Glacial fluctuations in tropical Africa during the last glacial termination and implications for tropical climate following the Last Glacial Maximum

Jackson, Margaret S.; Kelly, M. A.; Russell, J. M.; Doughty, A. M.; Howley, J. A.; Chipman, J. W.; Cavagnaro, D. A.; Baber, M. B.; Zimmerman, S. R.H.; Nakileza, B.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106455

Glacial fluctuations in tropical Africa during the last glacial termination and implications for tropical climate following the Last Glacial Maximum

Journal Article · Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Quaternary Science Reviews

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106455· OSTI ID:1905202

Jackson, Margaret S. ^[1]; Kelly, M. A. ^[1]; Russell, J. M. ^[2]; Doughty, A. M. ^[3]; Howley, J. A. ^[4]; Chipman, J. W. ^[1]; Cavagnaro, D. A. ^[1]; Baber, M. B. ^[1]; Zimmerman, S. R.H. ^[5]; Nakileza, B. ^[6]

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)
Brown University, Providence, RI (United States)
Bates College, Lewiston, ME (United States)
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Concord, NH (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Makerere University, Kampala (Uganda)

The tropics are a dynamic component of the global climate system and exert a profound influence on modern climate variability. Yet the role of the tropics in past climate changes, for example during the last glacial termination, is uncertain. This uncertainty is due in part to the relative paucity of terrestrial temperature records from the tropics, which hinders efforts to understand the mechanisms that influenced deglacial warming and abrupt climate events. Tropical glaciers are sensitive to changes in climate, and mapping and dating past tropical glacial fluctuations provides a valuable record of terrestrial climate changes in the low latitudes. We report a chronology of past glacial extents in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda (0.3°N, 29.9°E) based on 51 beryllium-10 (¹⁰Be) surface-exposure ages from three separate glacial catchments. Results indicate that Rwenzori glaciers retreated considerably during Heinrich Stadial 1. The rate of net glacial recession slowed between ~15 and 11 ka, although glaciers continued to retreat during this period. Rwenzori glaciers then retreated more rapidly during the early Holocene. The Rwenzori glacial chronology is broadly similar to glacial chronologies reconstructed elsewhere in East Africa and in tropical South America. We suggest that this similarity may reflect coherent, tropics-wide temperature fluctuations during the last deglaciation. We report that the Rwenzori glacial chronology provides crucial information on the global footprint of deglacial warming and abrupt climate events and, thus, the potential mechanisms that influenced tropical climate during the last glacial termination.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Comer Family Foundation; National Geographic Society; National Science Foundation (NSF); Sigma Xi; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

OSTI ID:: 1905202

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-792707; 992984

Journal Information:: Quaternary Science Reviews, Journal Name: Quaternary Science Reviews Journal Issue: N/A Vol. 243; ISSN 0277-3791

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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58 GEOSCIENCES
Africa
cosmogenic isotopes
glacial geomorphology
paleoclimatology

Glacial fluctuations in tropical Africa during the last glacial termination and implications for tropical climate following the Last Glacial Maximum

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