Opening of the Ice-Free Corridor
c. 14000 BCE · Prehistoric
As global temperatures rose at the end of the Pleistocene, the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets began separating along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains in present-day western Canada. Cosmogenic exposure dating of 64 samples along a 1,200-kilometer transect places the full opening of this corridor at approximately 13,800 years ago. The passage stretched from present-day Yukon to Montana, but evidence of steppe vegetation and megafauna suitable to support human travel did not appear until approximately 12,600 years ago.
Locations
Ice-Free Corridor
Topics
human migrationdeglaciationLaurentide Ice SheetCordilleran Ice SheetPleistocenepaleoecology
Connected Events — 3 Connections
Post-glacial warming that opened northern sea routes made Norse Atlantic navigation feasible by reducing ice barriers Leif Erikson Explores North America
The corridor's biological viability by approximately 12,600 years ago coincides with the emergence and spread of Clovis culture across North America Clovis Culture
The corridor opened as Beringia migrants were already present in the Americas, providing an additional interior route southward Earliest Migration Across Beringia
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