CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Andrews, J.T.
Date : 1987
Title : The late Wisconsin glaciation and deglaciation of the Laurentide ice sheet.
Publication : North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation. Edited by: W.F. Rudiman and W.E. Wright. Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America
Issue : K-3:
Page(s) : 13-37
Abstract
During the Late Wisconsin Glaciation, the Laurentide ice sheet covered an area nearly equivalent to the present Antarctic sheet. It existed across major climatic gradients and was an important climate modifier. The deglaciation history of this massive ice mass is examined through four topics that constrain its area-volume relationship and indicate boundaries against which glaciologic, climatologic, and oceanographic reconstructions of the late-glacial world must be tested and verified: 1) evidence of glacial extent during the middle Wisconsin interstade; 2) data on the timing of the last glacial maximum and the extent of this glaciation; and 4) chronology, rates, and mechanisms of deglaciation. Glacial-geological evidence for ice-sheet extent and thickness, symmetry, chronology, and rate of deglaciation are discussed, including the timing of deglaciation between the southern and northern margins of the ice sheet. The causes of deglaciation are divided into possible global influences and regional controls. At the global level, the coincidence between summer insolation at high northern latitudes and the glacial-interglacial climatic changes is established. The relationship between ice melting and regional relative sea-level changes is complicated by the glacial isostatic response that operates on a longer time scale and at a faster rate than eustatic sea-level changes.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology