Period of major glaciations of the Northern Hemisphere (115,000–12,000 years ago)
"Last glacial" redirects here. For the period
of maximum glacier extent during this time, see Last Glacial Maximum.
A chronology of climatic events of importance for the Last Glacial Period, about the last 120,000 yearsThe Last Glacial Period caused a much lower global sea level
The Last Glacial Period (LGP), also known colloquially as the Last Ice Age or simply Ice Age,[1] occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the end of the Younger Dryas, encompassing the period c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago.
The LGP is part of a larger sequence of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation which started around 2,588,000 years ago and is ongoing.[2] The definition of the Quaternary as beginning 2.58 million years ago (Mya) is based on the formation of the Arctic ice cap. The Antarctic ice sheet began to form earlier, at about 34 Mya, in the mid-Cenozoic (Eocene–Oligocene extinction event). The term Late Cenozoic Ice Age is used to include this early phase.[3] The previous ice age, the Penultimate Glacial Period, which ended about 128,000 years ago, was more severe than the Last Glacial Period in some areas such as Britain, but less severe in others.
During this last glacial period, alternating episodes of glacier advance, and retreat occurred. Within the last glacial period, the Last Glacial Maximum was between 26,000 and 20,000 years BP. While the general pattern of global cooling and glacier advance was similar, local differences in the development of glacier advance and retreat make comparing the details from continent to continent difficult (see picture of ice core data below for differences). Around 12,800 years ago, the Younger Dryas, the most recent glacial epoch, began, a coda to the preceding 100,000-year glacial period. Its end about 11,550 years ago marked the beginning of the Holocene, the current geological epoch.
From the point of view of human archaeology, the LGP falls in the Paleolithic and early Mesolithic periods. When the glaciation event started, Homo sapiens was confined to lower latitudes and used tools comparable to those used by Neanderthals in western and central Eurasia and by Denisovans and Homo erectus in Asia.
^"The history of ice on Earth". New Scientist. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
^Clayton, Lee; Attig, John W.; Mickelson, David M.; Johnson, Mark D.; Syverson, Kent M. "Glaciation of Wisconsin" (PDF). Dept. Geology, University of Wisconsin.
^University of Houston–Clear Lake – Disasters Class Notes – Chapter 12: Climate Change sce.uhcl.edu/Pitts/disastersclassnotes/chapter_12_Climate_Change.doc
and 28 Related for: Last Glacial Period information
The LastGlacialPeriod (LGP), also known colloquially as the Last Ice Age or simply Ice Age, occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the end...
the other hand, are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods. The LastGlacialPeriod ended about 15,000 years ago. The Holocene is the current...
The Penultimate GlacialPeriod (PGP) is the glacialperiod that occurred before the LastGlacialPeriod. The penultimate glacialperiod is officially unnamed...
Holocene period is an interglacial period of an ice age. The accumulation of anthropogenic greenhouse gases is projected to delay the next glacialperiod. In...
followed the lastglacialperiod). During the Last Interglacial, the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere was about 280 parts per million. The Last Interglacial...
the end of the lastglacialperiod, only the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have survived, while other sheets formed during glacial periods, such as...
The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacialperiod of the North American ice sheet complex, peaking...
Alps during the lastglacialperiod Younger Dryas, a return to glacial conditions around 7 thousand years after the end of lastglacial maximum "2020/3...
LastGlacial Maximum refugia were places (refugia) in which humans and other species survived during the LastGlacialPeriod, around 25,000 to 18,000 years...
filling the depression created by the glacier. Near the end of the lastglacialperiod, roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers began to retreat. A retreating...
approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the LastGlacialPeriod, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene...
may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the lastglacialperiod and also with the end of the Paleolithic...
the most essential heating surface of the atmosphere. During the Lastglacialperiod a c. 2,400,000 square kilometres (930,000 sq mi) ice sheet covered...
geologic time scale, the Holocene epoch starts at the end of the lastglacialperiod of the current ice age (c. 10,000 BC) and continues to the present...
glacial retreat is a geographical phenomenon that involved the global retreat of glaciers (deglaciation) that previously had advanced during the Last...
five of the last seven glacial periods over the past 640,000 years. Heinrich events are particularly well documented for the lastglacialperiod but notably...
The glacial history of Minnesota is most defined since the onset of the lastglacialperiod, which ended some 10,000 years ago. Within the last million...
lived as hunter-gatherers. They migrated out of Africa during the LastGlacialPeriod (Ice Age) and had populated most of the Earth by the time the Ice...
Greater portions of Sundaland were most recently exposed during the lastglacialperiod from approximately 110,000 to 12,000 years ago. When the sea level...
Boundary Fault, the substrate and geomorphology, as inherited from the LastGlacialperiod and the coastal-marine dynamics, such as barrier and tidal inlet...
eastward. In northwestern Russia the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet reached its LastGlacial Maximum (LGM) extent 17 ka BP, five thousand years later than in Denmark...
the Neolithic Revolution to Europe in its Neolithic period. During deglaciation since the LastGlacial Maximum, between about 20,000 to 7,000 years ago (20–7...
Earth is currently in such an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, with the LastGlacialPeriod of the Quaternary having ended approximately...
meltwater from the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet at the end of the lastglacialperiod. At its peak, the lake's area was larger than all of the modern Great...
average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial began at the...
America to designate the Last Interglacial (130,000-115,000 years ago) and depending on definition, part of the early LastGlacialPeriod, corresponding to Marine...
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