# Canonical recap data for End of the Last Glacial Period (9700)
# Source: https://recap.at/9700/holocene-epoch
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: holocene-epoch
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/9700/holocene-epoch"
title: End of the Last Glacial Period
aliases:
- Younger Dryas termination
- Pleistocene-Holocene boundary
- End of the Ice Age
- 10,000 BC climate shift
subtitle: The abrupt climatic shift and sea-level rise transformed human settlement patterns, triggering mass migration and the conditions that enabled permanent agriculture.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 9700-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 9700
decade: 9700
summaryShort: End plate potentials (EPPs) are the voltages which cause depolarization of skeletal muscle fibers caused by neurotransmitters binding to the postsynaptic membrane in the neuromuscular junction. They are called "end plates" because the postsynaptic terminals of muscle fibers have a large, saucer-like appearance. When an
summaryLong: End plate potentials (EPPs) are the voltages which cause depolarization of skeletal muscle fibers caused by neurotransmitters binding to the postsynaptic membrane in the neuromuscular junction. They are called "end plates" because the postsynaptic terminals of muscle fibers have a large, saucer-like appearance. When an action potential reaches the axon terminal of a motor neuron, vesicles carrying neurotransmitters are exocytosed and the contents are released into the neuromuscular junction. These neurotransmitters bind to receptors on the postsynaptic membrane and lead to its depolarization. In the absence of an action potential, acetylcholine vesicles spontaneously leak into the neuromuscular junction and cause very small depolarizations in the postsynaptic membrane. This small response (~0.4mV) is called a miniature end plate potential (MEPP) and is generated by one acetylcholine-containing vesicle. It represents the smallest possible depolarization which can be induced in a muscle.
lede: Around 9700 BCE, Earth's climate shifted decisively away from the frozen conditions that had dominated the previous 100,000 years. The retreat of massive ice sheets across the Northern Hemisphere triggered cascading changes in sea levels, vegetation patterns, and animal populations—the environmental reset that made human agriculture possible.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Sample_EPP_and_mEPPs.jpg/1280px-Sample_EPP_and_mEPPs.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "End-plate potential"
importance: 87
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Temperature increase
  value: 4-7°C over roughly 50 years during the Younger Dryas termination
- label: Duration of previous glacial period
  value: ~100,000 years (Last Glacial Maximum to terminal warming)
- label: Sea level rise
  value: Approximately 60 meters during the full deglaciation phase
- label: Ice sheet extent reduction
  value: Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated from present-day Ohio/Indiana to northern Canada
- label: Carbon dioxide increase
  value: From ~190 ppm to ~260 ppm during the transition
- label: Agricultural domestication begins
  value: First evidence of intentional plant cultivation in Fertile Crescent within centuries of climate stabilization
timeline:
- date: "-11700-01-01"
  title: Younger Dryas cold period begins
  description: A 1,200-year cooling phase temporarily reverses warming trends, likely triggered by disrupted Atlantic circulation after meltwater from the Laurentide Ice Sheet enters the ocean.
- date: "-10000-01-01"
  title: Younger Dryas termination accelerates
  description: Temperatures rise sharply over 40-50 years as atmospheric CO₂ increases and orbital forcing strengthens solar insolation in Northern Hemisphere summer.
- date: "-9700-01-01"
  title: Last Glacial Period formally ends
  description: Holocene epoch begins with stable warm conditions established. Ice sheets continue retreating but climate oscillations diminish significantly.
- date: "-9500-01-01"
  title: Megafauna extinctions accelerate
  description: Large animals including woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and saber-toothed cats disappear across multiple continents as habitat changes and human hunting pressure combine.
- date: "-9400-01-01"
  title: Fertile Crescent vegetation shifts
  description: Wild cereal grains expand across the Levant as moisture patterns stabilize, creating conditions that enable early human experimentation with seed collection and storage.
- date: "-9000-01-01"
  title: Earliest evidence of plant domestication
  description: Archaeological sites in the Fertile Crescent (Jericho, Abu Hureyra) show systematic cultivation of wheat, barley, and legumes—the foundation of Neolithic societies.
- date: "-8500-01-01"
  title: Sea levels stabilize
  description: Rapid post-glacial sea level rise slows as ice sheets reach equilibrium, allowing coastal human populations to establish more permanent settlements.
- date: "-8000-01-01"
  title: Animal domestication begins
  description: Evidence emerges of intentional sheep and goat herding in the Fertile Crescent, complementing established plant agriculture.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-plate_potential"
  title: End-plate potential
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The warming that ended the last glacial period fundamentally reorganized Earth's habitable zones and catalyzed the Neolithic transition. Within centuries, human societies shifted from hunting-gathering to settled agriculture across multiple continents—a structural change to civilization itself that stemmed directly from climate conditions becoming stable enough to support cultivated crops.
categories:
- disaster
taxonomy:
domain: environmental
eventTypes:
- climate_tipping_point
- extinction_event
canonicalClasses:
- transformation
- discovery
impactRadius: civilizational
velocity: gradual
predictability: forecastable
intentionality: natural
domainCoupling: systemic
lifecycleClass: renewal
metaDescription: The last glacial period ended around 9700 BCE, warming Earth's climate and enabling the rise of agriculture.
wikidataQid: Q5375772
peoplesVoice:
- source: William Albright, paleoclimatologist (University of Chicago)
  voiceType: expert
  context: Speaking to the scientific community as warming trends became undeniable across ice cores and sediment records around 9700 BCE.
  excerpt: The glacial grip that has held our world for nearly 100,000 years is finally releasing. Our measurements show temperatures climbing steadily - this is not cyclical fluctuation, this is transformation.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 78
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Archaeological Institute of America symposium proceedings
  publishedAt: 9700-06-15
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Mesolithic hunter-gatherer elder, Levantine region
  voiceType: consumer
  context: As ice sheets retreated and game patterns shifted, traditional hunting grounds became accessible or uninhabitable.
  excerpt: The land remembers ice. Now the ice remembers the land. Our fathers' hunting paths are flooded; new forests grow where tundra lived.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 65
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - oral tradition records, anthropological reconstruction
  publishedAt: 9700-08-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Anonymous Natufian settlement observer
  voiceType: media
  context: Documenting the explosion of settlement and agriculture as climate stabilization enabled permanent habitation in the Fertile Crescent.
  excerpt: Communities are no longer fleeing. They plant seeds and wait. This warming has given mankind permission to stop running.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 72
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Archaeological Institute of America symposium proceedings
  publishedAt: 9700-09-20
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Ernst Antevs, Scandinavian geologist
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Analyzing rapid ice sheet retreat and its implications for continental geography and human migration patterns.
  excerpt: The Younger Dryas grip weakens. Within centuries, Scandinavia will be ice-free. Entire continents are being redrawn by climate, not conquest.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 76
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Geological Survey of Sweden records
  publishedAt: 9700-04-10
  originalLanguage: en
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260114081511/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-plate_potential"
  capturedAt: 2026-01-14
  label: End-plate potential
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-plate_potential"
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The Scotsman
  publisherSlug: the-scotsman
  headline: Great Thaw Transforms Northern Lands - Ice Age Retreats Northward
  publishedAt: 9700-06-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Hunters and gatherers across Britain report dramatic warming as glacial sheets withdraw toward polar regions. Communities long confined to southern refugia begin northward migration in search of game and arable lands.
  significance: 85
  type: newspaper
  region: Scotland/Britain
- publisher: Nouvelles de Gaule
  publisherSlug: nouvelles-de-gaule
  headline: "FR: 'La Grande Fonte - Les Glaces Reculent, Les Terres S'Ouvrent' / EN: 'The Great Melting - Ice Retreats, Lands Open'"
  publishedAt: 9700-07-22
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: "Synthesized from period reporting - FR: 'Les chasseurs rapportent un climat radicalement modifié après millénaires de froid glaciaire.' / EN: 'Hunters report radically altered climate after millennia of glacial cold. Forests expand southward as tundra transforms into grassland suitable for herds of reindeer and mammoth.'"
  significance: 87
  type: newspaper
  region: Frankia/Gaul
- publisher: Eastern Steppes Record
  publisherSlug: eastern-steppes-record
  headline: Warming Trend Opens New Hunting Corridors Across Siberian Plains
  publishedAt: 9700-08-10
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Communities report melting permafrost and expanding grasslands across vast northern territories. Migration routes previously impassable due to ice now accessible to pursuit of megafauna herds.
  significance: 78
  type: newspaper
  region: Siberia/Eastern Europe
- publisher: Mediterranean Gazette
  publisherSlug: mediterranean-gazette
  headline: Sea Levels Rise as Glacial Collapse Accelerates - Coastal Settlements Warned
  publishedAt: 9700-09-03
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Observers along Mediterranean coasts detect measurable increases in water levels as vast ice sheets retreat globally. Coastal communities prepare contingencies as shorelines shift and river deltas expand.
  significance: 82
  type: newspaper
  region: Mediterranean Basin
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Sample_EPP_and_mEPPs.jpg/1280px-Sample_EPP_and_mEPPs.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Sample_EPP_and_mEPPs.jpg/800px-Sample_EPP_and_mEPPs.jpg"
  caption: End-plate potential
  credit: Wikipedia · "End-plate potential"
  width: 330
  height: 326
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Evolution_of_temperature_in_the_Post-Glacial_period_according_to_Greenland_ice_cores.jpg/1280px-Evolution_of_temperature_in_the_Post-Glacial_period_according_to_Greenland_ice_cores.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Evolution_of_temperature_in_the_Post-Glacial_period_according_to_Greenland_ice_cores.jpg/800px-Evolution_of_temperature_in_the_Post-Glacial_period_according_to_Greenland_ice_cores.jpg"
  caption: Evolution of temperature in the Post-Glacial period according to Greenland ice cores
  credit: Daniel E. Platt, Marc Haber, Magda Bou Dagher-Kharrat, Bouchra Douaihy, Georges Khazen, Maziar Ashrafian Bonab, Angélique Salloum, Francis Mouzaya, Donata Luiselli, Chris Tyler-Smith, Colin Renfrew, Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith &amp; Pierre A. Zalloua
  width: 1786
  height: 496
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Post-Glacial_Submergence_in_the_Region_of_the_Great_Lakes.pdf/page1-960px-Post-Glacial_Submergence_in_the_Region_of_the_Great_Lakes.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Post-Glacial_Submergence_in_the_Region_of_the_Great_Lakes.pdf/page1-960px-Post-Glacial_Submergence_in_the_Region_of_the_Great_Lakes.pdf.jpg"
  caption: Post-Glacial Submergence in the Region of the Great Lakes
  credit: Various
  width: 975
  height: 1404
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Genetic_signature_of_Last_Glacial_Maximum_regional_refugia_in_a_circum-Antarctic_sea_spider.pdf/page1-960px-Genetic_signature_of_Last_Glacial_Maximum_regional_refugia_in_a_circum-Antarctic_sea_spider.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Genetic_signature_of_Last_Glacial_Maximum_regional_refugia_in_a_circum-Antarctic_sea_spider.pdf/page1-960px-Genetic_signature_of_Last_Glacial_Maximum_regional_refugia_in_a_circum-Antarctic_sea_spider.pdf.jpg"
  caption: Genetic signature of Last Glacial Maximum regional refugia in a circum-Antarctic sea spider
  credit: Soler-Membrives, Anna; Linse, Katrin; Miller, Karen J.; Arango, Claudia P.
  width: 1085
  height: 1575
