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    Re: Map of Glacial Flanaess (Score: 1)
    by Difonix on Fri, June 18, 2010
    (User Info | Send a Message) http://www.meetup.com/difonix
    My apologies for the delay in responding...I've been on the road since May 18th and venturing to "Master Time Wasting" sites such as Canonfire on the company dime is highly frowned upon...

    The biggest factor in a glacial period is the overall drop of world-wide temperatures as they increased reflectance of the white ice/snow of the sun's energy would keep mean temperatures roughly 5-10 degrees cooler.  As such, the latitudinal shift of all ecosystems towards the equator would be quite pronounced, potentially reducing the tropics to isolated islands surrounded by warm oceans.  The vast bulk of the continents would be dominated by coniferous forests north/south of 20° latitude depending on your hemisphere (let's assume north for Oerik).  0° to 20° latitude would be a mixture of conifers (pine dominant) and hardwoods (oaks, ipps, chestnut).  The taiga of Siberia/Canada would be the situation found in the isolated pockets of soil north of 40° latitude.  The continental glaciers stretched consistently to 40° in the Americas so I'd use that as a guide for Oerik (unless you want to make the freeze deeper or lighter); remember that alpine glaciers would dominate all mountain ranges south.  At the "foot" of these glaciers the forests are not necessarily stunted like the taiga as the belief is the glaciers were like massive sky scrappers at the edge gouging up the ground before them much like your foot would do on an area rug's edge.  The ice didn't affect the micro-climate beyond a 50 mile buffer most likely (depending on wind patterns of course). 

    Your coast lines will vary depending on your interpretation of Oerik's shores and whether they are near a spreading mid-oceanic ridge (I'd guess this) versus a subduction zone.  Find a map of the Earth during the last ice age and where it's believed the paleo shores were.  The east coast of America was a long way from it's current spot while the west coast wasn't too much further away (Channel Islands of SoCal were attached though).  The Spindrift Isles and Lendore Isles would certainly have been attached to the continent (perhaps the Lendore Elves migrated during this ice age!).  The Azure Sea could have been an inland sea if the land from the Tilvanot Peninsula reached the Olman Islands and the Amedio.  I like the concept of the ice sheets creating the basins of the large interior lakes of Oerik and a ice dam's breaching creating the Great Rift makes good geologic sense to explain that gash on the land (erosional waters acting like a drill until the "Underoerth" was breached and the melt waters gushed into the Oerth core forming the great oceans of the Underoerth).

    Frankly, I'd need to have your input on what you think the Black Ice is before I'd throw out any suggestions on range.  As for plant life, taiga would not be much further north than 30° in protected sites (geothermal activity preventing the land from freezing year-round, for example).  Pockets of peat and tundra would be possible on exposed mountains (south facing aspects where the sun's energy would melt the snow regularly).

    I hope that covers the basics for now.  I look forward to seeing your efforts with CC3.  An icy Oerth is an entertaining prospect.


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