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Inspired by the Europe thread, I think we should have one for Asia too.
In this scenario, Franz Josef Land would be at 78*N in the western hemisphere, spreading out into the Canadian Arctic. The East of Asia would jut out into the Arctic Ocean.
What do you think? This would mean no Bering Strait, but a polar passage to Canada! I wonder how would this change history...
siberia would constitute the worlds 3rd icesheet, alongside greenland and antarctica.
The Laurentian Ice Sheet would likely reform too. Shifting 20 degrees North means that the Mongolian Plateau would be at about the same distance to the North Pole as the Eastern edge of Antarctica, and the Tian Shan Mountains would be at a similar lattitude to the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. These parts of Antarctica still have ice, despite being subject to the moderating effect of oceans.
The main reason there isn't an Antarctic sized ice sheet in the Arctic is due to the Arctic ocean and various other water bodies. Depending on exactly how Asia is shifted, most of the Arctic water bodies could disappear, allowing a huge ice sheet to form extending down to the Altai and possible Tian Shan Mountains. The Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau and Hindu Kush would also be much colder, likely forming another ice sheet. All these new massive ice sheets would exert a cooling influence on the rest of the world, and a very strong cooling influence to neighbouring areas, allowing ice sheets to bridge the gap between Mongolia and Tibet. Antarctica would see ice spread into the oceans, possibly reaching Patagonia, the Laurentian Ice Sheet would likely reappear and spread even further South than in the last Ice Age.
Most of the Western world would be under ice, and the tropics might be 10C colder, with the Asian parts of the tropics about 20C colder... Because the Asian Ice Sheet would come so far South thanks to the lack of oceans and high elevation, there would be huge temperature gradients leading to almost constant strong winds and lots of storms.
The last ice age had sea levels about 120m lower than today, considering that the Asian Ice Sheet would be about double that of the Laurentian one (historic), sea levels could easily drop 250m, if not 300m, causing many seas such as the South China Sea to be above sea level, allowing the Asian Ice Sheet to almost reach Hong Kong.
Africa would be home to 2.5 billion people, South America to 900 million, North America to 200 million, Oceania to 400 million, Europe to 100 million and Asia to 500 million, for a total world population of 4.6 billion. Australia would be the world's main super power, with other major powers being Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Brazil and Indonesia.
Bangladesh would be snowiest country in the world, receiving 15m of snow per year, as well as 3000mm of rain, so that each spring the entire country would get covered by 1m of floodwaters from the Ganges and Brahmaputra, as would Pakistan by the Hindus for about 1 month. Meanwhile, polar bears would be roaming the garbage dumps of Athens and moose would be causing traffic accidents in Dubai.
The people of the great inland metropolis of Alice Springs could often be heard complaining about rain ruining the wheat crop and cold winters. Meanwhile the people of Rio Branco would be sailing on the Great Amazonian Sea, and Yemen winning gold in alpine skiing at the olympics.
Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Oman, Southern India, Philippines and Saudi Arabia would have rather pleasant climates.
Most of Asia would be subarctic and unlivable - most of upper China, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Kazakh, Uzbek and especially Mongolia.
Vostok-like temps would be regular in Verkhoyansk and the earth would be significantly colder due to all that cold landmass, with Europe having much colder winters due to the easterlies being devastating.
Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Oman, Southern India, Philippines and Saudi Arabia would have rather pleasant climates.
Most of Asia would be subarctic and unlivable - most of upper China, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Kazakh, Uzbek and especially Mongolia.
Saudi Arabia is not part of the Asian continent geologically, it's its own plate.
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