What is the Bering land bridge?
Q: What is the Bering land bridge?
A: The Bering land bridge is a landmass that joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia during the Pleistocene ice ages.
Q: Was the Bering land bridge glaciated during the ice ages?
A: No, the Bering land bridge was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light due to the winds from the Pacific Ocean losing their moisture over the fully glaciated nearby mountains.
Q: What is Beringia?
A: Beringia is the grassland steppe, including the land bridge, that stretched for several hundred miles into the continents on either side.
Q: Did humans live in Beringia during the ice age?
A: Yes, it is believed that a small human population of at most a few thousand survived the ice age in Beringia.
Q: How long was Beringia isolated from populations in Asia?
A: Beringia was isolated from populations in Asia for at least 5,000 years.
Q: When did the human population in Beringia start to populate the Americas?
A: The human population in Beringia started to populate the Americas sometime after 16,500 years ago when the American glaciers that blocked the way southward melted.
Q: How did the melting of the American glaciers facilitate the migration of humans from Beringia to the Americas?
A: The melting of the American glaciers released a passage for humans from Beringia to cross into the Americas.
