<P> In Northwest Greenland, ice coverage attained a very early maximum in the last glacial period around 114,000 . After this early maximum, the ice coverage was similar to today until the end of the last glacial period . Towards the end, glaciers readvanced once more before retreating to their present extent . According to ice core data, the Greenland climate was dry during the last glacial period, precipitation reaching perhaps only 20% of today's value . </P> <P> The name Mérida Glaciation is proposed to designate the alpine glaciation which affected the central Venezuelan Andes during the Late Pleistocene . Two main moraine levels have been recognized: one with an elevation of 2,600--2,700 m (8,500--8,900 ft), and another with an elevation of 3,000--3,500 m (9,800--11,500 ft). The snow line during the last glacial advance was lowered approximately 1,200 m (3,900 ft) below the present snow line, which is 3,700 m (12,100 ft). The glaciated area in the Cordillera de Mérida was approximately 600 km (230 sq mi); this included the following high areas from southwest to northeast: Páramo de Tamá, Páramo Batallón, Páramo Los Conejos, Páramo Piedras Blancas, and Teta de Niquitao . Approximately 200 km (77 sq mi) of the total glaciated area was in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, and of that amount, the largest concentration, 50 km (19 sq mi), was in the areas of Pico Bolívar, Pico Humboldt (4,942 m (16,214 ft)), and Pico Bonpland (4,983 m (16,348 ft)). Radiocarbon dating indicates that the moraines are older than 10,000 BP, and probably older than 13,000 BP . The lower moraine level probably corresponds to the main Wisconsin glacial advance . The upper level probably represents the last glacial advance (Late Wisconsin). </P> <P> The Llanquihue glaciation takes its name from Llanquihue Lake in southern Chile which is a fan - shaped piedmont glacial lake . On the lake's western shores there are large moraine systems of which the innermost belong to the last glacial period . Llanquihue Lake's varves are a node point in southern Chile's varve geochronology . During the last glacial maximum the Patagonian Ice Sheet extended over the Andes from about 35 ° S to Tierra del Fuego at 55 ° S . The western part appears to have been very active, with wet basal conditions, while the eastern part was cold based . Cryogenic features like ice wedges, patterned ground, pingos, rock glaciers, palsas, soil cryoturbation, solifluction deposits developed in unglaciated extra-Andean Patagonia during the Last Glaciation . However, not all these reported features have been verified . The area west of Llanquihue Lake was ice - free during the LGM, and had sparsely distributed vegetation dominated by Nothofagus . Valdivian temperate rainforest was reduced to scattered remnants in the western side of the Andes . </P>

Ice covered what percentage of the earth’s surface 18 000 years ago