The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum

Abstract

The Late Wisconsinan advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet started from a Middle Wisconsinan interstadial minimum 27–30 14C ka BP when the ice margin approximately followed the boundary of the Canadian Shield. Ice extent in the Cordillera and in the High Arctic at that time was probably similar to present. Ice advanced to its Late Wisconsinan (stage 2) limit in the northwest, south, and northeast about 23–24 14C ka BP and in the southwest and far north about 20–21 14C ka BP. In comparison to some previous reconstructions of ice extent, our current reconstruction has substantially more Late Wisconsinan ice in the High Arctic, where an Innuitian Ice Sheet is generally acknowledged to have existed, in the Atlantic Provinces, where ice is now thought to have extended to the Continental Shelf edge in most places, and on eastern Baffin Island, where ice probably extended to the fiord mouths rather than to the fiord heads. Around most of the ice margin, the Late Wisconsinan maximum ice extent either exceeded the extent of earlier Wisconsinan advances or it was similar to the Early Wisconsinan advance. Ice marginal recession prior to 14 14C ka BP occurred mainly in deep water and along the southern terrestrial fringe. However, Heinrich event 1 probably drew down the entire central ice surface at 14.5 14C ka BP sufficiently to displace the Labrador Sector outflow centre 900 km eastward from the coast of Hudson Bay. The onset of substantial ice marginal recession occurred about 14 14C ka BP in the northwest, southwest, and south but not until about 10–11 14C ka BP in the northeast and in the High Arctic. Thus, the period of maximum ice extent in North America generally encompasses the interval from ∼24/21 to 14 14C ka BP, or considerably longer than the duration of the LGM defined as occurring during a period of low global sea level as well as during a time of relative climate stability ∼18 14C ka BP. The interval of advance of much of the Laurentide Ice Sheet to its maximum extent (between ∼27 14C ka BP and ∼24 14C ka BP) coincides with a suggested interval of rapid fall in global sea level to near LGM levels.