Last Glacial Period

The most recent interval of widespread glaciation, lasting roughly 115,000 to 11,700 years ago. It ended with the transition to the current interglacial, the Holocene.

Milankovitch cycles: Long-term variations in Earth’s orbit and axial orientation that alter the distribution of incoming sunlight. Orbital changes paced the glacial–interglacial cycles within this period.
Last Glacial Maximum: The interval when global ice sheets reached their greatest extent during the last glacial cycle, about 26,000 to 19,000 years ago. It marks the peak ice extent within the Last Glacial Period.
Pleistocene: The geological epoch from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, marked by repeated glacial and interglacial cycles. The Last Glacial Period was the final major glaciation of this epoch.
Deglaciation: The retreat and melting of glaciers and ice sheets as climate warms. Deglaciation ended the period and reshaped continents and drainage systems.
Younger Dryas cause: The unresolved question of what triggered the abrupt cooling known as the Younger Dryas. Its onset remains a major puzzle in the period’s climate history.
Ice-albedo feedback: A climate feedback in which expanding reflective ice cools Earth, while melting ice exposes darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight. This feedback amplified cooling as ice sheets expanded and warming as they retreated.
Dansgaard–Oeschger event: A rapid warming followed by gradual cooling, recorded repeatedly in Greenland ice during the last glacial period. These events reveal abrupt climate variability within the broader glaciation.
Quaternary glaciation: The ongoing era of repeated ice ages and warmer intervals that began about 2.58 million years ago. The period was one cycle within this broader pattern of glaciation.
Sea-level rise: An increase in the average level of the oceans relative to land. Melting land ice raised sea level substantially after the glacial maximum.
Atlantic meridional overturning circulation: A system of Atlantic Ocean currents that transports heat northward and returns cold, deep water southward. Its changing strength is a leading explanation for some abrupt North Atlantic climate shifts.

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