Ice sheets

The growth of ice sheets is a signature of glacial periods, which occur during ice ages. There have been many different ice sheets over Earth's history. At the maximum of the Last Glacial Period, the historic Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets merged with the Greenland Ice Sheet to cover much of North America. In the same period, the Weichselian Ice Sheet covered Northern Europe and the Patagonian Ice Sheet covered southern South America. The retreat and disappearance of these ice sheets marked the beginning of the current Holoceneinterglacial period, and the ongoing retreat and future fate of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets plays a major role in climate change and sea level rise.