Re: Little Ice Age

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@matrix.net>]

>Sinclair's message including the word "adapt" recalls the MOVA show this
>week.  They have carried a series called "Secrets of the Dead".  One episode
>was aired this week in Portland, OR "The Lost Vikings".    I caught the last
>20 minutes but it will be run again Thurs. midnight May 18.
>
>    As I piece this 20 minutes together using other things I have read, they
>are saying that there was a mini-ice age in the 14th century.   I don't know
>starting and ending times.

The Little Ice Age (LIA) began between about 1350 and 1450,
depending on which measurement you believe, and ending between
1850 and 1900.

The LIA was preceded by the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), which lasted
from some time between 800 and 1000, ending between 1350 and 1450.
The beginning of the MWP coincides rather closely with the beginning
of the Viking Age, and the end of the MWP and the beginning of the LIA
coincides closely with the abandonment of Greenland.

One of the main sources of information on these and earlier climatic periods 
is core samples of the Greenland ice sheet.  See:
 http://www.agu.org/revgeophys/mayews01/node5.html

Colder seas in the north were also stormier, making travel difficult:
 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/stories/nojs.html

>Inuet (I know I'm not
>spelling this correctly--How can I find a word in the Dictionary, mother, if
>I don't know how to spell it to start with?)

 By trial and error: Inuet, Inuit, Inuat, etc.
 By related names: Eskimo, skraeling, etc.
 By related locations: Greenland, Canada, Nunavut, etc.
 By using an encyclopedia as above.
 By using an Internet search engine as above.
 
John S. Quarterman <jsq@matrix.net>
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