The
Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the
Wisconsinan glaciation, was the most recent
major advance of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the
Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern
North American Cordillera; the Innuitian ice sheet, which extended across the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago; the
Greenland ice sheet; and the massive
Laurentide ice sheet, which covered the high latitudes of central and eastern North America. This advance was synchronous with global glaciation during the
last glacial period, including the North American alpine glacier advance, known as the
Pinedale glaciation. The Wisconsin glaciation extended from approximately 85,000 to 11,000 years ago, between the
Sangamon interglacial (known globally as the
Eemian stage) and the current interglacial, the
Holocene. The maximum ice extent occurred approximately 25,000–21,000 years ago during the
last glacial maximum, also known as the
Late Wisconsin in North America.