Summary of climate variations - Ice Ages and Interglacials: Measurements, Interpretation, and Models - page 206

Figure 7.2. Extent and movement of great ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum
(Burroughs, 2005).

fluctuations. We have been in the Holocene interglacial period for about the past
10,000 years. Figures 4.2 to 4.6 display higher resolution data for more recent time
periods. As Figure 4.5 shows, a warming trend in Greenland actually began slowly
about 20 kybp when glaciation was at a maximum, went through a significant
''bump'' around 16 kybp , and then rapidly accelerated to Holocene conditions
around 10-11 kybp .
An interesting aspect of the growth of northern ice sheets is the fact that the
epicenters for growth of ice sheets appear to have been at latitudes of 60 to 65 N,
high enough to be cold but low enough to have access to airborne moisture (see
Figures 2.9 and 7.2 ).
Note that Wright (1896) discovered that ''the glacial phenomena of Labrador
all indicate that it has been a center from which the ice has moved outward in all
directions.''
The last termination Broecker (2002) described the termination of the most
recent ice age in considerable detail. This section is based on his description:

. 18,000 years ago, peak glacial conditions prevailed—both mountain glaciers

and continental ice sheets stood at or close to their maximum extent. The
oxygen isotope ratios and dust content of polar ice still had their full glacial