Cosmogenic nuclide measurements from North Atlantic sediment cores used to assess Laurentide Ice Sheet persistence during Pleistocene interglacials, 2023

While there are no ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere outside of Greenland today, it is uncertain whether this was also the case during most other Quaternary interglacials. Here, we show, using in situ cosmogenic nuclides in ice-rafted debris, that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was likely more persistent during Quaternary interglacials than often thought. Low 26Al/10Be ratios (indicative of burial of the source area) in marine core sediment suggest sediment source areas experienced only brief on the order of thousands of years (kyr) and/or infrequent ice-free interglacials over the last million years. These results imply that complete Laurentide deglaciation may have only occurred when climate forcings reached levels comparable to those of the early Holocene, making our current interglacial unusual relative to others of the mid-to-late Pleistocene.