Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Late Glacial and Holocene of Patagonia

RABASSA, JORGE; CORONATO, ANDREA; MARTÍNEZ, OSCAR; REATO, AGUSTINA

Archaeology of Piedra Museo locality. An Open Window to the Early Population of Patagonia

Springer

Lugar: Cham; Año: 2022; p. 59 - 84

The Patagonian glaciations developed since the latestMiocene (ca. 6Ma) in multiple events, of varied duration and intensity. Most of the present glacial landscape is the outcome of the glacial modelling during the Pleistocene, since the Great Patagonian Glaciation (GPG; ca. 1 Ma). The Patagonian Andes were covered by a continuous mountain ice sheet, from 37º S to Cape Horn (56º S) in at least five major glaciations for more than 15 cold events in the last million years. The present drainage network was developed after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ca. 24 cal.ka BP), particularly those cases with drainage reversal, when the glaciers began to melt due to global climatic changes. The environmental impact of Pleistocene glaciations extended all over Patagonia. The knowledge about the Last Glaciation, the Late Glacial and Holocene glaciations is very important because the human settling of the Patagonian landscape as we know it took place during this period. Moreover, the human colonization of Patagonia took place sometime after the Last Glacial Maximum and during the Late Glacial (ca. 18,000 to 10,000 years ago) and it wascompleted along the entire Early Holocene.