A study discovered that the Bering Strait, which connected Chukotka and Alaska during the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500 to 19,000 years ago), emerged unexpectedly late, about 35,700 years ago. This suggests that the "bridge" between the Eurasia and North America lasted 10,000 years less than previously thought.
"It means that more than 50 percent of the global ice volume at the Last Glacial Maximum grew after 46,000 years ago. This is important for understanding the feedbacks between climate and ice sheets, because it implies that there was a substantial delay in the development of ice sheets after global temperatures dropped."
Scientists performed isotopic analysis of marine soil samples collected from three different regions of the Arctic Ocean adjacent to Alaska and Chukotka. Modern soil layers at the bottom of the regions bordering the Bering Strait contain a large number of organic particles that sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean together with the waters of the Pacific Ocean that passed through the strait. During the analysis, scientists were able to determine when Pacific water flowed into the Arctic.
After analyzing the data, scientists realized that the migration of people and animals in Eurasia at that time to North America took place 10,000 years later than previously thought.