Where does the sea go?

[RabbieBurns]

BBC News - Artefacts hint at earliest Neanderthals in Britain

 

Was reading that.. and it talks about the sea levels rising and falling so much that it was possible to walk from England to France..

 

I never did geography at school, so am completely uneducated in this matter. Where does the Sea go when the levels drop so much that walking accross the channel is possible?

 

Is this to do with the times when the Sahara and Australia were covered in Oceans??

 

Should I go and sit in on some year 3 Geography lessons?

[jsnetman]

Higher temperature = less ice= more water or should it be the other way round to answer your question.

[cookie_monster]

I remember reading about this a while back and the theory was that there was a massive glacial lake held somewhere on mainland europe and something (possibly an earthquake) released it and this is what flooded what would become the english channel. EDIT - Of course I could of seen all of that in the link you posted

 

If I find the link I'll post it.

 

EDIT

 

Different link but it's the same content, halfway down the first page.

 

http://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/englishchannelfloods/physicstoday.pdf

 

 

Some interesting stuff in there especially the hippopotamus remains under trafalgar square

Edited June 2, 2010 by cookie_monster

[Mcshammer_dj]

hardly worth even worrying about!! Just be glad there is actually a sea between us and them now

[RabbieBurns]

I remember reading about this a while back and the theory was that there was a massive glacial lake held somewhere on mainland europe and something (possibly an earthquake) released it and this is what flooded what would become the english channel. EDIT - Of course I could of seen all of that in the link you posted

 

If I find the link I'll post it.

 

EDIT

 

Different link but it's the same content, halfway down the first page.

 

http://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/resear...ysicstoday.pdf

 

 

Some interesting stuff in there especially the hippopotamus remains under trafalgar square

 

Excellent post. Thanks.

 

 

At times of maximum glaciation, so much water is sequestered as nonfloating ice that the worldwide sea level is about 100m lower than it is furing interglacial episodes like the present.

 

There we go. Makes sense to me now.