A groundbreaking 1976 study by Andrews & Peltier revealed the Laurentide ice sheet — roughly the size of Antarctica — collapsed catastrophically. Its central dome reached 2,800 meters thick before melting between 12,000-10,000 years ago, cutting a 200-meter deep seaway through Hudson Bay. The ice weight removal triggered glacio-isostatic rebound, with two residual centers remaining over Keewatin and Labrador. 🏔️❄️
1976 Study Reveals Catastrophic Laurentide Ice Sheet Collapse at Hudson Bay
Site mentioned
📍 Hudson Bay
Key facts
- 1976 paper by J.T. Andrews (University of Colorado) and W.R. Peltier (University of Toronto) on Hudson Bay Ice Center collapse
- Collapse of central dome of Laurentide ice sheet between 12,000-10,000 years before present
- Ice sheet thickness reached approximately 2,800 meters (1.75 miles) at center
- Glacio-isostatic rebound occurred as ice weight was removed
- Laurentide ice sheet was roughly the size of the Antarctic ice sheet
- Rapid cutting of 200-meter deep seaway through Hudson Bay during deglaciation
- Two residual ice centers remained over Keewatin and Labrador after dome collapse
- Paper has been cited 54 times, including citations as recent as 2021
Sources
(PDF) Global glacial isostasy and the surface of the ice-age Earthresearchgate.net
The map illustrates the spatial extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) covering much of North America, the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS), and the Fennoscandian ...
Deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Last Glacial ...publicaciones.unirioja.es
Andrews, J.T. Mahaffy, M.A. 1976. Growth rates of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and sea level lowering (with emphasis on the 115,000 B.P. sea level ...
[PDF] W.R. Peltier, Ice Age Paleotopography, Science, 265, 195-201, 1994atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca
Using the topographically self-consistent version of the theory of postglacial relative sea level change, I translate the new ice sheet.
Collapse of the Hudson Bay ice center and glacio-isostatic reboundui.adsabs.harvard.edu
... Laurentide Ice Sheet between 12000 and 10000 B.P. Hudson Bay was then filled by a shallow ice shelf with ice streaming into the bay from ice centers located ...
glacial inception and - Annual Reviewsannualreviews.org
Glacial isostatic studies have led to some intriguing data on the postulated. Barents Ice Sheet and the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Peltier & Andrews (1976) ...
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