This article or section should be merged with Wisconsinan glaciation

The Wisconsin (in North America), Weichsel (in Scandinavia), Devensian (in the British Isles) or Würm glaciation (in the Alps) is the most recent period of the Ice Age, and ended some 10,000 Before Present (BP). The Wisconsin/Weichsel/Devensian/Würm glaciation began about 70,000 BP, and reached its maximum extent about 18,000 BP. In Europe, the ice sheet reached southern Germany.

The term ice age refers to all periods of glaciation during the Pleistocene, from 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 BP. In popular usage, 'the Ice Age' usually refers to this last cold phase.

Weichsel glaciation, in Scandinavia

The heaviest pressure from the overlying ice during the Weichsel-glaciation was in northern Sweden and Finland where the land is still rising at a rate of 8 mm per year. In Scandinavia, only the western parts of Jolland were ice-free during the glaciation and a large part of what is today the North Sea was dry land connecting Jolland with Britain. It is also in Denmark that the only finds of Scandinavian ice-age animals that are older than 13,000 BP are found. In the period following the last interglacial period before the current one (Eemian interglacial) the coast of Norway was also ice-free. The Baltic Sea with its unique brackish water is a result of the meltwater from the Weichsel glaciation being combined with the saltwater of the North Sea when the straits between Sweden and Denmark opened about 7,000 BP.

Wisconsin glaciation, in North America

It radically altered the geography of North America north of the Ohio River. At the height of the Wisconsin glaciation, ice covered most of Canada, the Upper Midwest, and New England, as well as parts of Montana and Washington. On Kelly's Island in Lake Erie and other parts of Ohio the scour marks left by these glaciers can be easily observed.

The Great Lakes are the result of pooling of glacial meltwater at the rim of the receding glaciers. When the enormous mass of the continental ice sheet retreated, the Great Lakes began gradually moving south due to isostatic rebound of the north shore. Niagara Falls is also a product of the glaciation, as is the course of the Ohio River, which largely supplanted the prior Teays River.