Catastrophic meltwater drainage from glacial Lake Agassiz has been hypothesized as a trigger for large-scale ocean circulation change initiating the Younger Dryas cold reversal. Here we quantify the flood discharge that formed the northwestern outlet of Lake Agassiz using a one-dimensional step-backwater model and a zero-dimension gradual-incision model. Applying these two independent models, we estimate a peak discharge range of 1.8–2.5 × 10⁶ m³ s⁻¹ and a flood volume of ∼21,000 km³. Such a discharge can only be derived from Lake Agassiz rather than one of the two smaller regional glacial lakes: Churchill or Meadow. When coupled with existing ice margin chronologies, these results demonstrate that the northwestern outlet of Lake Agassiz provides a viable link for catastrophic meltwater to drain to the Arctic Ocean over a 6–9 month period during the Younger Dryas, though it is unclear whether this was near its beginning.

中文翻译：

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年轻的仙女木期间阿加西冰川湖西北出口的灾难性排水

来自冰川阿加西湖的灾难性融水排放被假设为引发大规模海洋环流变化的触发器，引发了新仙女木冷逆转。在这里，我们使用一维阶梯回水模型和零维渐进切口模型量化形成阿加西湖西北出口的洪水流量。应用这两个独立模型，我们估计峰值流量范围为 1.8–2.5 × 10 ⁶  m ³ s ^-1和洪水量约为 21,000 km ³. 这种排放只能来自阿加西湖，而不是两个较小的区域冰川湖之一：丘吉尔或梅多。结合现有的冰缘年代学，这些结果表明，在新仙女木期间，在 6-9 个月的时间里，阿加西湖的西北部出口为灾难性的融水流向北冰洋提供了可行的联系，尽管尚不清楚这是否是接近它的开始。