- The breathtaking video was created by glaciologist Max Van Wyk de Vries and design expert Kieran Duncan
- Mr van Wyk de Vries inspired by the geological history of Dundee when stuck there during lockdown
- The ice that once covered Dundee spread across Scotland and much of the North Sea and Scandinavia
- It melted about 15,000 years ago, carving out sites including Dundee Law and the Tai estuary, as it did
An incredible view has revealed what the city of Dundee would have looked like some 20,000 years ago, when the landscape was covered by a 0.6-mile-thick ice sheet that covered much of Scotland and the North Sea.
One breath-taking part of the presentation combines a modern cityscape from the Ice Age with a cross section of giant glacial massifs, resembling “The Wall” from the HBO adaptation of “Game of Thrones.”
The video was created by University of Minnesota glaciologist Max van Wyk de Vries and University of Dundee design expert Kieran Duncan after the former was unexpectedly stuck in Scotland during lockdown.
The ice sheet above Dundee, Mr van Wyk de Vries said, would last until about 15,000 years ago, when the planet warmed. The retreat of the ice carved various sites including Dundee Law and the Tai estuary.
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An incredible view (pictured) has revealed what the city of Dundee would have looked like some 20,000 years ago—when the landscape was covered in a 0.6-mile-thick ice sheet that stretched across Scotland and the North Sea
One breath-taking part of the presentation combines a modern cityscape with a cross section of giant glacial mass from the Ice Age – resembling ‘The Wall’ from the HBO adaptation of ‘Game of Thrones’. Pictured: 20,000 years ago, Scotland – along with both the North Sea and Scandinavia – was covered by a vast ice sheet
The ice sheet above Dundee, Mr van Wyk de Vries said, lasted until about 15,000 years ago, when the planet warmed. The retreat of the ice has carved various sites including Dundee Law and the Tai estuary – the latter of which is depicted here with ice dating back 15,000 years, with icebergs shed from the sheet (left) and as seen today ( right) appears.
Image: ‘The Wall’ – The 345-mile-long wall of ice that runs along the northern border of the Kingdom of the North – HBO’s fantasy series “Game of Thrones”
Mr van Wyk de Vries reported that he had visited his Dundee-based girlfriend last March, when both the UK and US went into lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus, and that he was visiting the geological history of his temporary new home. Been curious about
“I was on a field trip to help set up weather stations in Patagonia because COVID-19 started spreading around the world, so I got a little stuck and couldn’t go back to the States,” he said.
‘While we weren’t allowed to leave our local area during the lockdown, my girlfriend and I spent a lot of time exploring the small area in Dundee and beyond we could go for exercise.
‘It got me thinking about these lovely landscapes and how they were made of drifting snow.
‘I was working remotely’ [over a distance of 3,600 miles! but missed doing something local so I thought this would be an opportunity to work in my immediate environment, find out more about how it came to be the way it is and recreate how it would have looked 20,000 years ago.
‘I studied a number of old papers using local data and ice models to calculate what this massive glacier would have been like. I also looked at satellite images of glaciers that still exist in Greenland to get an idea what they might have looked like in Scotland.’
Looking to make the findings of his research more accessible, Mr Van Wyk de Vries teamed up with Mr Duncan to create the visualisation using public engagement funding from the British Society for Geomorphology.
The video was made by glaciologist Max Van Wyk de Vries of the University of Minnesota and design expert Kieran Duncan of the University of Dundee when the former became unexpectedly stuck in Scotland during lockdown. Pictured: this still from the visualisation shows how a cross section of the ice would have appeared, juxtaposed against the modern city
‘I studied a number of old papers using local data and ice models to calculate what this massive glacier would have been like. I also looked at satellite images of glaciers that still exist in Greenland to get an idea what they might have looked like in Scotland.’ Pictured: the landscape of Dundee as seen today (right) and what it would look like under an ice sheet (right)
!['Part of the film shows what a one kilometre [0.6 mile thick] The ice sheet must have looked like above the law, and I remember my mind blown when Max first told me about it,' said Mr. Duncan. Law (pictured here showing the relative height of the ice sheet) The highest point in Dundee is a 571 ft (174 m)-tall remnant of the volcano's remnant.](https://i2.wp.com/i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/16/13/47997767-9997211-image-a-51_1631793738719.jpg?resize=696%2C391&ssl=1)
‘A part of the film shows that one kilometer’ [0.6 mile thick] The ice sheet must have looked like above the law, and I remember my mind blown when Max first told me about it,’ said Mr. Duncan. Law (pictured here showing the relative height of the ice sheet) is the highest point in Dundee – the 571 ft (174 m)-tall remains of a volcanic body.
‘A part of the film shows that one kilometer’ [0.6 mile thick] The ice sheet must have looked like above the law, and I remember my mind blown when Max first told me about it,’ said Mr. Duncan.
Law is the highest point in Dundee – 571 feet (174 m) – the remains of a volcano that formed 400 million years ago.
He said, “You hear numbers like that, but it’s only when you look at what it looks like in relation to the law, which is over the city, that you really begin to imagine that How huge was this glacier,” he said.
‘It’s been a great project to work on because it’s a great way to show people what their environment is like the way it’s made.’
Researchers’ full, three-minute-long visualization ‘features in’Time and tide: change of courseExhibition in McManus:…
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