Glacier experts from the University of Northern British Columbia and The University of Manchester have discovered that the western margin of the Cordilleran ice sheet, that once covered western North America, including all of present-day British Columbia, retreated earlier than previously thought.
The early melting of the western ice margin exposed numerous islands that could have been used by early people migrating southwards. These findings, entitled Retreat of the western Cordilleran Ice Sheet margin during the last deglaciatio, were recently published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters.
Dr. Christopher Darvill from the University of Manchester’s Department of Geography and a former UNBC post-doctoral fellow is the lead author on the paper. Another of the paper’s co-authors is UNBC Geography Professor Dr. Brian Menounos, a Canada Research Chair in Glacial Change. The research team also included scientists from Tulane University, the University of the Fraser Valley and Purdue University.
Continue reading at University of Northern British Columbia.
Image via University of Northern British Columbia.