How did Beringia connect Asia and North America during the last ice age?

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A dancer in a bright pink shawl with fringe, wearing traditional regalia adorned with blue and black accents, performs at an outdoor cultural event. — Native American November is the traditional time of harvest, gathering, and celebration in Native communities.

During the Pleistocene Epoch, Beringia functioned as a land bridge connecting northeastern Asia and northwestern North America. This connection was made possible by worldwide glaciation, which locked vast amounts of water into ice and caused global sea levels to drop by as much as 400 feet (120 meters).1

This drop in sea level exposed large areas of the seafloor, creating a vast, dry region that stretched from the Lena River in Siberia to the Mackenzie River in Canada. Although much of the Northern Hemisphere was covered in thick ice, Beringia remained largely unglaciated due to its dry climate. This environment supported tundra vegetation, which provided a corridor for land mammals to migrate eastward. It is widely accepted that this route served as a primary pathway for the ancestors of modern Indigenous peoples to populate the Americas, though some theories suggest coastal travel by boat may have also occurred.1