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The Last Glacial Maximum occurred 20,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Period, causing massive glaciers to cover much of Canada, the US, South America, Europe, and Russia. Sea levels were lower, revealing now-underwater land. Human habitation was mainly in Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Indonesia, and Australia, with a refuge area in Beringia that allowed migration to the Americas.
The Last Glacial Maximum was the time period about 20,000 years ago when the Last Glacial Period was at its greatest extent and temperatures on the planet were lowest. Although the last glacial period lasted from 110,000 to 15,000 to 10,000 years ago, it was most intense just before the end. During the Last Glacial Maximum, massive glaciers covered most of present-day Canada and the northern United States (Laurentide Ice Sheet), large parts of southern South America (Patagonian Ice Sheet), and large swathes of northern Europe and northern Russia -western. The British Isles were almost completely under ice. Instead of the Baltic Sea, the area between Sweden and Norway would have been filled with gigantic glaciers, some up to two miles thick.
Because so much water was locked up in glaciers during the Last Glacial Maximum, world sea levels were lower by a factor of about 100 m (328 ft). This temporarily revealed large areas of land that are underwater today, such as Beringia (a large region between Russia and Alaska), Doggerland (much of the present-day North Sea), Sundaland (most of the islands of ‘Indonesia were connected) and Sahulland (Australia connected to New Guinea). The Black Sea was much shallower and the Persian Gulf was dry. Both of these basins were later filled abruptly in flood events which may have been catastrophic and may have inspired Biblical and other flood myths.
Most of the archaeological evidence of human habitation from the Last Glacial Maximum is found in Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, Indonesia and Australia. Northern Europe and Asia were largely uninhabited due to the cold, except for an ice-free refuge area called Beringia, located around the present-day Bering Strait on large amounts of low-lying land that is currently submerged . People who lived in Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum would eventually take advantage of low sea levels to migrate to the Americas. This is believed to have occurred between around 22,000 and 12,000 BC – details are yet to be set. It is known that the coasts of Alaska and western Canada would have become ice-free around 14,000 BC, which would have made southern coastal migration much more feasible.
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