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The Wisconsin (in North America), Devensian (in the British Isles), Midlandian (in Ireland), Würm (in the Alps), and Weichsel (in northern central Europe) glaciations are the most recent glaciations of the Pleistocene epoch, which ended around 10,000 BCE. The general glacial advance began about 70,000 BCE, and reached its maximum extent about 18,000 BCE. In Europe, the ice sheet reached northern Germany. The term ice age can refer to all the periods of glaciation during the late Pliocene and Pleistocene, from 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BCE. In popular usage, "the Ice Age" usually refers to this last cold phase, due to its shaping of some Northern Hemisphere landscapes and its influence on human prehistory.