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<P align="justify"> In the geologica … <P align="justify"> In the geological [[Quaternary Period|Quaternary Period]], which started nearly 2.5 million years ago (and is still continuing), glacial stages have alternated with warmer interglacial stages. In the glacial stages, of which there have been more than ten, the continental ice sheets covered large areas of the northern parts of the northern hemisphere. In common parlance, the Ice Age is used to mean the last glacial stage in Europe, called the Weichselian Glacial. It began about 120,000 years ago from the Kölen Mountains in [[Scandinavia|Scandinavia]] and was at its coldest about 24,000 years ago, when the ice covering was also most extensive. In the beginning, the continental ice sheet was relatively small and at one point nearly disappeared, but at its peak it reached down as far south as northern Germany. The first epoch of the Quaternary Period, the Pleistocene, ended with the Weichselian Glacial about 11,500 years ago (c. 9500 B.C.) as the average annual temperature rose from the previous Arctic figures by about 7ºC to reach almost the present average annual temperature. At that time, a thick continental ice sheet still covered almost all of [[Fennoscandia|Fennoscandia]]. The Salpausselkä chain of ridges in Finland and huge terminal moraines in Sweden, Norway and the Republic of Karelia are vestiges of the edge of the continental ice sheet at that time. During the Holocene Epoch, which has followed the Pleistocene, the continental ice sheet disappeared from Finland by 8200 B.C., but it was not until c. 7500 B.C. that it is considered to have finally left the Kölen Mountains in Scandinavia. </P><P align="justify"> The continental ice sheet and its movements strongly affected the topography of Fennoscandia by piling up the earth into ridges and terminal moraines. The huge mass of the continental ice sheet, which was almost three kilometres thick, also depressed the surface of the earth. Once it was freed of its load, the earth immediately began to return to its former level. This movement is still evident in the uplift of the land, which alters the water levels on the ocean coastline, in the Baltic basin and in the inland lake basins. The displacement of the coastlines caused by the uplift can be used for dating ([[Dating|Dating]]) archaeological objects connected with them.</P>cal objects connected with them.</P> +
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