Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)

The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is the most recent peak of global ice volume, about 26,500 to 19,000 years ago, when the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets reached their greatest extent. Global sea level then stood roughly 120 to 134 m below present because that water was locked in land ice. The LGM anchors paleo sea-level curves and the GIA models that compute ongoing isostatic rebound, since the post-LGM deglaciation set the crustal-recovery clock still running today. It is the reference low stand against which Holocene and Common Era reconstructions, and modern rise rates, are judged.