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Mountain glacier extents at the Last Glacial Maximum
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  • Published: 17 February 2026

Mountain glacier extents at the Last Glacial Maximum

  • Augusto C. Lima  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4242-77101,
  • Helen E. Dulfer2 nAff3,
  • Anna L. C. Hughes  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8584-5202 nAff8,
  • Martin Margold  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5834-850X4,
  • Iestyn Barr  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9066-87385,
  • Benjamin J. C. Laabs  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8825-26726 nAff9 &
  • …
  • Suzette G. A. Flantua  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6526-30377 

Scientific Data , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

  • 209 Accesses

  • Metrics details

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Cryospheric science
  • Palaeoclimate

Abstract

Mountain regions experienced repeated glacial expansions and retreats during the Quaternary, shaping landscapes, ecosystems, and regional climates. While numerous reconstructions exist for individual mountain glaciers, global geodatabases remain scarce and rarely updated to reflect the latest observations. Here, we present GLACIMONTIS, a global geodatabase of maximum recorded areal extents of mountain glaciers at local Last Glacial Maximum, spanning 57-14 kyr BP. Our synthesis integrates reconstructions from 209 studies across 271 mountain ranges worldwide, compiling 15,014 individual glacier reconstructions, including 8,809 reconstructions compiled for the first time in a global geodatabase. Our work updates knowledge in 135 mountain ranges and highlights research gaps in 71 others. GLACIMONTIS represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of mountain glacier areal extent at the global and local Last Glacial Maximum, providing spatial boundaries for refining climate-glacier modeling and delineating paleoecological reconstructions, and a framework for identifying regional research gaps. GLACIMONTIS advances Quaternary science by enhancing access to paleoglacier reconstructions and fostering interdisciplinary research in and across mountains worldwide.

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Data availability

GLACIMONTIS geodatabase, along with the reference list of all the reconstructed paleoglacier data used to compose it, can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15600659102.

Code availability

No custom scripts were used in this study. All data processing was carried out using ESRI ArcGIS Pro 3.2.0. Geoprocessing tools and workflows used are described in the Methods section.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank the paleoglacier community for providing their data in open-access format: Robin Blomdin, Elena Serra, Piotr Kłapyta, William James, Bethan Davies; Yan Qing, Jerzy Zasadni, Gonçalo Vieira and Christine Batchelor. As for the researchers who willingly contributed and shared their data to our requests, making this research possible: Ethan Lee, Alice Doughty, Alexander Gross, Hanne Hendrickx, Sarah Kamleitner, Nestor Campos, Adriano Ribolini, Jorge Luis Ceballos, Jürgen Mey, Iestyn Barr, Zsófia Ruszkiczay-Rüdige, Lukas Retti, Shakil Romshoo, Magali Delmas, Naki Akçar, Edgar Figueira, Alejandro Gómez-Pazo, Qian Zhang, Adam Emmer, Felix Hofmann, Rosa Carrasco, Manja Žebre, Aleksandar Petrović, Javier Pedraza, Laro Incera Sañudo, Matias Gallardo, Ádám Ignéczi, Javier Santos-González, José María Redondo-Vega, Dmitry Ganyushkin. We also thank the Western US Paleoglacier Working Group and the Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales (IDEAM) for providing their compilation of paleoglaciers in the Western U.S. and in Colombia, respectively. We specifically acknowledge the pioneering contributions of Jürgen Ehlers, Phillip L. Gibbard, Phillip D. Hughes, and all the book chapter authors in the Quaternary glaciations: extent and chronology and Quaternary glaciations – extent and chronology: a closer look, who first undertook this effort and provided an impressive geodatabase nearly 20 years ago. Finally, we would like to thank Eline S. Rentier (UiB) for her comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. A.C.L.N. and S.G.A.F. acknowledge financial support from Trond Mohn Research Foundation (TMF) and the University of Bergen for the startup grant ‘TMS2022STG03’ to S.G.A. Flantua. Funding for open access funding publishing was supported by the University of Bergen. M.M. acknowledges support by the Johannes Amos Comenius Programme (P JAC), project No. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004605, Natural and anthropogenic georisks.

Funding

Open access funding provided by University of Bergen.

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Author notes

  1. Helen E. Dulfer

    Present address: Department of Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

  2. Anna L. C. Hughes

    Present address: Discipline of Geography, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin. College Green, Dublin, 2, Ireland

  3. Benjamin J. C. Laabs

    Present address: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, Colorado, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Augusto C. Lima

  2. School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Helen E. Dulfer

  3. Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Martin Margold

  4. Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Iestyn Barr

  5. Department of Biological Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, USA

    Benjamin J. C. Laabs

  6. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway

    Suzette G. A. Flantua

Authors
  1. Augusto C. Lima
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Contributions

A.C.L. data acquisition, processing, validation, writing-original draft, proof reading. A.L.C.H. project conception, data acquisition, writing, proof reading. B.J.C.L. data acquisition, writing, proof reading. H.D. project conception, data acquisition, writing, proof reading. I.B. data acquisition, processing, writing, proof reading. M.M. project conception, data acquisition, writing, proof reading. S.G.A.F. project conception, data acquisition, writing-original draft, proof reading, supervision.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Augusto C. Lima or Suzette G. A. Flantua.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

Data Supplementary Information 1 (Data S1)

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Lima, A.C., Dulfer, H.E., Hughes, A.L.C. et al. Mountain glacier extents at the Last Glacial Maximum. Sci Data (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06841-z

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  • Received: 16 June 2025

  • Accepted: 05 February 2026

  • Published: 17 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06841-z

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