'The Ice Bridge at Longue-Pointe', oil on canvas painting by Cornelius Krieghoff, 1847-1848, National Gallery of Canada

An ice bridge is a frozen natural structure formed over

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

s, bays,

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

s or

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

surfaces. They facilitate migration of animals or people over a water body that was previously uncrossable by terrestrial animals, including

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

s. The most significant ice bridges are formed by glaciation, spanning distances of many miles over sometimes relatively deep water bodies. An example of such a major ice bridge was that connecting the island of

Öland Öland (, ; ; sometimes written ''Øland'' in other Scandinavian languages, and often ''Oland'' internationally; la, Oelandia) is the second-largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area ...

with mainland

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

approximately 9000 BC. This bridge reached its maximum utility when the

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

was in retreat, forming a low-lying frozen bridge. The Öland ice bridge allowed the first human migration to the island of Öland, which is most readily documented by archaeological studies of the

Alby People Alby may refer to: Places * Alby, Botkyrka, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden ** Alby metro station * Alby, Ånge, a locality in Västernorrland County, Sweden * Alby, Öland, a village in Hulterstad district, Sweden * Alby, Norfolk, a settleme ...

.C. Michael Hogan, ''Prehistory of the Alby People, Öland, Sweden'', Lumina Technologies, July 9, 2006
In

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's 1873

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

The Fur Country ''The Fur Country'' (french: Le Pays des fourrures) or ''Seventy Degrees North Latitude'' is an adventure novel by Jules Verne in The Extraordinary Voyages series, first published in 1873. The novel was serialized in ''Magasin d’Éducation et ...

'', a group of fur trappers establishes a fort on what they think is stable ground, only to find later on that is merely an iceberg temporarily attached by an ice bridge to the mainland.

References

{{ice Human migration Glaciers Bodies of ice

See also

References