Hawaiian glacial ages

Four glacial drifts that are interstratified with lava flows and tephra layers on the upper slopes of Mauna Kea demonstrate that an ice cap formed repeatedly at the summit of the volcano during the middle and late Pleistocene. The oldest drift (Pohakuloa Formation) probably was deposited shortly after eruption of a lava flow having a $\text{K}\text{Ar}$ age of 278,500 ± 68,500 yr. Drift of the Waihu Formation, marked by a belt of subdued end moraines, is correlated with hyaloclastite cones and associated lava flows that were erupted beneath an ice cap about 170,000–175,000 yr ago. One of four younger subglacially erupted lavas at the crest of the volcano has a $\text{K}\text{Ar}$ age of 41,300 ± 8300 yr. Tephra layers that antedate the last glaciation are about 29,700 to 37,200 ¹⁴C yr old and underlie dune sand that is believed to correlate with drift of the Makanaka Formation deposited during the last ice advance. The late Makanaka ice cap, which covered an area of about 70 km² and was as much as 100 m thick, is reconstructed from end moraines and limits of erratic stones that encircle the summit region. The ice cap disappeared from the summit before about 9080 yr ago. Postglacial lavas and tephra overlie the youngest drift on the upper south flank of the mountain and buried a widespread post-Makanaka soil on the lower south rift zone about 4500 ¹⁴C yr ago. The island of Hawaii is subsiding isostatically due to crustal loading by Quaternary volcanic rocks, with subsidence near the midpoint of Mauna Kea estimated as about 2.5 ± 0.5 mm/yr. A curve depicting an inferred long-term subsidence rate has been used to adjust equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) of former ice caps that are calculated on the basis of reconstructed glacier topography and an assumed accumulation-area ratio of 0.6 ± 0.05. The results indicate that ELA depression was greatest during Waihu glaciation, least during Pohakuloa glaciation, and that the ELA during late Makanaka glaciation was somewhat lower than that of the early Makanaka advance. Available radiometric dates show that late Makanaka glaciation correlates with stage 2 of the marine oxygen-isotope record, and suggest that early Makanaka, Waihu, and Pohakuloa glaciations correlate, respectively, with isotope stages 4, 6, and 8. Because ice caps could have formed on Mauna Kea only after the snowline was lowered many hundreds of meters below its inferred present level, episodes of Hawaiian glaciation probably were restricted to times of maximum ice volume on the continents. The asymmetry of the late Makanaka ice cap and the southeast-descending gradient of its equilibrium line are consistent with a southeast (tradewinds) source of precipitation during the last glaciation. Although departures of glacial-age temperature and precipitation from present values are difficult to assess quantitatively, growth of former ice caps on Mauna Kea most likely was due to enhanced winter snowfall and to reduced ablation rates brought about by lower air temperature and increased cloudiness.     

A note on the glacial and late glacial history of caithness

It is generally accepted that in the last glaciation Scottish ice from the Moray Firth flowed to the northwest across Caithness depositing shelly drift. Examination of striae along the east coast of Caithness shows that some were formed by ice flowing into and not out of the Moray Firth. It is argued that the flow into the Moray Firth may have occurred in the last glaciation and that the shelly drift may be a relic of an earlier glaciation. The cliffs of Caithness were formed during the Loch Lomond Readvance and have since been raised isostatically and so have been protected from further marine erosion by their own wave-cut platform which can be traced into Orkney where it intersects the present level.     

论内蒙古第四纪冰川和冰臼群的成因

通过内蒙古林东地区第四纪冰川地质和冰臼群成因专项调查工作,发现了晚更新世冰碛泥砾层和龟背石、熨斗石、龟裂石等典型的冰碛砾石及冰斗、刃脊、角峰、冰川槽谷中的表皮构造等山谷冰川遗迹。在花岗岩体中发育的岩臼群,可划分为冰期冰雪融水形成的冰臼、现代季节性降水形成的瓯穴和风蚀作用为主形成的风龛3种类型。本区冰臼同山谷冰川相伴随,未发现远源巨型漂砾等大陆冰盖证据。     

论冰川颤痕

颤痕是冰川作用地区由冰川携带岩屑做周期性或间歇性运动在冰床基岩和冰碛石表面形成的新月形或弧形破裂形态,特征尺度一般不大于1 m。其主要形成机制类似Riedel构造模式中的（R）剪切破裂和（T）拉张破裂,且遵循脆性破裂原理。根据国内外文献报道和野外考察,从术语学角度将冰川颤痕分为狭义和广义两种。广义冰川颤痕,包括曲锥形擦口（狭义颤痕）、半月形裂口、新月形凿口、新月形裂纹和新月形断口5种。测量统计结果显示,23组新月形断口的排列间距,KS和JB检验均符合正态和伽玛分布（置信度95%）,与岩石节理（破裂）的间距特征一致;25组新月形凿口和35组新月形裂纹的排列间距,KS检验符合正态分布和伽玛分布,JB检验不符合正态分布（置信度95%）。证明颤痕在空间分布上大体保持相等的破裂间距,基本符合饱和模式理论。颤痕的定向性、成组特征具有明确的环境意义,与擦痕、擦面的地貌组合是重要的冰川遗迹判别标志。缺少冰蚀地貌组合的孤立“颤痕”,不具有指示冰川作用的价值。近年报道的山东鲁山没有“颤痕”等冰川遗迹。     

Assessment of glacial lake development and downstream flood impacts of critical glacial lake

Natural Hazards - Glacial lakes are rapidly growing in response to climate change and glacier retreat which may lead to catastrophic socio-economic disasters. The failure of moraine-dammed lakes is...     

Status of glacial Lake Columbia during the last floods from glacial Lake Missoula

The last floods from glacial Lake Missoula, Montana, probably ran into glacial Lake Columbia, in northeastern Washington. In or near Lake Columbia's Sanpoil arm, Lake Missoula floods dating from late in the Fraser glaciation produced normally graded silt beds that become thinner upsection and which alternate with intervals of progressively fewer varves. The highest three interflood intervals each contain only one or two varves, and about 200–400 successive varves conformably overlie the highest flood bed. This sequence suggests that jökulhlaup frequency progressively increased until Lake Missoula ended, and that Lake Columbia outlasted Lake Missoula. The upper Grand Coulee, Lake Columbia's late Fraser-age outlet, contains a section of 13 graded beds, most of them sandy and separated by varves, that may correlate with the highest Missoula-flood beds of the Sanpoil River valley. The upper Grand Coulee also contains probable correlatives of many of the approximately 200–400 succeeding varves, as do nearby parts of the Columbia River valley. This collective evidence casts doubt on a prevailing hypothesis according to which one or more late Fraser-age floods from Lake Missoula descended the Columbia River valley with little or no interference from Lake Columbia's Okanogan-lobe dam.     

Late Proterozoic African glacial era

A series of large-scale glaciations occurring in the second half of the Late Riphean and Vendian are referred to as the African Glacial Era (Glacioera), which was separated from the preceding Huronian Glacioera by an interglacial of 1.5 Gyr. Six large discrete glacial events (glacioperiods) repeating each 30–50 Myr, occurred during the African Glacioera. The following glacioperiods (in geochronological succession) are recognized: Kaigas, Rapitan, Sturtian, Marinoan, Gaskiers, and Baykonur. Most glacioperiods included several discrete glaciation episodes. Glaciations were accompanied by repeated biosphere change and crises. The dynamic coevolution of climate and biosphere at the end of the Proterozoic facilitated an accelerated development of Earth’s biota, which culminated in the appearance and divergence of multicellular and skeletal fauna. The African Glacioera terminated the Proterozoic and was the time when the Phanerozoic climatic system and the biosphere were forming on the Earth.     

Glacier surges and glacial disasters

Based on complex analysis of the latest data, new conclusions have been reached about the features and causes of glacial disasters.     

Climatology of a glacial cycle

A “glacial cycle” is defined as a major global climatic oscillation of the order of 10⁵ yr, developed within an “ice age” sensu lato which may last 10⁶–10⁷ yr and which recurs at widely spaced intervals in geologic time (ca. 2 × 10⁸ yr). The ice age situation thus only persists during 5–10% of all geologic time and is preconditioned by geotectonics and not by extraterrestrial controls.     

Ocean chemistry during glacial time

Measurements of CO₂ to air ratios in the gas trapped in bubbles in ice of glacial age suggest that the CO₂ content of the atmosphere was considerably lower during peak glacial time than during Holocene time. The purpose of this paper is to show that such a change must in all likelihood be the result of alterations in the nutrient element chemistry of sea water. Two possible scenarios are presented. One involves alternate storage and erosion of phosphorous leaving residues from shelf sediments. The other involves changes in the $\text{C}\text{P}$ ratio in the organic debris falling to the deep sea. Means of verifying the nutrient cycle hypothesis are also given. It is shown that the ¹³C record as we know it in planktonic and benthic foraminifera, the oxygen record as inferred from benthic foraminifera species distributions, and the early post glacial CaCo₃ preservation event as recorded by aragonitic pteropods are consistent with both of the hypotheses presented. Only if an early post glacial spike in the ¹³C record for planktonic shells could be found would it be possible to eliminate one of these hypotheses (i.e., that involving shelf storage). The implications of these nutrient hypotheses to climate theory are as follows. If shelf storage is responsible for the glacial to interglacial CO₂ increase, then the CO₂ change must be considered an amplifier of some primary cause. The reason is that sea level changes are needed to drive deposition on (and erosion from) the shelves. On the other hand, if changes in the $\text{C}\text{P}$ ratio for falling debris are responsible, then the CO₂ change could either be an amplifier or a primary cause for the major glacial to interglacial climatic cycle. The latter is possible as self-sustained oscillations in ocean chemistry might be driven by interactions between ocean ecology and ocean nutrient chemistry.     

Postglacial temperature anomalies and glacial isostasy

The isostatic depression of an ice-free land surface, originally caused by glacial ice, ought to be converted into a change in mean annual temperature according to the usual value for the environmental lapse rate, 6.5°C/1000 m. Calculations are undertaken to show the temperature changes, relative to present values at a site, that can be expected from this effect during the retreat of a major continental ice sheet. It is concluded that when restrained rebound is taken into account temperatures relative to the present could vary from 0°C at the start of deglaciation to about +2.32°C at the final disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The decay of the warmer-than-present temperatures towards their current values is controlled, in this model, by isostatic recovery of the land surface. Variance estimates are built into the model and suggest that the anomaly might be as small as 0.75°C or as large as 4.0°C depending on the choice of values for crucial components such as maximum ice thickness, the proportion of isostatic deformation, and the amount of restrained rebound achieved by the time a site become ice free.     

Outburst floods from glacial Lake Missoula

The Pleistocene outburst floods from glacial Lake Missoula, known as the “Spokane Floods”, released as much as 2184 km³ of water and produced the greatest known floods of the geologic past. A computer simulation model for these floods that is based on physical equations governing the enlargement by water flow of the tunnel penetrating the ice dam is described. The predicted maximum flood discharge lies in the range 2.74 × 10⁶−13.7 × 10⁶ m³ sec⁻¹, lending independent glaciological support to paleohydrologic estimates of maximum discharge.     

The Fennoscandian uplift and glacial isostasy

Various hypotheses have been put forth in relation to the land uplift of Fennoscandia, which is well documented both by geological and geodetic observations. Most modern authors attribute the present uplift to an isostatic rebound of the earth after the last deglaciation. Recent information on the gravity field, both from the satellite data and land survey measurements is examined to ascertain whether the Fennoscandian uplift is associated with a gravity minimum and a mass deficit. Free air anomalies correlate well with the central area of uplift and predict a remaining uplift of about 100 m. Results of secular gravity measurements are inconclusive. Seismicity of Fennoscandia does not show a close association with the area of maximum uplift. Different rheological models proposed for the mantle below the Fennoscandian shield are reviewed and it is shown that the available data on the rates of uplift for the last 9000 years are more compatible with a low-viscosity (10²⁰ P) asthenosphere of 100–200 km thickness.     

Sedimentology of glacial and glacial marine deposits on the George V-Adelie continental shelf, East Antarctica

Mineralogic and textural data suggest that glacial ice derived from the region of the present day Cook Ice Shelf extended to the edge of the d'Urville Sea continental shelf. As part of this glacial maximum, basal tills and glacial marine sediments were deposited over an irregular subglacial surface. Extensive redeposition of eroded material took place in the middle and outer portions of the continental shelf. Retreat of glacial ice was relatively rapid and was associated with widespread deposition of a thin residual glacial marine unit and turbidity current deposits in the far western and eastern parts of the region. Today, sedimentation on the continental shelf of the d'Urville Sea is controlled by biogenic and physical oceanographic processes. Deposition of ice-rafted detritus from icebergs undoubtedly occurs but is relatively insignificant. Glacial advances along this periphery of East Antarctica appear to the regulated by adjacent outlet glaciers rather than direct advance of the grounded ice sheet.