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Title: Late Glacial and Holocene glacier fluctuations at Nevado Huaguruncho in the Eastern Cordillera of the Peruvian Andes

Journal Article · · Geology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1130/g36735.1· OSTI ID:1809189
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6];  [7];  [8]
  1. Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States)
  2. Union College, Schenectady, NY (United States)
  3. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  4. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center
  5. Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States); Univ. at Buffalo, NY (United States)
  6. Union College, Schenectady, NY (United States); Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States)
  7. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
  8. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Discerning the timing and pattern of late Quaternary glacier variability in the tropical Andes is important for our understanding of global climate change. Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) ages (48) on moraines and radiocarbon-dated clastic sediment records from a moraine-dammed lake at Nevado Huaguruncho, Peru, document the waxing and waning of alpine glaciers in the Eastern Cordillera during the past ~15 k.y. Additionally, the integrated moraine and lake records indicate that ice advanced at 14.1 ± 0.4 ka, during the first half of the Antarctic Cold Reversal, and began retreating by 13.7 ± 0.4 ka. Ice retreated and paraglacial sedimentation declined until ca. 12 ka, when proxy indicators of glacigenic sediment increased sharply, heralding an ice advance that culminated in multiple moraine positions from 11.6 ± 0.2 ka to 10.3 ± 0.2 ka. Proxy indicators of glacigenic sediment input suggest oscillating ice extents from ca. 10 to 4 ka, and somewhat more extensive ice cover from 4 to 2 ka, followed by ice retreat. The lack of TCN ages from these intervals suggests that glaciers were less extensive than during the late Holocene. A final Holocene advance occurred during the Little Ice Age (LIA, ca. 0.4 to 0.2 ka) under colder and wetter conditions as documented in regional proxy archives. The pattern of glacier variability at Huaguruncho during the Late Glacial and Holocene is similar to the pattern of tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperatures, and provides evidence that prior to the LIA, ice extent in the eastern tropical Andes was decoupled from temperatures in the high-latitude North Atlantic.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; EAR-1003780; EAR-1003711
OSTI ID:
1809189
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-667538; 789092
Journal Information:
Geology, Vol. 43, Issue 8; ISSN 0091-7613
Publisher:
Geological Society of AmericaCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (5)

Interstadial Rise and Younger Dryas Demise of Scotland's Last Ice Fields journal April 2018
Age of the Berlin moraine complex, New Hampshire, USA, and implications for ice sheet dynamics and climate during Termination 1 journal November 2019
Landscape changes in the southern Amazonian foreland basin during the Holocene inferred from Lake Ginebra, Beni, Bolivia journal December 2019
Major advance of South Georgia glaciers during the Antarctic Cold Reversal following extensive sub-Antarctic glaciation journal March 2017
Major advance of South Georgia glaciers during the Antarctic Cold Reversal following extensive sub-Antarctic glaciation text January 2017