Answer:
Glaciation and the Antarctic Circumpolar current
Explanation:
As the supercontinents continued to separate, cold water was easily transported around the globe through the Antarctic Circumpolar current. This assisted periodic glaciation during the Cenozoic Era, leading to a series of ice ages.
Glaciation and the Antarctic Circumpolar circulation caused a succession of ice ages during the Cenozoic period.
The Cenozoic is the current geological period of Earth, covering the last 66 million years of its history. It is distinguished by the dominance of animals, birds, and flowering plants, a cooling and drying environment, and the current continental structure.
The climate changed from warm and moist in the Eocene to chilly, dry. Antarctica was covered with glaciers for the first time in the Cenozoic, lowering the sea level. Temperate woods supplanted subtropical forests further north.
Because there are no landmasses linking to Antarctica, the current is circumpolar, keeping warm ocean waves away from the continent and allowing it to preserve its massive ice sheet.
The freezing of the South Polar regions was at its peak between the Miocene and Pliocene epochs due to global ocean retreat. During the Quaternary period, the sea level was dropping owing to Northern Hemisphere glaciation, which led to glacier expansion in the Antarctic.
Thus, we can conclude that the causes of ice ages are caused by glaciation and Antarctic circumpolar current.
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