Holocene glacial retreat

The Holocene, starting with abrupt warming 11,700 years ago, resulted in rapid melting of the remaining ice sheets of North America and Europe.

[4] For the last 12,000 years exposed rockwalls have been eroding due to a mixture of biogenic flaking, frost shattering, and stress relaxation that results when glaciers retreat.

[3] The Nuup Kangerlua and Sermilik regions, in southwestern and southeastern Greenland respectively, are two localities that experienced deglaciation after the Holocene warming period started.

[6] Moraines located in the interior of the Nuup Kangerlua area have been dated 8.1 to 8.3 thousand years ago; they mark a local cooling that caused glaciers to re-advance and leave them behind.

One prehistoric shoreline is delineated by Bluff Avenue, a north-south street on the La Grange, Illinois east side.

Current river delta positioning and sediment composition in northern Michigan were created by a glacial lake.

[8] In the Southern Patagonian Icefield located in Argentina and Chile, some glaciers have actually been advancing to their peak extents as recently as the 19th century as evidenced by moraines.

[9] Another remnant of glacial activity in the southern Patagonian icefield is the creation of meltwater channels within the El Canal spillway found near the Lago del Toro in Chile.

Fragments of Larsen B ice shelf lingered until 2005.
Modern glacial activity. Antarctica is not pictured.
Changes in sea level during the Holocene.
Eight records of local temperature variability on multi-centennial scales throughout the course of the Holocene, and an average of these (thick dark line).