Late Holocene reexpansion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet

During interglaciations, the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), which is the largest of the Pleistocene ice sheets, retreats to Arctic Canada, where it achieves a minimum configuration.

By Young, Miller, Raynolds +8ScienceOct 22, 2026

Score████░░░░░░4.3

VerdictWorth a reader's time today.

Read the original

Abstract

During interglaciations, the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), which is the largest of the Pleistocene ice sheets, retreats to Arctic Canada, where it achieves a minimum configuration. The reexpansion of the LIS following this minimum marks the start of the next glaciation. Here, we show that the last remaining remnant of the most recent LIS, Barnes Ice Cap (Baffin Island, Canada), achieved its minimum interglacial dimensions after ~3.6 thousand years ago, before reexpanding ~2000 years ago, marking the onset of the next glaciation. The new LIS reached maximum dimensions in ~1960 CE, after which anthropogenic summer warming resulted in a negative mass balance, ice margin recession, and the termination of the next glaciation. The demise of the next glaciation, despite the ongoing decline in summer insolation, illustrates the influence of anomalous greenhouse gas forcing on climate.

Nicolás E. Young, Gifford Hubbs Miller, Martha K. Raynolds, Helga Bültmann, Scott J. Lehman, Jonathan H. Raberg, Kylie Seward, Simon L. Pendleton, John T. Andrews, Patrick J. Webber, Joerg M. Schaefer

The editor's rubric

Heuristic review

Leverage3 / 5: A method or resource many groups across the field will adopt within a year.; 16% of this desk’s rubric
Magnitude3 / 5: Large gain: roughly 2x, or a clear new state of the art on a hard, unsaturated problem.; 20% of this desk’s rubric
Evidence3 / 5: Solid: multiple benchmarks or cohorts, ablations, fair baselines, released code or data.; 20% of this desk’s rubric
Novelty3 / 5: A genuinely new approach to an open problem.; 10% of this desk’s rubric
Trajectory2 / 5: Some room to improve with obvious engineering.; 14% of this desk’s rubric
Stakes2 / 5: Benefits a professional community (practitioners, clinicians, engineers).; 20% of this desk’s rubric

Dimension	Level	Weight	What that level means
Leverage	███░░ 3	16%	A method or resource many groups across the field will adopt within a year.
Magnitude	███░░ 3	20%	Large gain: roughly 2x, or a clear new state of the art on a hard, unsaturated problem.
Evidence	███░░ 3	20%	Solid: multiple benchmarks or cohorts, ablations, fair baselines, released code or data.
Novelty	███░░ 3	10%	A genuinely new approach to an open problem.
Trajectory	██░░░ 2	14%	Some room to improve with obvious engineering.
Stakes	██░░░ 2	20%	Benefits a professional community (practitioners, clinicians, engineers).

Editor’s rationale

Heuristic triage from title and abstract text only, not a reading of the paper. Cues found: method (we report); novelty (open problem); stakes (climate).

How the score was computed

rank-2026-10-18

Score████░░░░░░4.3

Score = 10 × (75% × adjusted merit / 10 + 15% × attention + 10% × freshness)

Desks place stronger verdicts first, then use this score to order work within the same verdict.

Merit: 5.3 / 10; Weighted rubric, evidence-gated.
Adjusted merit: 4.5 / 10; Shrunk toward the desk prior by editor confidence (36%).
Attention: 5%; Citations, upvotes, points, mentions.
Freshness: 85%; Half-life decay since publication.

Citations1 (reference 15, via openalex, Oct 24, 2026, 06:45 UTC)

The record

Reviewed by heuristic-v7 on Oct 24, 2026, 06:45 UTC. Paper type: method.
Categories: Geology and Paleoclimatology Research, Cryospheric studies and observations, Climate variability and models, Atmospheric Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences
TOP, No.6 in the Climate & Energy edition of October 24, 2026.