The Story of the Ice Age —

The beauty
of the North

Much of the Northern Hemisphere was covered in ice during the last Ice Age which started 110,000 years ago. Cimcorp’s headquarters in Finland, as well as our office in Canada, would have been covered in a thick sheet of ice. Our U.S. office would have remained as ice-free taiga during the last glacial period.

Please scroll down to continue the story.

Colossal changes for Nature

The ice sheet depressed the Earth’s crust and forced viscoelastic mantle material to flow away. The land outside the ice sheets bulged up by several hundred meters. Removal of this weight led to uplift of the depressed land. The extreme viscosity of the mantle makes the rebound slow and it will take thousands of years to reach a more stabilized level.

From glacier
to beautiful lakes

20,000 years ago the ice started to melt and glaciers to retreat, as the melt water raised the sea level. There were large areas of ice between hills. When they melted, they created thousands of lakes in Finland and the Great Lakes in North America, which are the largest glacial lakes in the world.

New freedom
for the living

The first signs of life on the emerging land were avens (dryas octopetala), cold-resistant twigs and grasses. Willows and deciduous trees like birches covered the new land. With greenery came birds and mammals such as rabbits, moose and beavers. Bears and squirrels arrived when pine forests became more common. People followed the game and inhabited the land.

We cherish
the diversity
of Nature

The Earth’s crust is in constant movement. At the same time as the earlier ice-covered parts of continents are now uplifting, the southern parts are sinking.

Our roots are in the wild Nature of the North; we appreciate the beauty of Nature. We believe it is our responsibility both locally and globally to develop solutions that support sustainability and make the least environmental impact possible.

Read more at visitfinland.com and visitcanada.com.