M. Margold: Deglaciation of western Canada at the end of the last ice age in relation to the global sea level rise and the peopling of the Americas

The landscapes of Western Canada were fully submerged in ice at the peak of the last ice age. The Cordilleran ice sheet coalesced with the western portion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet through a high-elevation ice saddle between their accumulation areas. A collapse of this saddle has recently been hypothesised as a major source of the Meltwater Pulse 1A, a period of the most rapid sea level rise during the last deglaciation. The separation of the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets formed an ice free corridor, which has long featured as a route through which the first humans settled the regions south of the ice sheets. These are the major issues of the last deglaciation in western North America and the talk will provide their review and an insight into the ongoing debates.