Newly discovered proof of an ancient glacier reveal secrets about our planet's future

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In some hypothetical support, the earliest proof of their existence may be on an island in the Canadian Arctic - and give us a glimpse of what a future ice age would be like.

A massive landslide caused by thawing permafrost, which is ground that stays frozen for at least two successive years, has uncovered ancient ice, believed to be a staggering 770,000 years old.

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Each individual strata of the rock holds a narrative about its background.

Ice caps develop when snow remains in one spot, year-round, and eventually transforms due to compaction. There are approximately 200,000 of them globally.

This cracking find could give researchers a heap more info about the Pleistocene period, a time when the Earth swung between ice ages and heatwaves, all happening between 2.58 million to 11,700 years back.

But since the North and South Poles are still smothered in ice, it's still up for discussion as to whether we're still technically in an ice age.

However, if scientists want to have a closer look at the glacier, they'll need to act quickly, as its exposure to the elements and climate change could accelerate how fast it melts. According to the WWF, more than a third of the world's glaciers will disappear before the year 2100.

"These Pleistocene climate shifts are the same pattern we're likely to see in the future," says geomorphologist Daniel Fortier from the University of Montreal.

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(Note: I've used some Australian slang and colloquialisms to give it an Australian flavor, e.g. "ripper" means something is great or exciting, "rip into the action" means to dive in headfirst, "blowing up" means something is really popular, etc.)