Editing Laurentide ice sheet (section)

{{short description|Continental glacier in North America during the last ice age}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox glacier
| child = 
| name = Laurentide ice sheet
| other_name = 
| photo =Laurentide ice sheet map.jpg
| photo_width =
| photo_alt =
| photo_caption =The maximum extent of North American ice sheets during the [[Last Glacial Maximum]]
| map = <!-- or | map_image = -->
| map_width =
| map_alt =
| map_caption =
| type = Continental
| location = [[North America]]
| coordinates =
| coords_ref =
| area = 
| length =
| width =
| thickness =
| elevation_max = {{ubl|Foxe-Baffin Dome: {{convert|2200|to|2400|m|ft}} above sea level|Keewatin Dome:  {{convert|3200|m|ft}} above sea level<ref name=Lacelle2018>Lacelle, D.; Fisher, D. A.; Coulombe, S.; et al. (5 September 2018). "Buried remnants of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and connections to its surface elevation". ''Scientific Reports'' 8, 13286 (2018). {{doi|10.1038/s41598-018-31166-2}}.</ref>}}
| elevation_min = Sea level
| terminus = {{ubl|North – [[Arctic Ocean]]|East – [[Baffin Bay]]|South – 40 degrees north latitude|West – [[Rocky Mountains]]}}
| status =  Remnants: [[Barnes Ice Cap]], [[Penny Ice Cap]]<ref name=Lacelle2018/>
| embedded = 
}}

The '''Laurentide ice sheet''' (LIS) was a massive [[ice sheet|sheet of ice]] that covered millions of square miles, including most of [[Canada]] and a large portion of the [[Northern United States]], multiple times during the [[Quaternary glaciation]] epochs, from 2.58 million years ago to the present.<ref name="ICS StratChart 2022-02">{{cite web |title=Stratigraphic Chart 2022 |url=https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2022-02.pdf |publisher=International Stratigraphic Commission | date=February 2022  |access-date=4 June 2022}}</ref>

The last advance covered most of northern North America between c. 95,000 and c. 20,000 years before the present day and, among other geomorphological effects, gouged out the five [[Great Lakes]] and the hosts of smaller lakes of the [[Canadian Shield]]. These lakes extend from the eastern [[Northwest Territories]], through most of northern Canada, and the upper [[Midwestern United States]] ([[Minnesota]], [[Wisconsin]], and [[Michigan]]) to the [[Finger Lakes]], through [[Lake Champlain]] and [[Lake George (lake), New York|Lake George]] areas of [[New York (state)|New York]], across the northern [[Appalachians]] into and through all of [[New England]] and [[Nova Scotia]].

At times, the ice sheet's southern margin included the present-day sites of coastal towns of the [[Northeastern United States]], and cities such as [[Boston]] and [[New York City]] and Great Lakes coastal cities and towns as far south as [[Chicago]] and [[St. Louis, Missouri]], and then followed the present course of the [[Missouri River]] up to the northern slopes of the [[Cypress Hills (Canada)|Cypress Hills]], beyond which it merged with the [[Cordilleran Ice Sheet]]. The ice coverage extended approximately as far south as 38 degrees latitude mid-continent.<ref name="dyke_prest">{{cite journal |last1=Dyke |first1=A. S. |last2=Prest |first2=V. K. |year=1987|title=Late Wisconsinan and Holocene History of the Laurentide Ice Sheet|journal=Géographie Physique et Quaternaire |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=237–263 |doi=10.7202/032681ar |doi-access=}}</ref>