Last Glacial Maximum

File:Epica-vostok-grip-40kyr.png

File:Last Glacial Maximum Vegetation Map.svg

The average global temperature about 21,000 years ago was about 6 °C (11 °F) colder than today.{{cite news |title=How cold was the ice age? Researchers now know |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-08-cold-ice-age.html |access-date=7 September 2020 |work=phys.org |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Tierney |first1=Jessica E. |last2=Zhu |first2=Jiang |last3=King |first3=Jonathan |last4=Malevich |first4=Steven B. |last5=Hakim |first5=Gregory J. |last6=Poulsen |first6=Christopher J. |title=Glacial cooling and climate sensitivity revisited |journal=Nature |date=August 2020 |volume=584 |issue=7822 |pages=569–573 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2617-x |pmid=32848226 |bibcode=2020Natur.584..569T |s2cid=221346116 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2617-x |access-date=7 September 2020 |language=en |issn=1476-4687}}{{Cite journal |last1=Seltzer |first1=Alan M. |last2=Ng |first2=Jessica |last3=Aeschbach |first3=Werner |last4=Kipfer |first4=Rolf |last5=Kulongoski |first5=Justin T. |last6=Severinghaus |first6=Jeffrey P. |last7=Stute |first7=Martin |date=12 May 2021 |title=Widespread six degrees Celsius cooling on land during the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03467-6 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=593 |issue=7858 |pages=228–232 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03467-6 |pmid=33981051 |bibcode=2021Natur.593..228S |issn=1476-4687}} According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), permanent summer ice covered about 8% of Earth's surface and 25% of the land area during the last glacial maximum.Richard Z. Poore, Richard S. Williams, Jr., and Christopher Tracey. [https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/ "Sea Level and Climate"]. United States Geological Survey. The USGS also states that sea level was about {{convert|125|m|ft|sp=us}} lower than in present times (2012). When comparing to the present, the average global temperature was {{cvt|15|C}} for the 2013–2017 period.[http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/auto/Global/Land_and_Ocean_summary.txt "Land and Ocean Summary"]. Berkeley Earth. As of 2012 about 3.1% of Earth's surface and 10.7% of the land area is covered in year-round ice.

Carbon sequestration in the highly stratified and productive Southern Ocean was essential in producing the LGM.{{Cite journal |last1=Sikes |first1=Elisabeth L. |last2=Umling |first2=Natalie E. |last3=Allen |first3=Katherine A. |last4=Ninnemann |first4=Ulysses S. |last5=Robinson |first5=Rebecca S. |last6=Russell |first6=Joellen L. |last7=Williams |first7=Thomas J. |date=9 June 2023 |title=Southern Ocean glacial conditions and their influence on deglacial events |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-023-00436-7 |journal=Nature Reviews Earth & Environment |language=en |volume=4 |issue=7 |pages=454–470 |doi=10.1038/s43017-023-00436-7 |bibcode=2023NRvEE...4..454S |s2cid=259377398 |issn=2662-138X |access-date=21 September 2023}} The formation of an ice sheet or ice cap requires both prolonged cold and precipitation (snow). Hence, despite having temperatures similar to those of glaciated areas in North America and Europe, East Asia remained unglaciated except at higher elevations. This difference was because the ice sheets in Europe produced extensive anticyclones above them. These anticyclones generated air masses that were so dry on reaching Siberia and Manchuria that precipitation sufficient for the formation of glaciers could never occur (except in Kamchatka where these westerly winds lifted moisture from the Sea of Japan). The relative warmth of the Pacific Ocean due to the shutting down of the Oyashio Current and the presence of large east–west mountain ranges were secondary factors that prevented the development of continental glaciation in Asia.

All over the world, climates at the Last Glacial Maximum were cooler and almost everywhere drier. In extreme cases, such as South Australia and the Sahel, rainfall could have been diminished by up to 90% compared to the present, with flora diminished to almost the same degree as in glaciated areas of Europe and North America. Even in less affected regions, rainforest cover was greatly diminished, especially in West Africa where a few refugia were surrounded by tropical grasslands. The Amazon rainforest was split into two large blocks by extensive savanna, and the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia probably were similarly affected, with deciduous forests expanding in their place except on the east and west extremities of the Sundaland shelf. Only in Central America and the Chocó region of Colombia did tropical rainforests remain substantially intact – probably due to the extraordinarily heavy rainfall of these regions. Most of the world's deserts expanded. Exceptions were in what is the present-day Western United States, where changes in the jet stream brought heavy rain to areas that are now desert and large pluvial lakes formed, the best known being Lake Bonneville in Utah. This also occurred in Afghanistan and Iran, where a major lake formed in the Dasht-e Kavir.

In Australia, shifting sand dunes covered half the continent, while the Chaco and Pampas in South America became similarly dry. Present-day subtropical regions also lost most of their forest cover, notably in eastern Australia, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, and southern China, where open woodland became dominant due to much drier conditions. In northern China – unglaciated despite its cold climate – a mixture of grassland and tundra prevailed, and even here, the northern limit of tree growth was at least 20° farther south than today. In the period before the LGM, many areas that became completely barren desert were wetter than they are today, notably in southern Australia, where Aboriginal occupation is believed to coincide with a wet period between 40,000 and 60,000 years Before Present (BP). In New Zealand and neighbouring regions of the Pacific, temperatures may have been further depressed during part of the LGM by the world's most recent supervolcanic eruption, the Oruanui eruption, approximately 25,500 years BP.{{Cite journal |last1=Muscheler |first1=Raimund |last2=Adolphi |first2=Florian |last3=Heaton |first3=Timothy J |last4=Bronk Ramsey |first4=Christopher |last5=Svensson |first5=Anders |last6=van der Plicht |first6=Johannes |last7=Reimer |first7=Paula J |date=2020 |title=Testing and Improving the IntCal20 Calibration Curve with Independent Records |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0033822220000545/type/journal_article |journal=Radiocarbon |language=en |volume=62 |issue=4 |pages=1079–1094 |doi=10.1017/RDC.2020.54 |bibcode=2020Radcb..62.1079M |issn=0033-8222}}

However, it is estimated that during the LGM, low-to-mid latitude land surfaces at low elevation cooled on average by 5.8 °C relative to their present-day temperatures, based on an analysis of noble gases dissolved in groundwater rather than examinations of species abundances that have been used in the past.{{cite journal |first1=Alan M. |last1=Seltzer |first2=Jessica |last2=Ng |first3=Werner |last3=Aeschbach |first4=Rolf |last4=Kipfer |first5=Justin T. |last5=Kulongoski |first6=Jeffrey P. |last6=Severinghaus |first7=Martin |last7=Stute |display-authors=4 |title=Widespread six degrees Celsius cooling on land during the Last Glacial Maximum |journal=Nature|year=2021|volume=593|issue=7858 |pages=228–232|doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03467-6|pmid=33981051 |bibcode=2021Natur.593..228S |s2cid=234485970 |url=https://www.dora.lib4ri.ch/eawag/islandora/object/eawag%3A22645 }}

During the Last Glacial Maximum, much of the world was cold, dry, and inhospitable, with frequent storms and a dust-laden atmosphere. The dustiness of the atmosphere is a prominent feature in ice cores; dust levels were as much as 20 to 25 times greater than they are in the present. This was probably due to a number of factors: reduced vegetation, stronger global winds, and less precipitation to clear dust from the atmosphere.Cowen, Robert C. "Dust Plays a Huge Role in Climate Change" Christian Science Monitor 3 April 2008 ({{cite journal |date=2008-04-03 |title=Dust plays huge role in climate change |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2008/0403/p14s01-sten.html |url-status=live |journal=Christian Science Monitor |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928043712/http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2008/0403/p14s01-sten.html |archive-date=2013-09-28 |access-date=2012-09-21}}), and Claquin et al., "Radiative Forcing of Climate by Ice-Age Atmospheric Dust", Climate Dynamics (2003) 20: 193–202. (www.rem.sfu.ca/COPElab/Claquinetal2003_CD_glacialdustRF.pdf) The massive sheets of ice locked away water, lowering the sea level, exposing continental shelves, joining land masses together, and creating extensive coastal plains.{{harvnb|Mithen|2004}} The ice sheets also changed the atmospheric circulation, causing the northern Pacific and Atlantic oceans to cool and produce more clouds, which amplified the global cooling as the clouds reflected even more sunlight.{{Cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Vincent T. |date=17 April 2024 |title=Last Glacial Maximum pattern effects reduce climate sensitivity estimates |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=10 |issue=16 |pages=eadk9461 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adk9461 |doi-access=free |pmid=38630811 |pmc=11023557 |bibcode=2024SciA...10K9461C }} During the LGM, 21,000 years ago, the sea level was about 125 meters (about 410 feet) lower than it is today.{{cite web|title=Glaciers and Sea Level|url=https://www2.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/glaciers/glaciers_sea_level.asp|website=U.S. Geological Survey|publisher=U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior|access-date=4 January 2017|date=30 May 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170104234233/https://www2.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/glaciers/glaciers_sea_level.asp|archive-date=4 January 2017}}{{Cite journal |last=Fairbanks |first=Richard G. |date=7 December 1989 |title=A 17,000-year glacio-eustatic sea level record: influence of glacial melting rates on the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/342637a0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=342 |issue=6250 |pages=637–642 |doi=10.1038/342637a0 |bibcode=1989Natur.342..637F |s2cid=4366756 |issn=0028-0836 |access-date=21 September 2023}} Across most of the globe, the hydrological cycle slowed down, explaining increased aridity in many regions of the world.{{Cite journal |last1=Pratap |first1=Shailendra |last2=Markonis |first2=Yannis |date=31 May 2022 |title=The response of the hydrological cycle to temperature changes in recent and distant climatic history |journal=Progress in Earth and Planetary Science |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=30 |doi=10.1186/s40645-022-00489-0 |bibcode=2022PEPS....9...30P |issn=2197-4284 |doi-access=free }}

In Africa and the Middle East, many smaller mountain glaciers formed, and the Sahara and other sandy deserts were greatly expanded in extent. The Atlantic deep sea sediment core V22-196, extracted off the coast of Senegal, shows a major southward expansion of the Sahara.{{Cite journal |last=Lezine |first=Anne-Marie |date=1 May 1991 |title=West African paleoclimates during the last climatic cycle inferred from an Atlantic deep-sea pollen record |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894%2891%2990058-D |journal=Quaternary Research |volume=35 |issue=3, Part 1 |pages=456–463 |doi=10.1016/0033-5894(91)90058-D |bibcode=1991QuRes..35..456L |s2cid=129021250 |issn=0033-5894 |access-date=17 September 2023}}

The Persian Gulf averages about 35 metres in depth and the seabed between Abu Dhabi and Qatar is even shallower, being mostly less than 15 metres deep. For thousands of years the Ur-Shatt (a confluence of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers) provided fresh water to the Gulf, as it flowed through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman. Bathymetric data suggests there were two palaeo-basins in the Persian Gulf. The central basin may have approached an area of 20,000 km², comparable at its fullest extent to lakes such as Lake Malawi in Africa. Between 12,000 and 9,000 years ago much of the Gulf's floor was not covered by water, only being flooded by the sea after 8,000 years BP.{{cite web |title=Marine Geophysics |url=http://www.qatararchaeology.com/?page_id=39#!marine-geophysics/clwj |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220173113/http://qatararchaeology.com/?page_id=39 |archive-date=2014-12-20 |website=QNHER, Qatar Archaeology}}

It is estimated that annual average temperatures in Southern Africa were 6 °C lower than at present during the Last Glacial Maximum. This temperature drop alone would however not have been enough to generate widespread glaciation or permafrost in the Drakensberg Mountains or the Lesotho Highlands. Seasonal freezing of the ground in the Lesotho Highlands might have reached depths of 2 meters or more below the surface.{{cite journal | last1 = Sumner | first1 = P | year = 2003 | title = A contemporary winter ground thermal profile in the Lesotho Highlands and implications for active and relict soil frost phenomena | journal = Earth Surface Processes and Landforms | volume = 28 | issue = 13| pages = 1451–1458 | doi=10.1002/esp.1003| bibcode = 2003ESPL...28.1451S| s2cid = 128637011 }} A few small glaciers did however develop during the LGM, in particular in south-facing slopes.{{cite journal|author-last=Mills |author-first=S.C. |author-last2=Barrows |author-first2=T.T. |author-last3=Telfer|author-first3=M.W.|author-last4=Fifield |author-first4=L.K. |date=2017|title=The cold climate geomorphology of the Eastern Cape Drakensberg: A reevaluation of past climatic conditions during the last glacial cycle in Southern Africa |journal=Geomorphology |volume=278|pages=184–194 |doi=10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.11.011|bibcode=2017Geomo.278..184M|hdl=10026.1/8086 |url=https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/the-cold-climate-geomorphology-of-the-eastern-cape-drakensberg(1f38c2de-f19b-4b16-aecc-fa3d84c2a189).html |hdl-access=free }} In the Hex River Mountains, in the Western Cape, block streams and terraces found near the summit of Matroosberg evidences past periglacial activity which likely occurred during the LGM.{{cite journal |last1=Boelhouwers |first1=Jan |date=1999 |title=Relict periglacial slope deposits in the Hex River Mountains, South Africa: observations and palaeoenvironmental implications |journal=Geomorphology |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=245–258 |doi= 10.1016/s0169-555x(99)00033-1|bibcode=1999Geomo..30..245B }} Palaeoclimatological proxies indicate the region around Boomplaas Cave was wetter, with increased winter precipitation.{{Cite journal |last1=Faith |first1=J. Tyler |last2=Chase |first2=Brian M. |last3=Pargeter |first3=Justin |date=1 April 2024 |title=The Last Glacial Maximum climate at Boomplaas Cave, South Africa |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379124000581 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=329 |pages=108557 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108557 |bibcode=2024QSRv..32908557F |access-date=12 April 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} The region of the Zambezi River catchment was colder relative to present and the local drop in mean temperature was seasonally uniform.{{Cite journal |last1=Khon |first1=V. C. |last2=Wang |first2=Y. V. |last3=Krebs-Kanzow |first3=U. |last4=Kaplan |first4=J. O. |last5=Schneider |first5=R. R. |last6=Schneider |first6=B. |date=1 October 2014 |title=Climate and CO2 effects on the vegetation of southern tropical Africa over the last 37,000 years |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X14004282 |journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters |volume=403 |pages=407–417 |doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2014.06.043 |issn=0012-821X |access-date=5 January 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

On the island of Mauritius in the Mascarenhas Archipelago, open wet forest vegetation dominated, contrasting with the dominantly closed-stratified-tall-forest state of Holocene Mauritian forests.{{cite journal |last1=De Boer |first1=Erik J. |last2=Hooghiemstra |first2=Henry |last3=Florens |first3=F. B. Vincent |last4=Baider |first4=Cláudia |last5=Engels |first5=Stefan |last6=Dakos |first6=Vasilis |last7=Blaauw |first7=Maarten |last8=Bennett |first8=K. D. |date=15 May 2013 |title=Rapid succession of plant associations on the small ocean island of Mauritius at the onset of the Holocene |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379113000590 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=68 |pages=114–125 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.02.005 |bibcode=2013QSRv...68..114D |s2cid=55382331 |access-date=28 April 2023}}

File:Map of Sunda and Sahul.svg was likely more than 110 metres lower than it is today.]]

There were ice sheets in modern Tibet (although scientists continue to debate the extent to which the Tibetan Plateau was covered with ice) as well as in Baltistan and Ladakh. In Southeast Asia, many smaller mountain glaciers formed, and permafrost covered Asia as far south as Beijing. Because of lowered sea levels, many of today's islands were joined to the continents: the Indonesian islands as far east as Borneo and Bali were connected to the Asian continent in a landmass called Sundaland. Palawan was also part of Sundaland, while the rest of the Philippine Islands formed one large island separated from the continent only by the Sibutu Passage and the Mindoro Strait.{{cite web |author1=Sathiamurthy, E. |author2=Voris, H.K. |title=Pleistocene Sea Level Maps for the Sunda Shelf |date=2006 |publisher=The Field Museum |location=Chicago IL |url=http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/zoology/zoo_sites/seamaps/mapindex1.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317193810/http://www.fieldmuseum.org/research_collections/zoology/zoo_sites/seamaps/mapindex1.htm |archive-date=2009-03-17 }}

The environment along the coast of South China was not very different from that of the present day, featuring moist subtropical evergreen forests, despite sea levels in the South China Sea being about 100 metres lower than the present day.{{cite journal |last1=Dai |first1=Lu |last2=Weng |first2=Chengyu |date=December 2015 |title=Marine palynological record for tropical climate variations since the late last glacial maximum in the northern South China Sea |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0967064515002131 |journal=Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography |volume=122 |pages=153–162 |doi=10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.06.011 |bibcode=2015DSRII.122..153D |access-date=15 April 2023}}

The Australian mainland, New Guinea, Tasmania and many smaller islands comprised a single land mass. This continent is now sometimes referred to as Sahul. In the Bonaparte Gulf of northwestern Australia, sea levels were about 125 metres lower than present.{{Cite journal |last1=Yokoyama |first1=Yusuke |last2=De Deckker |first2=Patrick |last3=Lambeck |first3=Kurt |last4=Johnston |first4=Paul |last5=Fifield |first5=L.K |date=15 January 2001 |title=Sea-level at the Last Glacial Maximum: evidence from northwestern Australia to constrain ice volumes for oxygen isotope stage 2 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0031018200001644 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |language=en |volume=165 |issue=3–4 |pages=281–297 |doi=10.1016/S0031-0182(00)00164-4 |bibcode=2001PPP...165..281Y |access-date=9 September 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} Interior Australia saw widespread aridity, evidenced by extensive dune activity and falling lake levels.{{Cite journal |last1=Fitzsimmons |first1=Kathryn E. |last2=Cohen |first2=Timothy J. |last3=Hesse |first3=Paul P. |last4=Jansen |first4=John |last5=Nanson |first5=Gerald C. |last6=May |first6=Jan-Hendrik |last7=Barrows |first7=Timothy T. |last8=Haberlah |first8=David |last9=Hilgers |first9=Alexandra |last10=Kelly |first10=Tegan |last11=Larsen |first11=Joshua |last12=Lomax |first12=Johanna |last13=Treble |first13=Pauline |date=15 August 2013 |title=Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental change in the Australian drylands |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379112003435 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=74 |pages=78–96 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.09.007 |bibcode=2013QSRv...74...78F |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} Eastern Australia experienced two nadirs in temperature.{{Cite journal |last1=Petherick |first1=Lynda |last2=McGowan |first2=Hamish |last3=Moss |first3=Patrick |date=11 June 2008 |title=Climate variability during the Last Glacial Maximum in eastern Australia: evidence of two stadials? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jqs.1186 |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |language=en |volume=23 |issue=8 |pages=787–802 |doi=10.1002/jqs.1186 |bibcode=2008JQS....23..787P |issn=0267-8179 |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Wiley Online Library}} Lacustrine sediments from North Stradbroke Island in coastal Queensland indicated humid conditions.{{Cite journal |last1=Petherick |first1=L.M. |last2=Moss |first2=P.T. |last3=McGowan |first3=H.A. |date=8 March 2017 |title=An extended Last Glacial Maximum in subtropical Australia |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618215011234 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=432 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.015 |bibcode=2017QuInt.432....1P |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} Data from Little Llangothlin Lagoon likewise indicate the persistence of rainforests in eastern Australia at this time.{{Cite journal |last1=Ellerton |first1=D. |last2=Shulmeister |first2=J. |last3=Woodward |first3=C. |last4=Moss |first4=P. |date=3 July 2017 |title=Last Glacial Maximum and Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition pollen record from northern NSW, Australia: evidence for a humid late Last Glacial Maximum and dry deglaciation in parts of eastern Australia |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jqs.2960 |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |language=en |volume=32 |issue=6 |pages=717–728 |doi=10.1002/jqs.2960 |bibcode=2017JQS....32..717E |issn=0267-8179 |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Wiley Online Library}} Rivers maintained their sinuous form in southeastern Australia and there was increased aeolian deposition of sediment in compared to today.{{Cite journal |last=Fried |first=Alan W. |date=April 1993 |title=Late Pleistocene river morphological change, southeastern Australia: the conundrum of sinuous channels during the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/003101829390021A |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |language=en |volume=101 |issue=3–4 |pages=305–316 |doi=10.1016/0031-0182(93)90021-A |bibcode=1993PPP...101..305F |access-date=9 September 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} The Flinders Ranges likewise experienced humid conditions.{{Cite journal |last1=Treble |first1=Pauline C. |last2=Baker |first2=Andy |last3=Ayliffe |first3=Linda K. |last4=Cohen |first4=Timothy J. |last5=Hellstrom |first5=John C. |last6=Gagan |first6=Michael K. |last7=Frisia |first7=Silvia |last8=Drysdale |first8=Russell N. |last9=Griffiths |first9=Alan D. |last10=Borsato |first10=Andrea |date=14 June 2017 |title=Hydroclimate of the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation in southern Australia's arid margin interpreted from speleothem records (23–15 ka) |url=https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/13/667/2017/ |journal=Climate of the Past |language=en |volume=13 |issue=6 |pages=667–687 |doi=10.5194/cp-13-667-2017 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2017CliPa..13..667T |issn=1814-9332 |access-date=18 October 2024}} In southwestern Western Australia, forests disappeared during the LGM.{{Cite journal |last1=Sniderman |first1=J. M. K. |last2=Hellstrom |first2=J. |last3=Woodhead |first3=J. D. |last4=Drysdale |first4=R. N. |last5=Bajo |first5=P. |last6=Archer |first6=M. |last7=Hatcher |first7=L. |date=16 February 2019 |title=Vegetation and Climate Change in Southwestern Australia During the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018GL080832 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |language=en |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=1709–1720 |doi=10.1029/2018GL080832 |bibcode=2019GeoRL..46.1709S |issn=0094-8276 |access-date=18 October 2024}}

Between Sahul and Sundaland – a peninsula of South East Asia that comprised present-day Malaysia and western and northern Indonesia – there remained an archipelago of islands known as Wallacea. The water gaps between these islands, Sahul and Sundaland were considerably narrower and fewer in number than in the present day.

The two main islands of New Zealand, along with associated smaller islands, were joined as one landmass. Virtually all of the Southern Alps were under permanent ice cover, with alpine glaciers extending from them into much of the surrounding high country.Kirkpatrick, R. (21999). Bateman contemporary atlas of New Zealand. Auckland:David Bateman Ltd. Plate 6. {{ISBN|1-86953-408-5}}

{{Main|Weichselian glaciation|Würm glaciation|Devensian glaciation}}

Image:Europe20000ya.png, {{Circa|20,000 years ago}}

{{legend|#c54b00|Solutrean culture}}

{{legend|#ca00b0|Epigravettian culture{{cite journal |last1=Posth|first1=C.|last2=Yu|first2=H.|last3=Ghalichi|first3=A. |title=Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers |journal=Nature |date=2023 |volume=615 |issue=2 March 2023 |pages=117–126 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0 |pmid=36859578 |pmc=9977688 |bibcode=2023Natur.615..117P }}}}

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Northern Europe was largely covered by ice, with the southern boundary of the ice sheets passing through Germany and Poland. This ice extended northward to cover Svalbard and Franz Josef Land and northeastward to occupy the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea, and Novaya Zemlya, ending at the Taymyr Peninsula in what is now northwestern Siberia.{{cite journal |last1=Mangerud |first1=Jan |first2=Martin |last2=Jakobsson |first3=Helena |last3=Alexanderson |first4=Valery |last4=Astakhov |first5=Garry K.C |last5=Clarke |first6=Mona |last6=Henriksen |first7=Christian |last7=Hjort |first8=Gerhard |last8=Krinner |first9=Juha-Pekka |last9=Lunkka |first10=Per |last10=Möller |first11=Andrew |last11=Murray |first12=Olga |last12=Nikolskaya |first13=Matti |last13=Saarnisto |first14=John Inge |last14=Svendsen |year=2004 |title=Ice-dammed lakes and rerouting of the drainage of northern Eurasia during the Last Glaciation |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=23 |issue=11–13 |pages=1313–32 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2003.12.009 |url=http://www.geol.lu.se/personal/PRM/PDF_papers%20full%20text/QSR_2004_QUEEN_mangerud.pdf |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120713215548/http://www.geol.lu.se/personal/prm/PDF_papers%20full%20text/QSR_2004_QUEEN_mangerud.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-13 |bibcode=2004QSRv...23.1313M }} Warming commenced in northern latitudes around 20,000 years ago, but it was limited and considerable warming did not take place until around 14,600 year ago.French, Palaeolithic Europe, p. 234

In northwestern Russia, the Fennoscandian ice sheet reached its LGM extent approximately 17,000 years ago, about five thousand years later than in Denmark, Germany and Western Poland. Outside the Baltic Shield, and in Russia in particular, the LGM ice margin of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet was highly lobate. The main LGM lobes of Russia followed the Dvina, Vologda and Rybinsk basins respectively. Lobes originated as result of ice following shallow topographic depressions filled with a soft sediment substrate.{{cite journal |author-last=Stroeven |author-first=Arjen P. |author-last2=Hättestrand |author-first2=Clas |author-last3=Kleman |author-first3=Johan |author-last4=Heyman |author-first4=Jakob |author-last5=Fabel |author-first5=Derek |author-last6=Fredin |author-first6=Ola |author-last7=Goodfellow |author-first7=Bradley W. |author-last8=Harbor |author-first8=Jonathan M. |author-last9=Jansen |author-first9=John D. |author-last10=Olsen |author-first10=Lars |author-last11=Caffee|author-first11=Marc W. |author-last12=Fink|author-first12=David |author-last13=Lundqvist|author-first13=Jan |author-last14=Rosqvist|author-first14=Gunhild C. |author-last15=Strömberg|author-first15=Bo |author-last16=Jansson|author-first16=Krister N. |author-link13=Jan Lundqvist |date=2016 |title=Deglaciation of Fennoscandia |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=147 |pages=91–121 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.09.016 |bibcode=2016QSRv..147...91S |doi-access=free}} The northern Ural region was covered in periglacial steppes.{{Cite journal |last1=Kosintsev |first1=Pavel A. |last2=Bachura |first2=Olga P. |date=20 November 2023 |title=Northern Urals (Russia) quaternary deposits and biostratigraphical record caves and grottoes |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618223000046 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=674-675 |pages=31–48 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2023.01.004 |bibcode=2023QuInt.674...31K |access-date=9 June 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

Permafrost covered Europe south of the ice sheet down to as far south as present-day Szeged in Southern Hungary. Ice covered the whole of Iceland.{{Cite journal |title=Internet Archaeology 11: Ray & Adams 4.5 Europe. |url=http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue11/2/4.5.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013022243/http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue11/2/4.5.html |archive-date=2016-10-13 |access-date=2018-02-05 |website=intarch.ac.uk |language=en |doi=10.11141/ia.11.2}} In addition, ice covered Ireland along with roughly the northern half of the British Isles with the southern boundary of the ice sheet running approximately from the south of Wales to the north east of England, and then across the now submerged land of Doggerland to Denmark.{{cite web |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/relics-washed-beaches-reveal-lost-world-beneath-north-sea |website= American Association for the Advancement of Science |first=Andrew |last=Curry |date=30 January 2020 |title=Lost world revealed by human, Neanderthal relics washed up on North Sea beaches |access-date=3 February 2020}} Central Europe had isolated pockets of relative warmth corresponding to hydrothermally active areas, which served as refugia for taxa not adapted to extremely cold climates.{{Cite journal |last1=Hošek |first1=Jan |last2=Pokorný |first2=Petr |last3=Storch |first3=David |last4=Kvaček |first4=Jiří |last5=Havig |first5=Jeff |last6=Novák |first6=Jan |last7=Hájková |first7=Petra |last8=Jamrichová |first8=Eva |last9=Brengman |first9=Latisha |last10=Radoměřský |first10=Tomáš |last11=Křížek |first11=Marek |last12=Magna |first12=Tomáš |last13=Rapprich |first13=Vladislav |last14=Laufek |first14=František |last15=Hamilton |first15=Trinity |last16=Pack |first16=Andreas |last17=Di Rocco |first17=Tommaso |last18=Horáček |first18=Ivan |date=31 May 2024 |title=Hot spring oases in the periglacial desert as the Last Glacial Maximum refugia for temperate trees in Central Europe |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=10 |issue=22 |pages=eado6611 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.ado6611 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=11141633 |pmid=38820152 |bibcode=2024SciA...10O6611H }}

In the Cantabrian Mountains of the northwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, which in the present day have no permanent glaciers, the LGM led to a local glacial recession as a result of increased aridity caused by the growth of other ice sheets farther to the east and north, which drastically limited annual snowfall over the mountains of northwestern Spain. The Cantabrian alpine glaciers had previously expanded between approximately 60,000 and 40,000 years ago during a local glacial maximum in the region.{{cite journal |last1=Santos-González |first1=Javier |last2=Redondo-Vega |first2=José María |last3=González-Gutiérrez |first3=Rosa Blanca |last4=Gómez-Villar |first4=Amelia |date=1 October 2013 |title=Applying the AABR method to reconstruct equilibrium-line altitudes from the last glacial maximum in the Cantabrian Mountains (SW Europe) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018213003581 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=387 |pages=185–199 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.07.025 |bibcode=2013PPP...387..185S |access-date=15 November 2022}}

In northeastern Italy, in the region around Lake Fimon, Artemisia-dominated semideserts, steppes, and meadow-steppes replaced open boreal forests at the start of the LGM, specifically during Heinrich Stadial 3. The overall climate of the region became both drier and colder.{{cite journal |last1=Badino |first1=Federica |last2=Pini |first2=Roberta |last3=Bertuletti |first3=Paolo |last4=Ravazzi |first4=Cesare |last5=Delmonte |first5=Barbara |last6=Monegato |first6=Giovanni |last7=Reimer |first7=Paula |last8=Vallé |first8=Francesca |last9=Arrighi |first9=Simona |last10=Bortolini |first10=Eugenio |last11=Figos |first11=Carla |last12=Lugli |first12=Federico |last13=Maggi |first13=Valter |last14=Marciani |first14=Giulia |last15=Margaritora |first15=Davide |last16=Oxilia |first16=Gregorio |last17=Romandini |first17=Matteo |last18=Silvestrini |first18=Sara |last19=Benazzi |first19=Stefano |date=22 October 2020 |title=The fast-acting "pulse" of Heinrich Stadial 3 in a mid-latitude boreal ecosystem |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=18031 |doi=10.1038/s41598-020-74905-0 |pmid=33093492 |pmc=7581741 |bibcode=2020NatSR..1018031B }}

In the Sar Mountains, the glacial equilibrium-line altitude was about 450 metres lower than in the Holocene.{{Cite journal |last1=Kuhlemann |first1=J. |last2=Milivojević |first2=M. |last3=Krumrei |first3=Ingrid |last4=Kubik |first4=P. W. |date=January 2009 |title=Last glaciation of the Šara Range (Balkan peninsula): Increasing dryness from the LGM to the Holocene |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279592935 |journal=Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences |volume=102 |issue=1 |pages=146–158 |access-date=24 September 2023}} In Greece, steppe vegetation predominated.{{Cite journal |last1=Koutsodendris |first1=Andreas |last2=Dakos |first2=Vasilis |last3=Fletcher |first3=William J. |last4=Knipping |first4=Maria |last5=Kotthoff |first5=Ulrich |last6=Milner |first6=Alice M. |last7=Müller |first7=Ulrich C. |last8=Kaboth-Bahr |first8=Stefanie |last9=Kern |first9=Oliver A. |last10=Kolb |first10=Laurin |last11=Vakhrameeva |first11=Polina |last12=Wulf |first12=Sabine |last13=Christanis |first13=Kimon |last14=Schmiedl |first14=Gerhard |last15=Pross |first15=Jörg |date=25 March 2023 |title=Atmospheric CO2 forcing on Mediterranean biomes during the past 500 kyrs |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=1664 |doi=10.1038/s41467-023-37388-x |issn=2041-1723 |doi-access=free |pmid=36966144 |pmc=10039881 }}

Megafaunal abundance in Europe peaked around 27,000 and 21,000 BP; this bountifulness was attributable to the cold stadial climate.{{Cite journal |last1=Sirocko |first1=Frank |last2=Albert |first2=Johannes |last3=Britzius |first3=Sarah |last4=Dreher |first4=Frank |last5=Martínez-García |first5=Alfredo |last6=Dosseto |first6=Anthony |last7=Burger |first7=Joachim |last8=Terberger |first8=Thomas |last9=Haug |first9=Gerald |date=21 November 2022 |title=Thresholds for the presence of glacial megafauna in central Europe during the last 60,000 years |journal=Scientific Reports |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=20055 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-22464-x |bibcode=2022NatSR..1220055S |issn=2045-2322 |doi-access=free |pmid=36414639 |pmc=9681729 |hdl=20.500.11850/592989 |hdl-access=free }}

{{Main article|Wisconsin glaciation}}

{{See also|Cordilleran ice sheet}}

File:Northern icesheet hg.pngs during which three to four kilometer-thick ice sheets caused a sea level lowering of about 120 m.]]

In Greenland, the difference between LGM temperatures and present temperatures was twice as great during winter as during summer. Greenhouse gas and insolation forcings dominated temperature changes in northern Greenland, whereas Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variability was the dominant influence on southern Greenland's climate.{{Cite journal |last1=Buizert |first1=C. |last2=Keisling |first2=B. A. |last3=Box |first3=J. E. |last4=He |first4=F. |last5=Carlson |first5=A. E. |last6=Sinclair |first6=G. |last7=DeConto |first7=R. M. |date=28 February 2018 |title=Greenland-Wide Seasonal Temperatures During the Last Deglaciation |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL075601 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |language=en |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=1905–1914 |doi=10.1002/2017GL075601 |bibcode=2018GeoRL..45.1905B |osti=1565632 |s2cid=6002922 |issn=0094-8276 |access-date=21 September 2023}} Illorsuit Island was exclusively covered by cold-based glaciers.{{Cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=David H. |last2=Rea |first2=Brice R. |last3=Lane |first3=Tim P. |last4=Schnabel |first4=Christoph |last5=Rodés |first5=Angel |date=June 2013 |title=New constraints on Greenland ice sheet dynamics during the last glacial cycle: Evidence from the Uummannaq ice stream system: LGM ICE STREAM DYNAMICS, GREENLAND |url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/jgrf.20032 |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface |language=en |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=519–541 |doi=10.1002/jgrf.20032 |access-date=21 September 2023|hdl=2164/4028 |s2cid=54030327 |hdl-access=free }}

Eastern Beringia was extremely cold and dry.{{Cite journal |last1=Kuzmina |first1=Svetlana |last2=Elias |first2=Scott |last3=Matheus |first3=Paul |last4=Storer |first4=John E. |last5=Sher |first5=Andrei |date=1 October 2008 |title=Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Last Glacial Maximum, inferred from insect fossils from a tephra buried soil at Tempest Lake, Seward Peninsula, Alaska |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0031018208004070 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |language=en |volume=267 |issue=3–4 |pages=245–255 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.07.007 |bibcode=2008PPP...267..245K |access-date=9 September 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} July air temperatures in northern Alaska and Yukon were about 2–3 °C lower compared to today.{{Cite journal |last1=Lapointe E. |first1=Lyna |last2=Talbot |first2=Julie |last3=Fortier |first3=Daniel |last4=Fréchette |first4=Bianca |last5=Strauss |first5=Jens |last6=Kanevskiy |first6=Mikhail |last7=Shur |first7=Yuri |date=1 November 2017 |title=Middle to late Wisconsinan climate and ecological changes in northern Alaska: Evidences from the Itkillik River Yedoma |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0031018217303012 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |language=en |volume=485 |pages=906–916 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.08.006 |bibcode=2017PPP...485..906L |access-date=9 September 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} Equilibrium line altitudes in Alaska suggest summer temperatures were 2–5 °C compared to preindustrial.{{Cite journal |last1=Walcott |first1=Caleb K. |last2=Briner |first2=Jason P. |last3=Tulenko |first3=Joseph P. |last4=Evans |first4=Stuart M. |date=11 January 2024 |title=Equilibrium line altitudes of alpine glaciers in Alaska suggest Last Glacial Maximum summer temperature was 2–5 °C lower than during the pre-industrial |url=https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/20/91/2024/cp-20-91-2024.html |journal=Climate of the Past |language=en |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=91–106 |doi=10.5194/cp-20-91-2024 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2024CliPa..20...91W |issn=1814-9332 |access-date=7 November 2024}} Sediment core analysis from Lone Spruce Pond in southwestern Alaska show it was a pocket of relative warmth.{{Cite journal |last1=Kaufman |first1=Darrell S. |last2=Axford |first2=Yarrow |last3=Anderson |first3=R. Scott |last4=Lamoureux |first4=Scott F. |last5=Schindler |first5=Daniel E. |last6=Walker |first6=Ian R. |last7=Werner |first7=Al |date=13 May 2012 |title=A multi-proxy record of the Last Glacial Maximum and last 14,500 years of paleoenvironmental change at Lone Spruce Pond, southwestern Alaska |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10933-012-9607-4 |journal=Journal of Paleolimnology |language=en |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=9–26 |doi=10.1007/s10933-012-9607-4 |bibcode=2012JPall..48....9K |issn=0921-2728 |access-date=7 November 2024 |via=Springer Link}}

Following a preceding period of relative retreat from 52,000 to 40,000 years ago,{{cite journal |last1=Dalton |first1=April S. |last2=Finkelstein |first2=Sarah A. |last3=Forman |first3=Steven L. |last4=Barnett |first4=Peter J. |last5=Pico |first5=Tamara |last6=Mitrovica |first6=Jerry X. |date=4 January 2019 |title=Was the Laurentide Ice Sheet significantly reduced during Marine Isotope Stage 3? |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/47/2/111/568050/Was-the-Laurentide-Ice-Sheet-significantly-reduced |journal=Geology |volume=47 |issue=2 |pages=111–114 |doi=10.1130/G45335.1 |bibcode=2019Geo....47..111D |s2cid=133703425 |access-date=22 November 2022}} the Laurentide Ice Sheet grew rapidly at the onset of the LGM until it covered essentially all of Canada east of the Rocky Mountains and extended roughly to the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, and eastward to Manhattan,{{cite journal |last1=Pico |first1=Tamara |last2=Birch |first2=L. |last3=Weisenberg |first3=J. |last4=Mitrovica |first4=Jerry X. |date=1 September 2018 |title=Refining the Laurentide Ice Sheet at Marine Isotope Stage 3: A data-based approach combining glacial isostatic simulations with a dynamic ice model |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=195 |pages=171–179 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.023 |bibcode=2018QSRv..195..171P |s2cid=135332612 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Carlson |first1=Anders E. |last2=Tarasov |first2=Lev |last3=Pico |first3=Tamara |date=15 September 2018 |title=Rapid Laurentide ice-sheet advance towards southern last glacial maximum limit during marine isotope stage 3 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=196 |pages=118–123 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.039 |bibcode=2018QSRv..196..118C |s2cid=53982009 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Kleman |first1=Johan |last2=Hättestrand |first2=Clas |date=4 November 1999 |title=Frozen-bed Fennoscandian and Laurentide ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/47005?free=2 |journal=Nature |volume=402 |issue=6757 |pages=63–66 |doi=10.1038/47005 |bibcode=1999Natur.402...63K |s2cid=4408645 |access-date=22 November 2022}} reaching a total maximum volume of around 26.5 to 37 million cubic kilometres.{{cite journal |last1=Paterson |first1=W. S. B. |date=November 1972 |title=Laurentide Ice Sheet: Estimated volumes during Late Wisconsin |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/RG010i004p00885 |journal=Reviews of Geophysics |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=885–917 |doi=10.1029/RG010i004p00885 |bibcode=1972RvGSP..10..885P |access-date=25 November 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=Ives |first1=Jack D. |date=March 1978 |title=The Maximum Extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet along the East Coast of North America during the Last Glaciation |journal=Arctic |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=24–53 |doi=10.14430/arctic2638 |jstor=40508876 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Sugden |first1=D. E. |date=1977 |title=Reconstruction of the Morphology, Dynamics, and Thermal Characteristics of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at its Maximum |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00040851.1977.12003898 |journal=Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=21–47 |doi=10.1080/00040851.1977.12003898 |access-date=22 November 2022}} At its peak, the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached 3.2 km in height around Keewatin Dome and about 1.7-2.1 km along the Plains divide.{{cite journal |last1=Lacelle |first1=Denis |last2=Fisher |first2=David A. |last3=Coulombe |first3=Stéphanie |last4=Fortier |first4=Daniel |last5=Frappier |first5=Roxanne |date=5 September 2018 |title=Buried remnants of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and connections to its surface elevation |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=13286 |doi=10.1038/s41598-018-31166-2 |pmid=30185871 |pmc=6125386 |bibcode=2018NatSR...813286L }} In addition to the large Cordilleran Ice Sheet in Canada and Montana, alpine glaciers advanced and (in some locations) ice caps covered much of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains further south. Latitudinal gradients were so sharp that permafrost did not reach far south of the ice sheets except at high elevations. Glaciers forced the early human populations who had originally migrated from northeast Siberia into refugia, reshaping their genetic variation by mutation and drift. This phenomenon established the older haplogroups found among Native Americans, and later migrations are responsible for northern North American haplogroups.{{cite journal |vauthors=Perego UA, Angerhofer N, Pala M, etal |title=The initial peopling of the Americas: a growing number of founding mitochondrial genomes from Beringia |journal=Genome Research |volume=20 |issue=9 |pages=1174–9 |date=September 2010 |pmid=20587512 |pmc=2928495 |doi=10.1101/gr.109231.110 }}

In southeastern North America, between the southern Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, there was an enclave of unusually warm climate.{{Cite journal |last1=Russell |first1=Dale A. |last2=Rich |first2=Fredrick J. |last3=Schneider |first3=Vincent |last4=Lynch-Stieglitz |first4=Jean |date=16 April 2009 |title=A warm thermal enclave in the Late Pleistocene of the South-eastern United States |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-185X.2008.00069.x |journal=Biological Reviews |language=en |volume=84 |issue=2 |pages=173–202 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-185X.2008.00069.x |pmid=19391200 |issn=1464-7931 |access-date=9 June 2024 |via=Wiley Online Library}}

{{Further|Llanquihue glaciation}}In the Southern Hemisphere, the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered the whole southern third of Chile and adjacent areas of Argentina. On the western side of the Andes the ice sheet reached sea level as far north as in the 41 degrees south at Chacao Channel.{{citation needed|date=February 2017}} The western coast of Patagonia was largely glaciated, but some authors have pointed out the possible existence of ice-free refugia for some plant species. On the eastern side of the Andes, glacier lobes occupied the depressions of Seno Skyring, Seno Otway, Inútil Bay, and Beagle Channel. On the Straits of Magellan, ice reached as far as Segunda Angostura.{{cite journal |last1=Rabassa |first1=Jorge |author-link1=Jorge Rabassa |last2=Coronato |first2=Andrea |last3=Bujalesky |first3=Gustavo |last4=Salemme |first4=Mónica |last5=Roig |first5=Claudio |last6=Meglioli |first6=Andrés |last7=Heusser |first7=Calvin |last8=Gordillo |first8=Sandra |last9=Roig |first9=Fidel |last10=Borromei |first10=Ana |last11=Quattrocchio |first11=Mirta |date=June 2000 |title=Quaternary of Tierra del Fuego, Southernmost South America: an updated review |journal=Quaternary International |volume=68–71 |issue=1 |pages=217–240 |bibcode=2000QuInt..68..217R |doi=10.1016/S1040-6182(00)00046-X |hdl=11336/86869|hdl-access=free }}File:Global sea levels during the last Ice Age.jpg

During the LGM, valley glaciers in the southern Andes (38–43° S) merged and descended from the Andes occupying lacustrine and marine basins where they spread out forming large piedmont glacier lobes. Glaciers extended about 7 km west of the modern Llanquihue Lake, but not more than 2 to 3 km south of it. Nahuel Huapi Lake in Argentina was also glaciated by the same time.{{cite book |last=Heusser |first=C.J. |date=2004 |title=Ice Age Southern Andes |pages=25–29 }} Over most of the Chiloé Archipelago, glacier advance peaked 26,000 years ago, forming a long north–south moraine system along the eastern coast of Chiloé Island (41.5–43° S). By that time the glaciation at the latitude of Chiloé was of ice sheet type contrasting to the valley glaciation found further north in Chile.{{cite journal |last=García |first=Juan L. |date=2012 |title=Late Pleistocene ice fluctuations and glacial geomorphology of the Archipiélago de Chiloé, southern Chile |journal=Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography |volume= 94 |issue= 4 |pages= 459–479 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0459.2012.00471.x |bibcode=2012GeAnA..94..459G |s2cid=128632559 |hdl=10533/134803 |hdl-access=free }}

Despite glacier advances much of the area west of Llanquihue Lake was still ice-free during the Last Glacial Maximum. During the coldest period of the Last Glacial Maximum vegetation at this location was dominated by Alpine herbs in wide open surfaces. The global warming that followed caused a slow change in vegetation towards a sparsely distributed vegetation dominated by Nothofagus species.{{cite journal |last1=Lowell |first1=T.V. |last2=Heusser |first2=C.J. |last3=Andersen |first3=B.J. |last4=Moreno |first4=P.I. |last5=Hauser |first5=A.|last6=Heusser |first6=L.E. |last7=Schlüchter |first7=C. |last8=Marchant |first8=D.R.|last9=Denton |first9=G.H. |date=1995 |title=Interhemispheric Correlation of Late Pleistocene Glacial Events |journal=Science |volume=269 |issue=5230 |pages=1541–1549 |doi= 10.1126/science.269.5230.1541|pmid=17789444|bibcode=1995Sci...269.1541L |s2cid=13594891 }} Within this parkland vegetation Magellanic moorland alternated with Nothofagus forest, and as warming progressed even warm-climate trees began to grow in the area. It is estimated that the tree line was depressed about 1,000 m relative to present day elevations during the coldest period, but it rose gradually until 19,300 years ago. At that time a cold reversal caused a replacement of much of the arboreal vegetation with Magellanic moorland and Alpine species.{{cite journal |last1=Moreno |first1=Patricio I. |last2=Denton |first2=Geoge H. |last3=Moreno |first3=Hugo |author-link3=Hugo Moreno Roa |last4=Lowell |first4=Thomas V. |last5=Putnam |first5=Aaron E. |last6=Kaplan |first6=Michael R. |date=2015 |title=Radiocarbon chronology of the last glacial maximum and its termination in northwestern Patagonia |url=http://repositorio.uchile.cl/bitstream/2250/134818/1/Radiocarbon-chronology-of-the-last-glacial-maximum.pdf |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=122 |pages=233–249 |bibcode=2015QSRv..122..233M |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.05.027 |hdl=10533/148448}} On Isla Grande de Chiloé, Magellanic moorland and closed-canopy Nothofagus forests were both present during the LGM, but the former disappeared by the late LGM.{{Cite journal |last1=Briones |first1=Dalila |last2=Guerra |first2=Lucía |last3=Soteres |first3=Rodrigo L. |last4=Moreno |first4=Patricio I. |date=15 November 2024 |title=Vegetation and environmental responses from extreme glacial to extreme interglacial conditions in central Isla Grande de Chiloé (∼42°S), northwestern Patagonia |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379124004281 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=344 |pages=108927 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108927 |bibcode=2024QSRv..34408927B |access-date=18 October 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

Little is known about the extent of glaciers during Last Glacial Maximum north of the Chilean Lake District. To the north, in the dry Andes of Central and the Last Glacial Maximum is associated with increased humidity and the verified advance of at least some mountain glaciers.{{cite book|last=Harrison|first=Stephan |editor-last=Ehlers |editor-first=J.|editor-last2=Gibbard|editor-first2=P.L.|chapter=The Pleistocene glaciations of Chile |date=2004 |title=Quaternary Glaciations – Extent and Chronology: Part III: South America, Asia, Africa, Australasia, Antarctica |pages=91–97 }} Montane glaciers in the northern Andes reached their peak extent approximately 27,000 years ago.{{Cite journal |last=Clapperton |first=Chalmers M. |date=1 April 1993 |title=Nature of environmental changes in South America at the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0031018293900128 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |series=Quaternary Palaeoclimates of the Southern Hemisphere |volume=101 |issue=3 |pages=189–208 |doi=10.1016/0031-0182(93)90012-8 |bibcode=1993PPP...101..189C |issn=0031-0182 |access-date=9 September 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}} In northwestern Argentina, pollen deposits record the altitudinal descent of the treeline during the LGM.{{cite journal |last1=Torres |first1=Gonzalo R. |last2=Pérez |first2=Claudio F. |last3=Lupo |first3=Liliana C. |date=15 April 2019 |title=Altitudinal patterns of wind transport and deposition of Yungas tree pollen in northwestern Argentina: Implications for interpreting the Quaternary fossil record |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S003101821830720X |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=520 |pages=66–77 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.01.013 |bibcode=2019PPP...520...66T |s2cid=135184342 |access-date=10 January 2023}}

Amazonia was much drier than in the present.{{Cite journal |last1=Reis |first1=Luiza Santos |last2=Guimarães |first2=José Tasso Felix |last3=Souza-Filho |first3=Pedro Walfir Martins |last4=Sahoo |first4=Prafulla Kumar |last5=de Figueiredo |first5=Mariana Maha Jana Costa |last6=de Souza |first6=Everaldo Barreiros |last7=Giannini |first7=Tereza Cristina |date=25 August 2017 |title=Environmental and vegetation changes in southeastern Amazonia during the late Pleistocene and Holocene |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618216312678 |journal=Quaternary International |volume=449 |pages=83–105 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2017.04.031 |bibcode=2017QuInt.449...83R |issn=1040-6182 |access-date=19 December 2023}} δD values from plant waxes from the LGM are significantly more enriched than those in the present and those dating back to MIS 3, evidencing this increased aridity.{{Cite journal |last1=Häggi |first1=Christoph |last2=Chiessi |first2=Cristiano M. |last3=Merkel |first3=Ute |last4=Mulitza |first4=Stefan |last5=Prange |first5=Matthias |last6=Schulz |first6=Michael |last7=Schefuß |first7=Enno |date=1 December 2017 |title=Response of the Amazon rainforest to late Pleistocene climate variability |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X17305095 |journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters |volume=479 |pages=50–59 |doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2017.09.013 |bibcode=2017E&PSL.479...50H |issn=0012-821X |access-date=19 December 2023}} Eastern Brazil was also affected; the site of Guanambi in Bahia was much drier than today.{{Cite journal |last1=Scherer |first1=Carolina Saldanha |last2=Pales |first2=Letícia Francielle Moreira |last3=Rosa |first3=Mariane |last4=Silva |first4=Samara de Almeida da |date=1 November 2017 |title=Chronological, taphonomical, and paleoenvironmental aspects of a Late Pleistocene mammalian fauna from Guanambi, Bahia, Brazil |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981117302043 |journal=Journal of South American Earth Sciences |volume=79 |pages=95–110 |doi=10.1016/j.jsames.2017.07.016 |bibcode=2017JSAES..79...95S |issn=0895-9811 |access-date=5 January 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

AMOC was weaker and more shallow during the LGM.{{cite journal |last1=Pöppelmeier |first1=Frerk |last2=Jeltsch-Thömmes |first2=Aurich |last3=Lippold |first3=Jörg |last4=Joos |first4=Fortunat |last5=Stocker |first5=Thomas F. |date=3 April 2023 |title=Multi-proxy constraints on Atlantic circulation dynamics since the last ice age |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=349–356 |doi=10.1038/s41561-023-01140-3 |pmid=37064010 |pmc=10089918 |bibcode=2023NatGe..16..349P }} Sea surface temperatures in the western subtropical gyre of the North Atlantic were around 5 °C colder compared to today. Intermediate depth waters of the North Atlantic were better ventilated during the LGM by Glacial North Atlantic Intermediate Water (GNAIW) relative to its present-day ventilation by upper North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). GNAIW was nutrient poor compared to present day upper NADW. Below GNAIW, southern source bottom water that was very rich in nutrients filled the deep North Atlantic.{{cite journal |last1=Keigwin |first1=Lloyd D. |date=3 November 2004 |title=Radiocarbon and stable isotope constraints on Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas ventilation in the western North Atlantic |journal=Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1029/2004PA001029 |bibcode=2004PalOc..19.4012K |doi-access=free |hdl=1912/3433 |hdl-access=free }}

Due to the presence of immense ice sheets in Europe and North America, continental weathering flux into the North Atlantic was reduced, as measured by the increased proportion of radiogenic isotopes in neodymium isotope ratios.{{cite journal |last1=Pöppelmeier |first1=Frerk |last2=Lippold |first2=Jörg |last3=Blaser |first3=Patrick |last4=Gutjahr |first4=Marcus |last5=Frank |first5=Martin |last6=Stocker |first6=Thomas F. |date=1 March 2022 |title=Neodymium isotopes as a paleo-water mass tracer: A model-data reassessment |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=279 |page=107404 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107404 |bibcode=2022QSRv..27907404P |s2cid=246589455 |doi-access=free }}

There is controversy whether upwelling off the Moroccan coast was stronger during the LGM compared to today. Though coccolith size increases in Calcidiscus leptoporus suggest stronger trade winds during the LGM caused there to be increased coastal upwelling of the northwestern coast of Africa,{{cite journal |last1=Henderiks |first1=Jorijntje |last2=Renaud |first2=Sabrina |date=2004 |title=Coccolith size increase of Calcidiscus leptoporus offshore Morocco during the Last Glacial Maximum: an expression of enhanced glacial productivity? |url=https://ina.tmsoc.org/JNR/online/26/Henderiks%20&%20Renaud%202004%20JNR%2026-1%20Calc%20lept%20[%C2%A7N2077].pdf |journal=Journal of Nannoplankton Research |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.58998/jnr2114 |access-date=13 April 2024}} planktonic foraminiferal δ¹³C records show upwelling and primary productivity were not enhanced during the LGM except in transient intervals around 23,200 and 22,300 BP.{{Cite journal |last1=Penaud |first1=A. |last2=Eynaud |first2=F. |last3=Turon |first3=J.L. |last4=Blamart |first4=D. |last5=Rossignol |first5=L. |last6=Marret |first6=F. |last7=Lopez-Martinez |first7=C. |last8=Grimalt |first8=J.O. |last9=Malaizé |first9=B. |last10=Charlier |first10=K. |date=July 2010 |title=Contrasting paleoceanographic conditions off Morocco during Heinrich events (1 and 2) and the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379110001204 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=29 |issue=15–16 |pages=1923–1939 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.04.011 |bibcode=2010QSRv...29.1923P |access-date=11 April 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

In the western South Atlantic, where Antarctic Intermediate Water forms, sinking particle flux was heightened as a result of increased dust flux during the LGM and sustained export productivity. The increased sinking particle flux removed neodymium from shallow waters, producing an isotopic ratio change.{{cite journal |last1=Pöppelmeier |first1=F. |last2=Gutjahr |first2=M. |last3=Blaser |first3=P. |last4=Oppo |first4=D. W. |last5=Jaccard |first5=S. L. |last6=Regelous |first6=M. |last7=Huang |first7=K.-F. |last8=Süfke |first8=F. |last9=Lippold |first9=J. |date=1 February 2020 |title=Water mass gradients of the mid-depth Southwest Atlantic during the past 25,000 years |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X19306557 |journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters |volume=531 |page=115963 |doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115963 |bibcode=2020E&PSL.53115963P |s2cid=210275032 |access-date=15 May 2023}}

On the Island of Hawaii, geologists have long recognized deposits formed by glaciers on Mauna Kea during recent ice ages. The latest work indicates that deposits of three glacial episodes since 150,000 to 200,000 years ago are preserved on the volcano. Glacial moraines on the volcano formed about 70,000 years ago and from about 40,000 to 13,000 years ago. If glacial deposits were formed on Mauna Loa, they have long since been buried by younger lava flows.{{cite web |title=Mauna Kea Hawai'i's Tallest Volcano |url=http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanoes/maunakea/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508140519/http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanoes/maunakea/ |archive-date=2009-05-08 |publisher=USGS}}

Low sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity (SSS) in the East China Sea during the LGM suggests the Kuroshio Current was reduced in strength relative to the present.{{Cite journal |last1=Shi |first1=X. |last2=Wu |first2=Y. |last3=Zou |first3=J. |last4=Liu |first4=Y. |last5=Ge |first5=S. |last6=Zhao |first6=M. |last7=Liu |first7=J. |last8=Zhu |first8=A. |last9=Meng |first9=X. |last10=Yao |first10=Z. |last11=Han |first11=Y. |date=18 September 2014 |title=Multiproxy reconstruction for Kuroshio responses to northern hemispheric oceanic climate and the Asian Monsoon since Marine Isotope Stage 5.1 (∼88 ka) |url=https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/10/1735/2014/ |journal=Climate of the Past |language=en |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=1735–1750 |doi=10.5194/cp-10-1735-2014 |bibcode=2014CliPa..10.1735S |issn=1814-9332 |access-date=2 October 2023 |doi-access=free }} Abyssal Pacific overturning was weaker during the LGM than in the present day, although it was temporarily stronger during some intervals of ice sheet retreat.{{cite journal |last1=Du |first1=Jianghui |last2=Haley |first2=Brian A. |last3=Mix |first3=Alan C. |last4=Walczak |first4=Maureen H. |last5=Praetorius |first5=Summer K. |date=13 August 2018 |title=Flushing of the deep Pacific Ocean and the deglacial rise of atmospheric CO2 concentrations |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0205-6?error=cookies_not_supported&code=9d162079-aec8-49e7-b8b1-e0a819250ed2 |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=11 |issue=10 |pages=749–755 |doi=10.1038/s41561-018-0205-6 |bibcode=2018NatGe..11..749D |s2cid=134294675 |access-date=8 January 2023}} The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was strong during the LGM.{{Cite journal |last1=Rein |first1=Bert |last2=Lückge |first2=Andreas |last3=Reinhardt |first3=Lutz |last4=Sirocko |first4=Frank |last5=Wolf |first5=Anja |last6=Dullo |first6=Wolf-Christian |date=December 2005 |title=El Niño variability off Peru during the last 20,000 years: EL NIÑO VARIABILITY OFF PERU, 0-20 KYR |journal=Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology |language=en |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=n/a |doi=10.1029/2004PA001099 |doi-access=free }} Evidence suggests that the Peruvian Oxygen Minimum Zone in the eastern Pacific was weaker than it is in the present day, likely as a result of increased oxygen concentrations in seawater permitted by cooler ocean water temperatures, though it was similar in spatial extent.{{cite journal |last1=Glock |first1=Nicolaas |last2=Erdem |first2=Zeynep |last3=Schönfeld |first3=Joachim |date=5 December 2022 |title=The Peruvian oxygen minimum zone was similar in extent but weaker during the Last Glacial Maximum than Late Holocene |journal=Communications Earth & Environment |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=307 |doi=10.1038/s43247-022-00635-y |bibcode=2022ComEE...3..307G |s2cid=254222480 |doi-access=free }}

The outflow of North Pacific Intermediate Water through the Tasman Sea was stronger during the LGM.{{cite journal |last1=Struve |first1=Torben |last2=Wilson |first2=David J. |last3=Hines |first3=Sophia K. V. |last4=Adkins |first4=Jess F. |last5=Van de Flierdt |first5=Tina |date=30 June 2022 |title=A deep Tasman outflow of Pacific waters during the last glacial period |journal=Nature Communications |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=3763 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-31116-7 |pmid=35773248 |pmc=9246942 |bibcode=2022NatCo..13.3763S }}

In the Great Barrier Reef along the coast of Queensland, reef development shifted seaward due to the precipitous drop in sea levels, reaching a maximum distance from the present coastline as sea levels approached their lowest levels around 20,700-20,500 years ago.{{cite journal |last1=Webster |first1=Jody M. |last2=Braga |first2=Juan Carlos |last3=Humblet |first3=Marc |last4=Potts |first4=Donald C. |last5=Iryu |first5=Yasufumi |last6=Yokoyama |first6=Yusuke |last7=Fujita |first7=Kazuhiko |last8=Bourillot |first8=Raphael |last9=Esat |first9=Tezer M. |last10=Fallon |first10=Stewart |last11=Thompson |first11=William G. |last12=Thomas |first12=Alexander L. |last13=Kan |first13=Hironobu |last14=McGregor |first14=Helen V. |last15=Hinestrosa |first15=Gustavo |last16=Obrochta |first16=Stephen P. |last17=Lougheed |first17=Bryan C. |date=28 May 2018 |title=Response of the Great Barrier Reef to sea-level and environmental changes over the past 30,000 years |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0127-3 |journal=Nature Geoscience |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=426–432 |doi=10.1038/s41561-018-0127-3 |bibcode=2018NatGe..11..426W |hdl=20.500.11820/920d9bf3-2233-464d-8890-6bce999804b7 |s2cid=134502712 |access-date=21 April 2023}} Microbial carbonate deposition in the Great Barrier Reef was enhanced due to low atmospheric CO₂ levels.{{Cite journal |last1=Braga |first1=Juan C. |last2=Puga-Bernabéu |first2=Ángel |last3=Heindel |first3=Katrin |last4=Patterson |first4=Madhavi A. |last5=Birgel |first5=Daniel |last6=Peckmann |first6=Jörn |last7=Sánchez-Almazo |first7=Isabel M. |last8=Webster |first8=Jody M. |last9=Yokoyama |first9=Yusuke |last10=Riding |first10=Robert |date=15 January 2019 |title=Microbialites in Last Glacial Maximum and deglacial reefs of the Great Barrier Reef (IODP Expedition 325, NE Australia) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018218306436 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=514 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.10.007 |bibcode=2019PPP...514....1B |issn=0031-0182 |access-date=9 September 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

The deep waters of the Indian Ocean were significantly less oxygenated during the LGM compared to the Middle Holocene.{{Cite journal |last1=Chang |first1=Liao |last2=Hoogakker |first2=Babette A. A. |last3=Heslop |first3=David |last4=Zhao |first4=Xiang |last5=Roberts |first5=Andrew P. |last6=De Deckker |first6=Patrick |last7=Xue |first7=Pengfei |last8=Pei |first8=Zhaowen |last9=Zeng |first9=Fan |last10=Huang |first10=Rong |last11=Huang |first11=Baoqi |last12=Wang |first12=Shishun |last13=Berndt |first13=Thomas A. |last14=Leng |first14=Melanie |last15=Stuut |first15=Jan-Berend W. |last16=Harrison |first16=Richard J. |date=10 August 2023 |title=Indian Ocean glacial deoxygenation and respired carbon accumulation during mid-late Quaternary ice ages |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373046261 |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=4841 |doi=10.1038/s41467-023-40452-1 |issn=2041-1723 |access-date=19 December 2023|doi-access=free |pmid=37563128 |pmc=10415292 |bibcode=2023NatCo..14.4841C }} The deep South Indian Ocean in particular was an enormous carbon sink, partially explaining the very low pCO₂ of the LGM.{{Cite journal |last1=Gottschalk |first1=Julia |last2=Michel |first2=Elisabeth |last3=Thöle |first3=Lena M. |last4=Studer |first4=Anja S. |last5=Hasenfratz |first5=Adam P. |last6=Schmid |first6=Nicole |last7=Butzin |first7=Martin |last8=Mazaud |first8=Alain |last9=Martínez-García |first9=Alfredo |last10=Szidat |first10=Sönke |last11=Jaccard |first11=Samuel L. |date=3 December 2020 |title=Glacial heterogeneity in Southern Ocean carbon storage abated by fast South Indian deglacial carbon release |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=6192 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-20034-1 |pmid=33273459 |pmc=7712879 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.6192G |issn=2041-1723 }} The intermediate waters of the southeastern Arabian Sea were poorly ventilated relative to today because of the weakened thermohaline circulation.{{Cite journal |last1=Nagoji |first1=Sidhesh |last2=Tiwari |first2=Manish |date=29 January 2021 |title=Causes and climatic influence of centennial-scale denitrification variability in the southeastern Arabian Sea since the last glacial period |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/abs/causes-and-climatic-influence-of-centennialscale-denitrification-variability-in-the-southeastern-arabian-sea-since-the-last-glacial-period/8CBBF1EFD823E1B0D26512F51D106AF0 |journal=Quaternary Research |language=en |volume=101 |pages=156–168 |doi=10.1017/qua.2020.118 |bibcode=2021QuRes.101..156N |s2cid=234090602 |issn=0033-5894 |access-date=17 September 2023}}

Evidence from sediment cores in the Scotia Sea suggests the Antarctic Circumpolar Current was weaker during the LGM than during the Holocene.{{cite journal |last1=Shin |first1=Ji Young |last2=Kim |first2=Sunghan |last3=Xiang |first3=Zhao |last4=Yoo |first4=Kyu-Cheul |last5=Yu |first5=Yongjae |last6=Lee |first6=Jae Il |last7=Lee |first7=Min Kyung |last8=Yo |first8=Il Hoon |date=1 November 2020 |title=Particle-size dependent magnetic properties of Scotia Sea sediments since the Last Glacial Maximum: Glacial ice-sheet discharge controlling magnetic proxies |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018220303515 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=557 |page=109906 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109906 |bibcode=2020PPP...55709906S |s2cid=224927165 |access-date=4 December 2022}} The Antarctic Polar Front (APF) was located much farther to the north compared to its present-day location. Studies suggest it could have been placed as far north as 43°S, reaching into the southern Indian Ocean.{{Cite journal |last1=Nair |first1=Abhilash |last2=Mohan |first2=Rahul |last3=Crosta |first3=Xavier |last4=Manoj |first4=M. C. |last5=Thamban |first5=Meloth |last6=Marieu |first6=Vincent |date=1 June 2019 |title=Southern Ocean sea ice and frontal changes during the Late Quaternary and their linkages to Asian summer monsoon |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379119300125 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=213 |pages=93–104 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.04.007 |bibcode=2019QSRv..213...93N |s2cid=155368892 |issn=0277-3791 |access-date=31 December 2023 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}

The Late Glacial Period followed the LGM and preceded the Holocene, which started around 11,700 years ago.{{cite web|url=https://earthwise.bgs.ac.uk/index.php/Late_glacial_period,_Quaternary,_Northern_England|first=P.|last=Stone|display-authors=etal|title=Late glacial period, Quaternary, Northern England|website=Earthwise|publisher=British Geological Survey}}

{{div col}}

• {{annotated link|Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction}}
• {{annotated link|Penultimate Glacial Period}}
• {{annotated link|Mousterian Pluvial}}
• {{annotated link|Holocene glacial retreat}}
• {{annotated link|Oldest Dryas}}
• {{annotated link|Older Dryas}}
• {{annotated link|Bølling–Allerød warming}}
• Bølling oscillation
• Allerød oscillation
• {{annotated link|Younger Dryas}}
• {{annotated link|African humid period}}
• {{annotated link|8.2-kiloyear event}}
• {{annotated link|5.9 kiloyear event}}
• {{annotated link|4.2-kiloyear event}}
• {{annotated link|Older Peron}}
• {{annotated link|Piora Oscillation}}
• {{annotated link|Little Ice Age}}
• {{annotated link|Sea level rise}}
• {{annotated link|Black Sea deluge hypothesis}}
• {{annotated link|Timeline of glaciation}}

{{Div col end}}

{{reflist|2}}

• Developments in Quaternary Science Series
• {{cite book |first1=Alan R. |last1=Gillespie |first2=Stephen C. |last2=Porter |first3=Brian F. |last3=Atwater |title=The Quaternary Period in the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ys2keOYC5AoC |year=2003 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-444-51471-4 }}
• {{cite book |first1=Jürgen |last1=Ehlers |first2=Philip L. |last2=Gibbard |title=Quaternary Glaciations Extent and Chronology. 1. Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rKsL8CFcdAoC |year=2004 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-444-51462-2 }}
• {{cite book |first1=Jürgen |last1=Ehlers |first2=Philip L. |last2=Gibbard |title=Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology. 2. North America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0wnQqpIF-QC |year=2004 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-444-51592-6 }}
• {{cite book |first1=Jürgen |last1=Ehlers |first2=Philip L. |last2=Gibbard |title=Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology. 3. South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2xpIEPH7RW4C |year=2004 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-444-51593-3 }}
• {{cite journal |editor1=Šibrava, V. |editor2=Bowen, D.Q |editor3=Richmond, G.M. |title=Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=5 |pages=1–514 |year=1986 |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02773791/5|bibcode = 1986QSRv....5....1S |doi = 10.1016/0277-3791(86)90167-8 | last1 = Šibrava | first1 = Vladimír}}

• {{cite web |author=Adams, J.M. |title=Global land environments since the last interglacial |date=1997 |work=Atlas of Palaeovegetation: Preliminary land ecosystem maps of the world since the Last Glacial Maximum |publisher=Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN |url=http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080116122058/http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html |archive-date=2008-01-16 }}
• {{cite web |title=Map and GIS database of glacial landforms and features related to the last British Ice Sheet |date=2004 |work=BRITICE |publisher=Department of Geology, University of Sheffield |url=http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/staff/clark_chris/britice.html}}
• {{cite web |last1=Dyke |first1=A.S. |first2=A. |last2=Moore |first3=L. |last3=Robertson |title=Deglaciation of North America |date=2003 |work=Geological Survey of Canada Open File, 1574 |url=http://geopub.nrcan.gc.ca/moreinfo_e.php?id=214399}} (32 digital maps at 1:7 000 000 scale with accompanying digital chronological database and one poster (two sheets) with full map series.)
• {{cite web |last1=Manley |first1=W. |first2=D. |last2=Kuaffman |title=Alaska PaleoGlacier Atlas: A Geospatial Compilation of Pleistocene Glacier Extents |work=INSTAAR |publisher=University of Colorado |url=http://instaar.colorado.edu/QGISL/ak_paleoglacier_atlas/index.html}}
• Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) [http://pmip.lsce.ipsl.fr/ PMIP Web Site] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928001921/http://pmip.lsce.ipsl.fr/publications/pub21k.shtml 'Publications : Last Glacial Maximum.]
• Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project Phase II (PMIP2) [http://pmip2.lsce.ipsl.fr/ PMIP2 Home page] and [http://pmip2.lsce.ipsl.fr/ PMIP 2 Publications.]
• {{cite web |first1=Eduard Y. |last1=Osipov |first2=Oleg M. |last2=Khlystov |title=Glaciers and meltwater flux to Lake Baikal during the Last Glacial Maximum |url=http://ice.tsu.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=43&Itemid=88&limitstart=5}}

{{Continental Glaciations}}

{{Ice Ages}}

Category:Ice ages

Category:Glaciology