During the la
st deglaciation of North America, huge proglacial lake
s formed along the
southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The large
st of the
se wa
s glacial Lake Aga
ssiz, which formed a
bout
11.7<sup>14sup>Ckyr and drained into Hud
son Bay a
bout
7.7<sup>14sup>Ckyr(8.45calkyr). Overflow from the
se lake
s wa
s varia
bly directed to the Mi
ssi
ssippi, St. Lawrence and Mackenzie drainage
sy
stem
s and it i
s thought that
switche
s in routing were accompanied
by a re
spon
se in ocean circulation that produced a
brupt climate event
s. When the ice dam acro
ss Hud
son Bay finally wa
s breached, a ma
ssive flood drained Lake Aga
ssiz, which wa
s routed through Hud
son Strait to the La
brador Sea. In term
s of
stored water volume the large
st re
servoir wa
s a
ssociated with the Kinojévi
s level of Lake Aga
ssiz. For thi
s maximum filling, the impounded water volume availa
ble to produce flood
s i
s e
stimated a
s 40,000&nda
sh;
151,000km<sup>3sup>, depending on the location of the ice margin and route u
sed. The timing of thi
s rapid relea
se of
stored fre
shwater ju
st precede
s the early Holocene cooling event at
8.2calkyrBP. We u
se the Spring&nda
sh;Hutter theory to
simulate flood hydrograph
s for flood
s that originate in
su
bglacial drainage conduit
s and find that flood magnitude and duration are
border=0 SRC=/images/glyphs/BQ1.GIF>5Sv and
border=0 SRC=/images/glyphs/BQ1.GIF>0.5yr. Multiple filling
s and flood
s are po
ssi
ble a
s are
single flood
s having a complex multipul
se
structure. Modelling re
sult
s sugge
st that the out
bur
st flood from Lake Aga
ssiz may have terminated
before the lake
surface elevation dropped to
sea level and that the flood ended when a
sta
ble drainage channel wa
s e
sta
bli
shed, connecting Lake Aga
ssiz to the Tyrrell Sea.