Southward Displacement of the Distribution of Glaciation During the Three Maxima of the Last Ice Age

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Mörner, Nils-Axel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1977
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Fennoscandian; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000021377; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000021377

Abstract The Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets had three major glaciation maxima during the Last Ice Age. All data from the southern margins of the ice sheets indicate that these maxima, as well as minor fluctuations, were synchronous. The same synchroneity is supposed to apply also for correlations between fluctuations on the north and south margins, which reveal a continuously southward displacement of the distribution of glaciation during the Last Ice Age. This southward displacement explains the saw-tooth pattern of 18 O records from deep-sea cores in which the first glaciation maximum is under-represented due to its distribution more towards the north. The synchroneity is consistent with a global climatic control of the stadial/interstadial changes and with the recorded global eustatic changes. The southward displacement of glaciation seems to be a general rule also applicable to earlier Pleistocene glaciations.