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The Little Ice Age was an extended cold snap that occurred from 1300-1850* and succeeded the Medieval Warm Period. The Little Ice Age was such a rich and complicated time period that geoscientists, climatologists, and historians often collaborate when studying this period**.
Part of what makes the Little Ice Age so interesting is its cultural legacy. Several art pieces depict life during this era in which rivers often froze, creating opportunities for ice skating and even holding regular frost fairs on the River Thames in London. Additionally, the famous Stradivarius violins' unique sounds have been attributed to the density of the wood from which they are crafted. The trees used to create Stradivarius violins were so dense because they grew slowly during this cold era, causing their growth rings to be relatively thin, similar in size, and stacked close to one another.
Despite the seemingly idyllic nature of this time period, life during the Little Ice Age was incredibly challenging. As cold temperatures endured, rapidly growing glaciers forced alpine villagers to flee, extensive sea ice caused Icelandic harbors and ports to close, and crop die-offs resulted in famines across Europe. While much documentation and scientific evidence of the Little Ice Age comes from Europe and North America, some studies show that Africa, South America, East Asia, and Australia/New Zealand also experienced some cooling during this period.
While the Little Ice Age may seem like a distant memory preserved only by 17th century oil paintings, a new study shows that some of the water that sat on the ocean's surface during the Little Ice Age now exists approximately one mile below the Pacific Ocean's surface. This centuries-old water was brought to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean by the global ocean conveyor belt, which consists of a series of ocean currents that carry seawater along continental shorelines and through different ocean depths. The Pacific Ocean is one of the last stops on the conveyor belt so that by the time this seawater reaches the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, it can be almost 1,000 years old! Because this seawater from the Little Ice Age has been mixing with deep ocean water, the Pacific Ocean has been cooling over the past century while the Atlantic Ocean has been warming.
While it is still unknown how much the Pacific Ocean has cooled due to water from the Little Ice Age, scientists believe that it is not at all enough to override global increases in temperature. This is because sea surface temperatures only changed by 0.72 °F in the 900 years that encompassed the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. In contrast, sea surface temperatures have risen by 1.5 °F over the past century alone. Nonetheless, better understanding the nuances of ocean circulation will improve the development of future climate models.
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* There is disagreement about the onset and duration of the Little Ice Age because conditions varied across different regions.
** The "Year Without A Summer" occurred in 1816 but was not a product of the Little Ice Age. In fact, residual ash from the eruption of Mount Tambora, a volcano in present-day Indonesia, caused the cold and rainy summer.
