Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames existed, namely xing (Chinese: å§; pinyin: xÃ¬ng) or lineage names, and shi (Chinese: æ°; pinyin: shÃ¬) or clan names.
An ice sheet is a large permanent layer of ice covering a continental shelf, defined as having an extent greater than 50,000 km2 (19,305 mi2). An ice sheet is larger than a glacier or ice shelf.
An ice age is a period of colder global temperatures that features recurring glacial expansion across the Earthâs surface. Capable of lasting hundreds of millions of years, these periods are interspersed with regular warmer interglacial intervals in which at least one major ice sheet is present.