Final answer:
The earth's climate becomes cooler during an ice age, and ice sheets release less heat due to their reflective nature, further cooling the climate.
Step-by-step explanation:
During an ice age, the earth's climate becomes much cooler, leading to periods of glaciation where glaciers and ice sheets expand over the earth's surface. These ice sheets and glaciers are highly reflective, causing them to absorb less sunlight and subsequently release less heat. As a result, the climate becomes even cooler during these periods. Therefore, the correct answer is a. less; even cooler.
During an ice age, the Earth experiences a significant cooling of its climate, marked by episodes of glaciation where extensive ice sheets and glaciers advance over its surface. These frozen expanses possess high reflectivity, or albedo, causing them to absorb less sunlight and emit less heat. Consequently, the Earth's climate becomes even cooler during these ice age periods. The albedo effect amplifies the cooling trend as the ice-covered surfaces reflect a substantial portion of the incoming solar radiation. This feedback loop reinforces the overall cooling conditions during ice ages. Therefore, the correct interpretation is that during an ice age, the Earth's climate experiences "less" absorption of sunlight by ice sheets, leading to a climate that becomes "even cooler," as indicated by option a.