Sliding beneath the Laurentide Ice Sheet, North America, at the last glacial maximum (from available data in 2018).

Modern observations probe glacial behavior under contemporary environmental forcing whereas conditions during the peak of the most recent Pleistocene glacial period may have been quite different. Aspects of past glacial behavior can be deduced from evidence preserved in the sediments and landforms that were overridden, deformed, and sculpted by former ice sheets. The files included here, generated in ArcGIS, include polygons and associated ArcMap data files summarizing those areas of strong, weak, and no evidence of sliding during the most recent ice age. These were used to produce supplementary figures 1 and 2 in a publication in Nature Communications by Meyer, Downey and Rempel (2018) "Freeze-on limits bed strength beneath sliding glaciers" (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05716-1).

现代观测旨在探究当代环境强迫下的冰川活动规律，而更新世（Pleistocene）末次冰期鼎盛阶段的环境条件则可能与之大相径庭。过往冰川活动的诸多特征，可通过被古冰盖覆盖、改造与塑造的沉积物及地貌中留存的相关证据进行反推。本次提供的数据集由ArcGIS生成，包含多边形要素与配套的ArcMap数据文件，汇总了末次冰期内冰川滑动证据强度分别为强、弱及无证据的区域。该数据集被用于Meyer、Downey与Rempel（2018年）发表于《自然-通讯（Nature Communications）》的论文"Freeze-on limits bed strength beneath sliding glaciers"（DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05716-1）中的补充图1与补充图2。