What did the Bay Area look like 10,000 years ago?

If Rick Prelinger didn’t dig deep enough for you, local lecture series Ask A Scientist presents Douglas Long, Chief Curator of the Department of Natural Sciences at the Oakland Museum of California:

The hamburger joint on my corner has been there forever…or has it?? Set your time machine back to the most recent ice age, 10-20,000 years ago, and you’ll find yourself in a San Francisco you would scarcely recognize. You might think you’d been transported to the African plains, a grassy landscape teeming with mammoths, mastadons, saber-toothed cats, camels, llamas, and lions. Our familiar local geography would be unrecognizable as well. While much ocean water was locked away in ice masses to the north, lower sea levels exposed miles of land off of our current coastline, and the Bay Area had no bay — in its place was a vast, lush valley with a massive river running through it. Join us on a trip backwards in time with the Oakland Museum’s Douglas Long at the helm. Tonight’s event is presented in collaboration with KQED’s QUEST Science and Environment Series. We’ll start the evening by watching QUEST’s “Ice Age Bay Area” video.

Douglas Long in the field:

Douglas Long

Check it out at Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street (btw. 16th & Irwin) San Francisco on Tuesday, February 3rd.

Ask a Scientist is an informative, entertaining, monthly lecture series, held at a San Francisco cafe. Each event features a speaker on a scientific topic, a short presentation, and the opportunity to ask all those burning questions that have been keeping you up at night. No tests, grades, or pressure…just food, drinks, socializing, and conversation about the universe’s most fascinating mysteries!

Please note that indoor seating is limited, but weather permitting, a projector and screen will be set up outside on the patio so latecomers can still see and hear everything that’s going on inside. Bundle up!

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The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

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