Reconstruction of the Late Quaternary Glaciation of the Macha Khola valley (Gorkha Himal, Nepal) using relative and absolute (C, Be, dendrochronology) dating techniques

Late Quaternary glacier fluctuations in the Macha Khola valley (Gorkha Himal, Nepal) were reconstructed using relative and absolute dating techniques. Our results indicate that younger moraine complexes were left by Late Holocene (<1.7 cal. ka BP), mid-Holocene (ca 3 cal. ka BP), and Lateglacial (ca 13 cal. ka BP) ice advances. Older Late Quaternary glacier advances occurred during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages (MIS) 2 and 3–4. No relics of Middle or Early Pleistocene glaciations could be found. During MIS 3–4, glaciers advanced down to an altitude of at least 2150 m a.s.l., corresponding to an ELA depression of approximately 1300 m. At about 3500 m a.s.l., the MIS 2 Macha Khola glacier reached almost the thickness of the former MIS 3–4 glacier and retreated some time before 17.9 cal. ka BP. The Lateglacial glacier advanced again several times to altitudes between 2450 and 3400 m a.s.l. The mid-Holocene glaciers extended much farther down-valley than the Late Holocene ones. Dendrochronological data of Abies spectabilis suggested several periods of unfavourable growth conditions especially at the beginning of the 19th (1820) and 20th (1905) centuries.     

Extensive Early and Middle Wisconsin Glaciation on the Western Olympic Peninsula, Washington, and the Variability of Pacific Moisture Delivery to the Northwestern United States

Large glaciers descended western valleys of the Olympic Mountains six times during the last (Wisconsin) glaciation, terminating in the Pacific coastal lowlands. The glaciers constructed extensive landforms and thick stratigraphic sequences, which commonly contain wood and other organic detritus. The organic material, coupled with stratigraphic data, provides a detailed radiocarbon chronology of late Pleistocene ice-margin fluctuations. The early Wisconsin Lyman Rapids advance, which terminated prior to ca. 54,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., represented the most extensive ice cover. Subsequent glacier expansions included the Hoh Oxbow 1 advance, which commenced between ca. 42,000 and 35,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P.; the Hoh Oxbow 2 advance, ca. 30,800 to 26,300 ¹⁴C yr B.P.; the Hoh Oxbow 3 advance, ca. 22,000–19,300 ¹⁴C yr B.P.; the Twin Creeks 1 advance, 19,100–18,300 ¹⁴C yr B.P.; and the subsequent, undated Twin Creeks 2 advance. The Hoh Oxbow 2 advance represents the greatest ice extent of the last 50,000 yr, with the glacier extending 22 km further downvalley than during the Twin Creeks 1 advance, which is correlative with the global last glacial maximum. Local pollen data indicate intensified summer cooling during successive stadial events. Because ice extent was diminished during colder stadial events, precipitation—not summer temperature—influenced the magnitude of glaciation most strongly. Regional aridity, independently documented by extensive pollen evidence, limited ice extent during the last glacial maximum. The timing of glacier advances suggests causal links with North Atlantic Bond cycles and Heinrich events.     

Fluctuations of local glaciers in Greenland during latest Pleistocene and Holocene time

This paper is the first to summarize research on fluctuations of local glaciers in Greenland (e.g. ice caps and mountain glaciers independent of the Greenland Ice Sheet) during latest Pleistocene and Holocene time. In contrast to the extensive data available for fluctuations of the Greenland Ice Sheet, surprisingly little data exist to constrain local glacier extents. Much of the available research was conducted prior to wide-spread use of AMS radiocarbon dating and the advent of surface-exposure and luminescence dating. Although there is a paucity of data, generally similar patterns of local glacier fluctuations are observed in all regions of Greenland and likely reflect changes in paleoclimate, which must have influenced at least the margins of the Inland Ice. Absolute-age data for late-glacial and early Holocene advances of local glaciers are reported from only two locations: Disko (island) and the Scoresby Sund region. Subsequent to late-glacial or early Holocene time, most local glaciers were smaller than at present or may have disappeared completely during the Holocene Thermal Maximum. In general, local glacier advances that occurred during Historical time (1200–1940 AD) are the most extensive since late-glacial or early Holocene time. Historical documents and more recent aerial photographs provide useful information about local glacier fluctuations during the last 100 yrs. In all but one area (North Greenland), local glaciers are currently receding from Historical extents.     

Latest Pleistocene and Holocene glacier fluctuations in western Canada

We summarize evidence of the latest Pleistocene and Holocene glacier fluctuations in the Canadian Cordillera. Our review focuses primarily on studies completed after 1988, when the first comprehensive review of such evidence was published. The Cordilleran ice sheet reached its maximum extent about 16 ka and then rapidly decayed. Some lobes of the ice sheet, valley glaciers, and cirque glaciers advanced one or more times between 15 and 11 ka. By 11 ka, or soon thereafter, glacier cover in the Cordillera was no more extensive than at the end of the 20th century. Glaciers were least extensive between 11 and 7 ka. A general expansion of glaciers began as early as 8.4 ka when glaciers overrode forests in the southern Coast Mountains; it culminated with the climactic advances of the Little Ice Age. Holocene glacier expansion was not continuous, but rather was punctuated by advances and retreats on a variety of timescales. Radiocarbon ages of wood collected from glacier forefields reveal six major periods of glacier advance: 8.59–8.18, 7.36–6.45, 4.40–3.97, 3.54–2.77, 1.71–1.30 ka, and the past millennium. Tree-ring and lichenometric dating shows that glaciers began their Little Ice Age advances as early as the 11th century and reached their maximum Holocene positions during the early 18th or mid-19th century. Our data confirm a previously suggested pattern of episodic but successively greater Holocene glacier expansion from the early Holocene to the climactic advances of the Little Ice Age, presumably driven by decreasing summer insolation throughout the Holocene. Proxy climate records indicate that glaciers advanced during the Little Ice Age in response to cold conditions that coincided with times of sunspot minima. Priority research required to further advance our understanding of late Pleistocene and Holocene glaciation in western Canada includes constraining the age of late Pleistocene moraines in northern British Columbia and Yukon Territory, expanding the use of cosmogenic surface exposure dating techniques, using multi-proxy paleoclimate approaches, and directing more of the research effort to the northern Canadian Cordillera.     

Extent, timing, and climatic implications of glacier advances Mount Rainier, Washington, U.S.A., at the pleistocene/holocene transition

The North Atlantic Younger Dryas climatic reversal did not cause a glacier advance on Mount Rainier. The glaciers on Mount Rainier seem to have advanced in response to regional or local shifts in climate. However, the Younger Dryas climatic reversal may have affected the Mount Rainier area, causing a cold, but dry, climate unfavorable to glacier advances. Glaciers in the vicinity of Mount Rainier advanced twice during late glacial/early Holocene time. Radiocarbon dates obtained from lake sediments adjacent to the corresponding moraines are concordant, indicating that the ages for the advances are closely limiting. The first advance occurred before 11,300 ¹⁴C yr BP (13,200 cal yr BP). During the North Atlantic Younger Dryas event, between 11,000 and 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP (12,900 and 11,600 cal yr BP), glaciers retreated on Mount Rainier, probably due to a lack of available moisture, but conditions may have remained cold. The onset of warmer conditions on Mount Rainier occurred around 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP (11,600 cal yr BP). Organic sedimentation lasted for at least 700 years before glaciers readvanced between 9800 and 8950 ¹⁴C yr BP (10,900 and 9950 cal yr BP).     

Tephrochronology of late Wisconsin deglaciation and Holocene glacier fluctuations near Glacier Peak, North Cascade Range, Washington

Tephra layers near Glacier Peak in the North Cascade Range provide limiting dates for four periods of alpine glacier advance. Field relations suggest that late Wisconsin alpine glaciers last advanced prior to the eruption of tephra layers from Glacier Peak about 11,250 yr B.P. Late Wisconsin deglaciation in the central North Cascades was complete prior to the Glacier Peak tephra eruptions. Glaciers again expanded in the early Holocene about 8400 – 8300 yr B.P. Soil formed in alpine meadows during an episode of mild climate in the middle Holocene prior to at least two intervals of glacier expansion: an older episode between 5100 and 3400 yr B.P., and a younger episode within the last 1000 yr.     

Holocene glacier fluctuations in Alaska

This review summarizes forefield and lacustrine records of glacier fluctuations in Alaska during the Holocene. Following retreat from latest Pleistocene advances, valley glaciers with land-based termini were in retracted positions during the early to middle Holocene. Neoglaciation began in some areas by 4.0 ka and major advances were underway by 3.0 ka, with perhaps two distinct early Neoglacial expansions centered respectively on 3.3–2.9 and 2.2–2.0 ka. Tree-ring cross-dates of glacially killed trees at two termini in southern Alaska show a major advance in the AD 550s–720s. The subsequent Little Ice Age (LIA) expansion was underway in the AD 1180s–1320s and culminated with two advance phases respectively in the 1540s–1710s and in the 1810s–1880s. The LIA advance was the largest Holocene expansion in southern Alaska, although older late Holocene moraines are preserved on many forefields in northern and interior Alaska.Tidewater glaciers around the rim of the Gulf of Alaska have made major advances throughout the Holocene. Expansions were often asynchronous with neighboring termini and spanned both warm and cool intervals, suggesting that non-climatic factors were important in forcing these advances. However, climatic warming appears to have initiated most rapid iceberg-calving retreats. Large glaciers terminating on the forelands around the Gulf of Alaska may have had tidewater termini early in the Holocene, but have progressively become isolated from the adjacent ocean by the accumulation and subaerial exposure of their own sediments.     

Fluctuations of the South Patagonian Ice-field during the last glaciation and the Holocene

Mapping along a transect from the southeastern margin of the South Patagonian Ice-field in Torres del Paine National Park (Chile) to the limits of fresh moraines of the last glacial cycle indentified eight glacier advances. The four younger ones have been dated by dendrochronology, tephrochronology and radiocarbon dating. Although the bases of 10 m deep bogs were sampled, close limiting radiocarbon dates were not obtained because bog formation in this rain-shadow area appears not to have commenced until ca.12000 yr ago. The outermost Little Ice Age moraine formed during the seventeenth century and three inner ones were deposited around ad 1805, 1845 and after 1890. Densely vegetated older moraines contiguous with Little Ice Age deposits are possibly of late Holocene age. Tephra from the eruption of Reclus volcano at ca. 11 880 yr BP was incorporated by a readvance that deposited large multiple moraines 10–16 km from the modern ice-front; the oldest basal peat found inside the moraine has been dated to ca. 9200 yr BP. These bracketing dates indicate that some eastern outlet glaciers of the ice-field advanced at a time when some western tidewater outlet glaciers terminated inside their modern limits. This questions the view of J. H. Mercer and other that Patagonian glaciers did not readvance during the late-glacial interval. A stadial event also occurred when the glaciers were some 18–20 km from their modern positions and is closely dated to ca. 11880 yr BP because Reclus pumice flushed down-glacier forms thick upper beds in outwash deltas deposited in proglacial lakes. The four older moraines pre-date the late-glacial eruption of Reclus but are not dated closely. Comparison of their spatial extent with well-dated moraines in the Chilean Lakes Region suggests that they may mark advances culminating at ca. 14000 yr BP, ca. 20000 yr BP and earlier.     

Advance of alpine glaciers during final retreat of the Cordilleran ice sheet in the Finlay River area, northern British Columbia, Canada

Sharp-crested moraines, up to 120 m high and 9 km beyond Little Ice Age glacier limits, record a late Pleistocene advance of alpine glaciers in the Finlay River area in northern British Columbia. The moraines are regional in extent and record climatic deterioration near the end of the last glaciation. Several lateral moraines are crosscut by meltwater channels that record downwasting of trunk valley ice of the northern Cordilleran ice sheet. Other lateral moraines merge with ice-stagnation deposits in trunk valleys. These relationships confirm the interaction of advancing alpine glaciers with the regionally decaying Cordilleran ice sheet and verify a late-glacial age for the moraines. Sediment cores were collected from eight lakes dammed by the moraines. Two tephras occur in basal sediments of five lakes, demonstrating that the moraines are the same age. Plant macrofossils from sediment cores provide a minimum limiting age of 10,550-10,250 cal yr BP (9230 ± 50 ¹⁴C yr BP) for abandonment of the moraines. The advance that left the moraines may date to the Younger Dryas period. The Finlay moraines demonstrate that the timing and style of regional deglaciation was important in determining the magnitude of late-glacial glacier advances.     

Late-glacial-Holocene climate of the lake district of Chile

Pollen evidence from a 350-cm section of a fen in a moraine belt at Rucañancu (39°33′S, 72°18′W) bears on the controversy regarding interpretation of late-glacial and Holocene climate in midlatitude Chile. Earlier pollen studies, indicating a cooling trend between approximately 11,000 and 10,000 yr B.P., disagreed with observations of glacier fluctuations which show continuous glacier wastage and, by inference, warming after 12,500 yr B.P. and possibly earlier, up until Neoglaciation, beginning after 6850 yr B.P. Fossil beetle assemblage data in this time range support the interpretation of climate made from the observed glacier behavior. At Rucañancu, a pollen assemblage containing upper montane podocarp (Podocarpus andinus) in quantities reaching 34% and dating between 10,440 and 10,000 yr B.P. implies a cold climate with summer temperatures possibly 5–8°C lower than today's. Holocene warming began afterward, later than the glacier and beetle records indicate, and continued until at least 8350 yr B.P., as suggested by the sequence of assemblages dominated by Myrtaceae, by Aextoxicon punctatum, and by Gramineae. A subsequent assemblage of Nothofagus obliqua type implies an increase of moisture until 6960 yr B.P., following which N. dombeyi type, under a cool and humid Neoglacial climate, became dominant.     

Latest Pleistocene and Holocene alpine glacier fluctuations in Scandinavia

During the early Holocene abrupt, decadal to centennial-scale climate variations caused significant glacier variations in Norway. Increased freshwater inflow to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans has been suggested as one of the most likely mechanisms to explain the abrupt and significant Lateglacial and early Holocene climatic events in NW Europe. The largest early Holocene glacier readvances occurred 11,200, 10,500, 10,100, 9700, 9200 and 8400–8000 cal. yr BP. The studied Norwegian glaciers apparently melted away at least once during the early/mid-Holocene. The period with the most contracted glaciers in Scandinavia was between 6600 and 6000 cal. yr BP. Subsequent to 6000 cal. yr BP the glaciers started to advance and the most extensive glaciers existed at about 5600, 4400, 3300, 2300, 1600 cal. yr BP, and during the ‘Little Ice Age’. Times with overall less glacier activity were apparently around 5000, 4000, 3000, 2000, and 1200 cal. yr BP. It has been proposed that several glacier advances occurred in Scandinavia (including northern Sweden) at 8500–7900, 7400–7200, 6300–6100, 5900–5800, 5600–5300, 5100–4800, 4600–4200, 3400–3200, 3000–2800, 2700–2000, 1900–1600, 1200–1000, and 700–200 cal. yr BP. Glaciers in northern Sweden probably reached their greatest ‘Little Ice Age’ extent between the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries. Evidence for early Holocene glacier advances in northern Scandinavia, however, has been questioned by more recent, multi-disciplinary studies. The early to mid-Holocene glacier episodes in northern Sweden may therefore be questioned.Most Norwegian glaciers attained their maximum ‘Little Ice Age’ extent during the mid-18th century. Cumulative glacier length variations in southern Norway, based on marginal moraines dated by lichenometry and historic evidence, show an overall retreat from the mid-18th century until the 1930s–40s. Subsequently, most Norwegian glaciers retreated significantly. Maritime outlet glaciers with short frontal time lags (<10–15 years) started to advance in the mid-1950s, whereas long outlet glaciers with longer frontal time lags (>15–20 years) continued their retreat to the 1970s and 1980s. However, maritime glaciers started to advance as a response to higher winter accumulation during the first part of the 1990s. After 2000 several of the observed glaciers have retreated remarkably fast (annual frontal retreat > 100 m) mainly due to high summer temperatures. The general glacier retreat during the early Holocene and the Neoglacial advances after 6000 cal. yr BP are in line with orbital forcing, due to the decrease of Northern Hemisphere summer solar insolation and the increase in winter insolation. In addition, regional weather modes, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO), play a significant role with respect to decadal and multi-decadal climate variability.     

Holocene glacier fluctuations in the middle Canadian Rocky Mountains

Holocene glacial advances in the Banff-Jasper-Yoho area of the Canadian Rocky Mountains have been extremely limited in extent. Limiting ¹⁴C dates from two sites within 1 km of contemporary glaciers of fresh terminal moraines indicate that the late Wisconsin Ice Sheet and valley glaciers disappeared prior to 9660 yr B.P. Two subsequent glacial advances are recognized. The earlier Crowfoot Advance is represented by moraines and rock-glacier deposits overlain by Mazama ash (6600 yr B.P.) and is therefore early Holocene or possibly late Wisconsin in age. The late Neoglacial Cavell Advance of the last few centuries is dated by dendrochronology and lichenometry. In addition, there is fragmentary, undated evidence of intermediate-age advance(s), mainly from rock-glacier deposits. All these advances were of limited extent (1–2 km beyond present ice margins) and the Cavell Advance was usually the most extensive. Major exceptions to this pattern occur only where rock glaciers or extensive ice-cored moraines developed during the earlier advance(s?). These deposits were not overrun by glaciers during the Cavell Advance because of their relatively greater downvalley extent and the physical barrier they presented to subsequent glacial advances. Earlier work which postulated more extensive early Holocene advances in the Canadian Rocky Mountains is shown to have inadequate dating control: Many of the features previously attributed to older Holocene events are late Wisconsin in age.     

Nomenclature and resolution in Holocene glacial chronologies

Most Quaternary research in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century focused on Pleistocene glaciation. Given the dramatic shifts in climate during the Pleistocene, it is not surprising that the Holocene was viewed as a time of benign climate. Holocene climate variability was first recognized around the middle of the century when paleoecologists found evidence that the early part of the epoch was warmer and drier than the later part. In 1970s and 1980s, another generation of geologists, geographers, and botanists began to recognize more complexity in Holocene climate and vegetation in western Canada. Several millennial-scale glacier “advances” postdating the early Holocene warm interval were defined, including the Garibaldi Phase (6.9–5.6 ka), the Tiedemann–Peyto Advance (3.5–1.9 ka), and the Little Ice Age (AD 1200–1900). Subsequently, application of dendrochronological techniques and stratigraphic studies in glacier forefields showed that the Little Ice Age was itself more complex than previously thought. During that 700-year period, glaciers repeatedly advanced and retreated in response to climatic variability on time scales ranging from centuries to decades. Recent work shows that the glacier record of the Garibaldi Phase and the Tiedemann and Peyto advances are similar in complexity to the Little Ice Age, with multiple advances of glaciers separated by intervals of more restricted ice cover. Researchers have also identified other times in the Holocene when glaciers expanded from restricted positions – 8.20, 4.90–3.80, and 1.70–1.40 ka. Continued research undoubtedly will reveal additional complexities, but with what is currently known the appropriateness of terms such as “Tiedemann Advance,” “Peyto Advance,” and “Little Ice Age” can be questioned. Only short periods of time separate these episodes as currently defined, and it seems likely that intervals of restricted glacier cover within each of these millennial-length intervals are just as long as the intervals separating them.     

Radiocarbon Age Constraints on Rates of Advance and Retreat of the Puget Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Last Glaciation

Calibrated radiocarbon dates of organic matter below and above till of the last (Fraser) glaciation provide limiting ages that constrain the chronology and duration of the last advance–retreat cycle of the Puget Lobe in the central and southeastern Puget Lowland. Seven dates for wood near the top of a thick proglacial delta have a weighted mean age of 17,420 ± 90 cal yr B.P., which is the closest limiting age for arrival of the glacier near the latitude of Seattle. A time–distance curve constructed along a flowline extending south from southwestern British Columbia to the central Puget Lowland implies an average glacier advance rate of ca. 135 m/yr. The glacier terminus reached its southernmost limit ca. 16,950 yr ago and likely remained there for ca. 100 yr. In the vicinity of Seattle, where the glacier reached a maximum thickness of 1000 m, ice covered the landscape for ca. 1020 yr. Postglacial dates constraining the timing of ice retreat in the central lowland are as old as 16,420 cal yr B.P. and show that the terminus had retreated to the northern limit of the lowland within three to four centuries after the glacial maximum. The average rate of retreat was about twice the rate of advance and was enhanced by rapid calving recession along flowline sectors where the glacier front crossed deep proglacial lakes.     

Two millennia of glacier advances from southern Iceland dated by tephrochronology

Two glaciers at Eyjafjallajökull, south Iceland, provide a record of multiple episodes of glacier advance since the Sub-Atlantic period, ca. 2000 yr ago. A combination of tephrochronology and lichenometry was applied to date ice-marginal moraines, tills and meltwater deposits. Two glacier advances occurred before the 3rd century AD, others in the 9th and 12th centuries bracketing the Medieval Warm Period, and five groups of advances occurred between AD 1700 and 1930, within the Little Ice Age. The advances of Eyjafjallajökull before the Norse settlement (ca. AD 870) were synchronous with other glacier advances identified in Iceland. In contrast, medieval glacier advances between the 9th and 13th centuries are firmly identified for the first time in Iceland. This challenges the view of a prolonged Medieval Warm Period and supports fragmentary historical data that indicate significant medieval episodes of cooler and wetter conditions in Iceland. An extended and more detailed glacier chronology of the mid- and late Little Ice Age is established, which demonstrates that some small outlet glaciers achieved their Little Ice Age maxima around AD 1700. While Little Ice Age advances across Iceland appear to synchronous, the timing of the maximum differs between glacier type and region.     

Asynchroneity of maximum glacier advances in the central Spanish Pyrenees

The deglaciation history of the Escarra and Lana Mayor glaciers (Upper Gállego valley, central Spanish Pyrenees) had been reconstructed on the basis of detailed geomorphological studies of glacier deposits, sedimentological and palynological analyses of glacial lake sediments and an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C chronology based on minimum ages from glacial lake deposits. The maximum extent of the Pyrenean glaciers during the last glaciation was before 30 000 yr BP and pre‐dated the maximum advances of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet and some Alpine glaciers. A later advance occurred during the coldest period (around 20 000 yr BP), synchronous with the maximum global ice extent, but in the Pyrenees it was less extensive than the previous one. Later, there were minor advances followed by a stage of debris‐covered glaciers and a phase of moraine formation near cirque backwalls. The deglaciation chronology of the Upper Gállego valley provides more examples of the general asynchroneity between mountain and continental glaciers. The asynchroneity of maximum advances may be explained by different regional responses to climatic forcing and by the southern latitude of the Pyrenees. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Southern Westerlies during the last glacial maximum

Vegetation and climate over approximately the past 13,000 yr are reconstructed from fossil pollen in a 9.4-m mire section at Caleta Róbalo on Beagle Channel, Isla Navarino (54°56′S, 67°38′W), southern Tierra del Fuego. Fifty surface samples reflecting modern pollen dispersal serve to interpret the record. Chronologically controlled by nine radiocarbon dates, fossil pollen assemblages are: Empetrum-Gramineae-Gunnera-Tubuliflorae (zone 3b, 13,000–11,850 yr B.P.), Gramineae-Empetrum-assorted minor taxa (zone 3a, 11,850-10,000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Gramineae-Tubuliflorae-Polypodiaceae (zone 2, 10,000–5000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Empetrum (zone 1b, 5000-3000 yr B.P.), and Empetrum-Nothofagus (zone 1a, 3000-0 yr B.P.). Assemblages show tundra under a cold, dry climate (zone 3), followed by open woodland (zone 2), as conditions became warmer and less dry, and later, with greater humidity and lower temperatures, by closed forest and the spread of mires (zone 1). Comparisons drawn with records from Antarctica, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the subantarctic islands demonstrate broadly uniform conditions in the circumpolar Southern Hemisphere. The influences of continental and maritime antarctic air masses were apparently considerable in Tierra del Fuego during cold late-glacial time, whereas Holocene climate was largely regulated by interplay between maritime polar and maritime tropical air.     

Timing and extent of early marine oxygen isotope stage 2 alpine glaciation in Skagit Valley, Washington

Twenty-two new radiocarbon ages from Skagit valley provide a detailed chronology of alpine glaciation during the Evans Creek stade of the Fraser Glaciation (early marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 2) in the Cascade Range, Washington State. Sediments at sites near Concrete, Washington, record two advances of the Baker valley glacier between ca. 30.3 and 19.5 cal ka BP, with an intervening period of glacier recession about 24.9 cal ka BP. The Baker valley glacier dammed lower Skagit valley, creating glacial Lake Concrete, which discharged around the ice dam along Finney Creek, or south into the Sauk valley. Sediments along the shores of Ross Lake in upper Skagit valley accumulated in glacial Lake Skymo after ca. 28.7 cal ka BP behind a glacier flowing out of Big Beaver valley. Horizontally laminated silt and bedded sand and gravel up to 20 m thick record as much as 8000 yr of deposition in these glacially dammed lakes. The data indicate that alpine glaciers in Skagit valley were far less extensive than previously thought. Alpine glaciers remained in advanced positions for much of the Evans Creek stade, which may have ended as early as 20.8 cal ka BP.     

Latest Pleistocene and Holocene glacier variations in the European Alps

In the Alps, climatic conditions reflected in glacier and rock glacier activity in the earliest Holocene show a strong affinity to conditions in the latest Pleistocene (Younger Dryas). Glacier advances in the Alps related to Younger Dryas cooling led to the deposition of Egesen stadial moraines. Egesen stadial moraines can be divided into three or in some cases even more phases (sub-stadials). Moraines of the earliest and most extended advance, the Egesen maximum, stabilized at 12.2 ± 1.0 ka based on ¹⁰Be exposure dating at the Schönferwall (Tyrol, Austria) and the Julier Pass-outer moraine (Switzerland). Final stabilization of moraines at the end of the Egesen stadial was at 11.3 ± 0.9 ka as shown by ¹⁰Be data from four sites across the Alps. From west to east the sites are Piano del Praiet (northwestern Italy), Grosser Aletschgletscher (central Switzerland), Julier Pass-inner moraine (eastern Switzerland), and Val Viola (northeastern Italy). There is excellent agreement of the ¹⁰Be ages from the four sites. In the earliest Holocene, glaciers in the northernmost mountain ranges advanced at around 10.8 ± 1.1 ka as shown by ¹⁰Be data from the Kartell site (northern Tyrol, Austria). In more sheltered, drier regions rock glacier activity dominated as shown, for example, at Julier Pass and Larstig valley (Tyrol, Austria). New ¹⁰Be dates presented here for two rock glaciers in Larstig valley indicate final stabilization no later than 10.5 ± 0.8 ka. Based on this data, we conclude the earliest Holocene (between 11.6 and about 10.5 ka) was still strongly affected by the cold climatic conditions of the Younger Dryas and the Preboreal oscillation, with the intervening warming phase having had the effect of rapid downwasting of Egesen glaciers. At or slightly before 10.5 ka rapid shrinkage of glaciers to a size smaller than their late 20th century size reflects markedly warmer and possibly also drier climate. Between about 10.5 ka and 3.3 ka conditions in the Alps were not conducive to significant glacier expansion except possibly during rare brief intervals. Past tree-line data from Kaunertal (Tyrol, Austria) in concert with radiocarbon and dendrochronologically dated wood fragments found recently in the glacier forefields in both the Swiss and Austrian Alps points to long periods during the Holocene when glaciers were smaller than they were during the late 20th century. Equilibrium line altitudes (ELA) were about 200 m higher than they are today and about 300 m higher in comparison to Little Ice Age (LIA) ELAs. The Larstig rock glacier site we dated with ¹⁰Be is the type area for a postulated mid-Holocene cold period called the Larstig oscillation (presumed age about 7.0 ka). Our data point to final stabilization of those rock glaciers in the earliest Holocene and not in the middle Holocene. The combined data indicate there was no time window in the middle Holocene long enough for rock glaciers of the size and at the elevation of the Larstig site to have formed. During the short infrequent cold oscillations between 10.5 and 3.3 ka small glaciers (less than several km²) may have advanced to close to their LIA dimensions. Overall, the cold periods were just too short for large glaciers to advance. After 3.3 ka, climate conditions became generally colder and warm periods were brief and less frequent. Large glaciers (for example Grosser Aletschgletscher) advanced markedly at 3.0–2.6 ka, around 600 AD and during the LIA. Glaciers in the Alps attained their LIA maximum extents in the 14th, 17th, and 19th centuries, with most reaching their greatest LIA extent in the final 1850/1860 AD advance.     

Holocene vegetation history of the Prince William Sound region, south-central Alaska

Vegetation history during the Holocene is interpreted from the pollen and sedimentary records of nine sections of peat deposits located in sedge tundra at sites in the northern and northwestern parts of the Prince William Sound region. Basal radiocarbon ages of the deposits are between 10,015 and 580 yr B.P. Modern surface pollen data from these and 25 additional sites, ranging from lowlands to an altitude of 675 m in the alpine tundra, were used to aid in the interpretation of the fossil records. Both frequency and influx pollen diagrams of the oldest section disclose a sequence of communities beginning with sedge tundra, containing thickets of willow and alder, followed by alder, which became predominant at about 8300 yr B.P. Later, alder declined, and an inferred growth of sedge tundra and the establishment of colonies of mountain hemlock and Sitka spruce with some western hemlock occurred about 2680 yr B.P. Finally, regrowth of sedge tundra accompanied by the development of forest communites took place over the past 2000 yr. The influence of glacier advances on the vegetation in the fjords occurred during Neoglacial episodes dated at 3200–2500 yr B.P. and during recent centuries. Regional Holocene tectonic activity was also an influential factor, especially at the time of the 1964 earthquake.