Possible Causes of the Variability of Postglacial Uplift in North America

Abstract

Postglacial uplift data from 33 sites in northeastern North America reveal that during the period from 11,000 years B.P. to 7000 years B.P., glacio-isostatic uplift rates varied in a consistent manner with distance from the former margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The consistent trends of these uplift rate variations with distance from the former ice sheet margin suggest that they were not the result of changes in the rate of ice sheet retreat or local tectonic activity. They instead may have resulted from rebound affected significantly by the earth's viscosity at a depth approximately equal to the wavelength of isostatic deformation [McConnell, R.K., Jr., Journal of Geophysical Research70, 5171 (1965)]. Extremely high viscosities below 600 km, however, probably provide the lower limit for this relationship.