Topographic controls on plateau icefield recession: insights from the Younger Dryas Monadhliath Icefield,Scotland

Plateau icefields are a common form of mountain ice mass, frequently found in mid‐latitude to high‐arctic regions and increasingly recognized in the Quaternary record. Their top‐heavy hypsometry makes them highly sensitive to changes in climate when the equilibriaum line altitude (ELA) lies above the plateau edge, allowing ice to expand significantly as regional ELAs decrease, and causing rapid recession as climate warms. With respect to future climate warming, it is important to understand the controls on plateau icefield response to climate change in order to better predict recession rates, with implications for water resources and sea‐level rise. Improving knowledge of the controls on glacier recession may also enable further palaeoclimatic information to be extracted from the Quaternary glacial record. We use the distribution of moraines to examine topographic controls on Younger Dryas icefield recession in Scotland. We find that overall valley morphology influences the style of recession, through microclimatic and geometric controls, with bed gradient affecting moraine spacing. Ice mass reconfiguration may occur as recession progresses because ice divide migration could alter the expected response based on hypsometric distribution. These results add to a growing body of research examining controls on glacier recession and offer a step towards unravelling non‐linear ice mass behaviour. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Glacial and Fluvial Deposits in the Aragón Valley,Central‐Western Pyrenees: Chronology of the Pyrenean Late Pleistocene Glaciers

The Aragón Valley glacier (Central Western Pyrenees) has been studied since the late nineteenth century and has become one of the best areas in the Pyrenees to study the occurrence of Pleistocene glaciations and the relationships between moraines and fluvial terraces. New morphological studies and absolute ages for moraines and fluvial terraces in the Aragón Valley allow a correlation with other Pyrenean glaciers and provide solid chronologies about the asynchroneity between global last glacial maximum (LGM) and the maximum ice extent (MIE). Six frontal arcs and three lateral morainic ridges were identified in the Villanúa basin terminal glacial complex. The main moraines (M1 and M2) correspond to two glacial stages (oxygen isotopic stages MIS 6 and MIS 4), dated at 171 ± 22 ka and 68 ± 7 ka, respectively. From a topographical point of view, moraine M1 appears to be linked to the 60 m fluvioglacial terrace, dated in a tributary of the Aragón River at 263 ± 21 ka. The difference in age between M1 moraine and the 60 m fluvioglacial terrace suggests that the latter belongs to an earlier glacial stage (MIS 8). Moraine M2 was clearly linked to the fluvioglacial 20 m terrace. Other minor internal moraines were related to the 7–8 m terrace. The dates obtained for the last glacial cycle (20–18 ka) are similar to other chronologies for Mediterranean mountains, and confirm the occurrence of an early MIE in the Central Pyrenees that does not coincide with the global LGM.     

Glacier response in the European Alps to Heinrich Event 1 cooling: the Gschnitz stadial

The Gschnitz stadial was a period of regionally extensive glacier advance in the European Alps that lies temporally between the breakdown of the Last Glacial Maximum piedmont lobes and the beginning of the Bølling warm interval. Moraines of the Gschnitz stadial are found in medium to small catchments, are steep‐walled and blocky, and reflect a snowline lowering of 650–700 m in comparison to the Little Ice Age reference snowline. ¹⁰Be surface exposure dating of boulders from the moraine at the type locality at Trins (Gschnitz valley, Tyrol, Austria) shows that it stabilised no later than 15 400 ± 1400 yr ago. The overall morphological situation and the long reaction time of the glacier suggest that the climatic downturn lasted about 500 ± 300 yr, indicating that the Gschnitz cold period began approximately 15 900 ± 1400 yr ago, if not somewhat earlier. This is consistent with published radiocarbon dates that imply that the stadial occurred sometime between 15 400 ¹⁴C yr BP (18 020–19 100 cal. yr) and 13 250 ¹⁴C yr BP (15 360–16 015 cal. yr). A palaeoclimatic interpretation of the Gschnitz glacier based on a simple glacier flow model and statistical glacier‐climate models shows that precipitation was about one‐third of modern‐day precipitation and summer temperatures were about 10 K lower than today. In comparison, during the Younger Dryas, precipitation in this area was only about 10% less and T_s (summer temperature) was only 3.5–4 K lower than modern values. Based on the age of the moraine and the cold and dry climate at that time, we suggest that the Gschnitz stadial was the response of Alpine glaciers to cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean associated with Heinrich Event 1. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The long-singular ridges of the Halland Coastal Moraines,South-Western Sweden

Radiocarbon dates of shells from the long singular ridges belonging to the Halland Coastal Moraines indicate that the ridges are younger than 12 400 yr BP, whereas according to the existing chronostratigraphy of western Sweden, the area was ice free before 12 700 yr BP. The ridges are interpreted as push moraines and not deposits of a stationary ice margin. The chronostratigraphy of western Sweden seems to need revision; however, further study is necessary before it is possible to present a new model.     

东南极格罗夫山地区冰碛石碎石带中高压麻粒岩和正片麻岩的锆石年代学研究及其构造意义

东南极的格罗夫山是普里兹造山带向南极内陆的延伸部分。对格罗夫山不同碎石带中收集的高压麻粒岩和正片麻岩进行锆石U-Pb年代学研究。四个高压麻粒岩的锆石多数为变质新生锆石,仅少数保留有继承核,其年龄为2633—2502 Ma。在变质锆石中获得~570 Ma和~555—545 Ma两个阶段变质年龄,锆石微量元素特征显示为重稀土亏损,结合前人研究结果,推测这两阶段年龄分别代表了变质作用过程中的进变质和高压峰期变质年龄。两个正片麻岩的锆石普遍发育核-边结构,由一个发育振荡环带的岩浆核和均匀无环带的变质边组成。正片麻岩的原岩年龄存在差异,在样品GR14-3-4的锆石核部获得了1060±40 Ma的上交点年龄,其原岩可能来自格罗夫山东南部的冰下高地,而在样品GR14-5-4的锆石核部获得的原岩年龄为917±4 Ma,与格罗夫山基岩中的基性麻粒岩和正片麻岩的原岩年龄一致。在锆石边部获得的变质年龄较为一致,为~530 Ma,与以前在高压麻粒岩中获得的退变质年龄相当。本次研究确认了高压麻粒岩在格罗夫山地区不同碎石带中分布的广泛性,表明其可能普遍存在于格罗夫山冰下高地之中。同时也进一步证明格罗夫山冰下高地并没有受到格林维尔期构造热事件的影响,而是只经历了泛非期的单相变质构造旋回。     

Did large ice caps persist on low ground in north‐west Scotland during the Lateglacial Interstade?

Recent research based primarily on exposure ages of boulders on moraines has suggested that extensive ice masses persisted in fjords and across low ground in north‐west Scotland throughout the Lateglacial Interstade (≈ Greenland Interstade 1, ca. 14.7–12.9 ka), and that glacier ice was much more extensive in this area during the Older Dryas chronozone (ca. 14.0 ka) than during the Younger Dryas Stade (ca. 12.9–11.7 ka). We have recalibrated the same exposure age data using locally derived ¹⁰Be production rates. This increases the original mean ages by 6.5–12%, implying moraine deposition between ca. 14.3 and ca. 15.1 ka, and we infer a most probable age of ca. 14.7 ka based on palaeoclimatic considerations. The internal consistency of the ages implies that the dated moraines represent a single readvance of the ice margin (the Wester Ross Readvance). Pollen–stratigraphic evidence from a Lateglacial site at Loch Droma on the present drainage divide demonstrates deglaciation before ca. 14.0 ka, and therefore implies extensive deglaciation of all low ground and fjords in this area during the first half of the interstade (ca. 14.7–14.0 ka). This inference appears consistent with Lateglacial radiocarbon dates for shells recovered from glacimarine sediments and a dated tephra layer. Our revised chronology conflicts with earlier proposals that substantial dynamic ice caps persisted in Scotland between 14 and 13 ka, that large active glaciers probably survived throughout the Lateglacial Interstade and that ice extent was greater during the Older Dryas period than during the Younger Dryas Stade. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seafloor glacial features reveal the extent and decay of the last British Ice Sheet,east of Scotland

Three‐dimensional (3D) seismic datasets, 2D seismic reflection profiles and shallow cores provide insights into the geometry and composition of glacial features on the continental shelf, offshore eastern Scotland (58° N, 1–2° W). The relic features are related to the activity of the last British Ice Sheet (BIS) in the Outer Moray Firth. A landsystem assemblage consisting of four types of subglacial and ice marginal morphology is mapped at the seafloor. The assemblage comprises: (i) large seabed banks (interpreted as end moraines), coeval with the Bosies Bank moraine; (ii) morainic ridges (hummocky, push and end moraine) formed beneath, and at the margins of the ice sheet; (iii) an incised valley (a subglacial meltwater channel), recording meltwater drainage beneath former ice sheets; and (iv) elongate ridges and grooves (subglacial bedforms) overprinted by transverse ridges (grounding line moraines). The bedforms suggest that fast‐flowing grounded ice advanced eastward of the previously proposed terminus of the offshore Late Weichselian BIS, increasing the size and extent of the ice sheet beyond traditional limits. Complex moraine formation at the margins of less active ice characterised subsequent retreat, with periodic stillstands and readvances. Observations are consistent with interpretations of a dynamic and oscillating ice margin during BIS deglaciation, and with an extensive ice sheet in the North Sea basin at the Last Glacial Maximum. Final ice margin retreat was rapid, manifested in stagnant ice topography, which aided preservation of the landsystem record. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identification and significance of ice-flow-transverse subglacial ridges (Rogen moraines) in northern central Ireland

In the Omagh Basin, north central Ireland, subglacial diamict ridges lie transverse to southwestward Late Devensian (ca. 23–13 ka) ice flow. These ridges (0.5–2.5 km long, 100–450 m wide, 15–35 m high), are similar morphologically to Rogen moraines, which have not been described previously from the British Isles. The crests of some transverse ridges are streamlined, cross-cut or overprinted by drumlins, whereas other ridges are unmodified and were not affected by later drumlinisation. At Kilskeery, west–east trending eskers overlying unmodified transverse ridges post-date drumlinisation (17–14 ¹⁴C ka). Esker formation shows that the subglacial thermal regime changed from cold-based, favouring bedform preservation, to warm-based with meltwater flowing through enclosed subglacial channels. Patterns of flow-transverse-ridges and spatial variations in the degree of bedform modification record dynamic changes in regional subglacial environments during the last deglacial cycle. This ice-mass variability cannot be reconciled with current Irish glacial models, which are based on immobile ice centres and ordered stages of ice retreat. In a wider context, these changes in bedform patterns and basal ice regimes have a similar signature to millennial-scale ice-mass oscillations recorded by dated proxy evidence elsewhere in the amphi-North Atlantic. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.