas. Rather you’d see a seemingly endless sheet of ice. What’s known to scientists at the Laurentide Ice Sheet once extended from Greenland to cover the entire Great Lakes region.
Incredibly, after 2.5 million years later and after the ice receded far north, there is still a remnant of this ice sheet. Located on Baffin Island in the far north of Canada is home to the last patch of this ice. It’s located much closer to the North Pole, Greenland and Iceland than to Michigan.
This patch is called the Barnes Ice Cap. While it’s considered a ‘tiny’ patch of ice, that would be in comparison to how far the ice once extended. The Barnes Ice Cap is 2300 square miles, or slightly larger than the state of Delaware. The ice is considered ‘some of the oldest’ on the continent dating back at least 20,000 years…