Christine Smith, age 12, of Belgium, Wisconstn,. For her question:

Will the Ice Age come again?

There are several reasons why scientists toil to find the answers to puzzling problems. First, like us, they are curious and curiosity drives them to find satisfying answers. Bit there also may be an extra reward. When you know what causes an even, maybe you can control and make it work for you. We do not know for certain what caused the many Ice Ages of the past. So we cannot say what factors must be present to cause another Ice Age. We cannotY predict when or even whether one will happen again. And we certainly do not, as yet, know what could be done to prevent or modify it.

We can, however, review the past and trace the pattern of Ice Ages through geological history., Four times in the last million years, the cruel glaciers have advanced over North America and retreated. Each of these Ice Ages was followed by a long wares spell, somewhat like our present world climate. Glacial periods have occurred since the earth was young, and this past history leads us to expect that there will be others in the future. But at present we cannot predict the next one. It may not arrive for another million or ten million years.