Vashon Glaciation

Vashon Glaciation
19,000 – 16,000 BP
An artist's depiction of a landscape adjacent to the ice sheet during the glaciation.
Vashon occurred at...
Continent:	North America
Present-day country:	United States of America
Present-day state:	Washington
Region:	Western Washington
Geologic Formation:	Crescent Terrane (see Siletzia)
Vashon Glaciation occurred within the...
Phanerozoic Eon	541,000,000 BP – Present
Cenozoic Era	66,000,000 BP – Present
Quaternary Period	2,580,000 - Present
Pleistocene Epoch	2,580,000 - 11,700 BP
Late Pleistocene	129,000 – 11,700 BP
Vashon Glaciation was a part of the...
Late Cenozoic Ice Age	33,900,000 BP to present
Quaternary glaciation	2,580,000 BP to present
Last glacial period	110,000 – 12,000 BP
Wisconsin glaciation	85,000 – 11,000 BP
Fraser glaciation	20,000 – 10,000 BP
Vashon glaciation	19,000 – 16,000 BP

The Vashon Glaciation, Vashon Stadial or Vashon Stade is a local term for the most recent period of very cold climate in which during its peak, glaciers covered the entire Salish Sea as well as present day Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and other surrounding areas in the western part of present-day Washington (state) of the United States of America.^[1] This occurred during a cold period around the world known as the last glacial period. This was the most recent cold period of the Quaternary glaciation, the time period in which the arctic ice sheets have existed. The Quaternary Glaciation is part of the Late Cenozoic Ice Age, which began 33.9 million years ago and is ongoing. It is the time period in which the Antarctic ice cap has existed.

The Vashon Glaciation lasted from about 19,000 – 16,000 BP (Before Present – present defined as January 1, 1950 for this scale). The Cordilleran Ice Sheet was an ice sheet that covered present-day southern Alaska and parts of western Canada. The Fraser Glaciation began when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced out of the mountains of British Columbia^[2] following the Fraser River and Fraser Valley. The Vashon Glaciation is an extension of the Fraser Glaciation in which the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced south of the present day Canada–United States border into the Puget Sound region. By following the Fraser Valley, the ice reached the Puget Sound Region using the same pathway that cold arctic air takes during a present-day winter cold snap.

The Cordilleran, Laurentide, Innuitian, and the currently existing Greenland Ice Sheet all made up the North American ice sheet complex, which covered present day Canada and much of the northern U.S. This cold glaciated time for North America was called the Wisconsin glaciation.