Numerical simulation of the paleohydrology of glacial Lake Oshkosh, eastern Wisconsin, USA

Proglacial lakes, formed during retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet, evolved quickly as outlets became ice-free and the earth deformed through glacial isostatic adjustment. With high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) and GIS methods, it is possible to reconstruct the evolution of surface hydrology. When a DEM deforms through time as predicted by our model of viscoelastic earth relaxation, the entire surface hydrologic system with its lakes, outlets, shorelines and rivers also evolves without requiring assumptions of outlet position. The method is applied to proglacial Lake Oshkosh in Wisconsin (13,600 to 12,900 cal yr BP). Comparison of predicted to observed shoreline tilt indicates the ice sheet was about 400 m thick over the Great Lakes region. During ice sheet recession, each of the five outlets are predicted to uplift more than 100 m and then subside approximately 30 m. At its maximum extent, Lake Oshkosh covered 6600 km² with a volume of 111 km³. Using the Hydrologic Engineering Center-River Analysis System model, flow velocities during glacial outburst floods up to 9 m/s and peak discharge of 140,000 m³/s are predicted, which could drain 33.5 km³ of lake water in 10 days and transport boulders up to 3 m in diameter.     

Could ‘Snowball Earth’ have left thick glaciomarine deposits?

At least two of the Cryogenian (Neoproterozoic) glacials, viz. those of the Sturtian and the Marinoan, are said to have been so severe that the entire Earth was covered with ice (Snowball Earth). The most convincing evidence consists of diamicts with some glacial striae and of other glacial signatures (striated surfaces, polished rocks) that have been found in areas that are interpreted on the basis of paleomagnetic data as being positioned, at the time, at low latitudes. The extremely low temperatures must have contributed to entirely frozen oceans. Nevertheless, diamicts of exceptional thickness were formed in a marine environment. This cannot be explained satisfactorily, as icebergs cannot have floated in an entirely frozen ocean. It is suggested that at least a considerable part of the extremely thick Neoproterozoic ‘glaciomarine’ deposits represent syntectonic mass-flow deposits rather than glacial deposits. The existence of a huge mountain range between Eastern and Western Gondwanaland provided favourable conditions for such deposits.     

Heat flow variation with depth in Poland: evidence from equilibrium temperature logs in 2.9-km-deep well Torun-1

High-precision temperature measurements were carried out up to a depth of 2,930 m in the 5.5-km-deep well Torun-1, 26 years after completion of drilling. The temperature log provides equilibrium thermal state information for the Polish Lowland at the western margin of the Precambrian craton. Geothermal gradient calculated from the equilibrium temperature log, together with estimates of thermal conductivity from ‘net rock’ geophysical well logging analysis and available core measurements, yields heat flow in the range 50–60 mW/m² below 2-km depth. Heat flow of 50 mW/m² plus ∼10 mW/m² generated within thick sediments and highly metamorphosed sedimentary wedge is typical for the western margin of the Precambrian East European craton. Heat-flow variations with depth can be explained by a model of surface-temperature changes >10°C (glaciation to Holocene). Torun-1 Working Group: Marta Wróblewska, Jacek Majorowicz, Jan Szewczyk, Jan Šafanda, Vladimír Cermák     

末次盛冰期以来中国东部陆架层序地层研究现状

本文中笔者总结了多年来国内外中国东部陆架晚更新世地层结构研究的主要认识,系统阐述了层序地层与沉积环境演化。中国东部陆架沉积物输运量高、沉积作用受海平面变化影响强烈,是分析晚更新世沉积演化史的理想场所。末次盛冰期(22kaBP)之前,海面的持续下降形成以浅海、三角洲及海陆交互沉积为主的强制海退体系域。进入盛冰期后,一个新的旋回开始,在海退体系域之上,相继形成了包括低位体系域、海侵体系域及高位体系域在内新的4级层序:22～15kaBP盛冰期时期,海面降至最低,形成低位体系域,包括陆架深切河湖沉积及风成沉积,以及陆架边缘三角洲和潮流砂体等;盛冰期结束的15～7kaBP时期,全球海平面快速上升,形成含河道充填、湖泊、盐沼、潮坪、潮流砂体及浅海沉积的退积型海侵体系域;约7kaBP以后,海面与现今海面位置基本相当,形成高位体系域,主要为三角洲和潮流砂等近岸陆架的沉积。     

Tessellons,topography, and glaciations on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has developed into a vast fortress-like structure that has recently presented a barrier limiting the egress of moisture-bearing air masses. Lower sea levels also affected the climate. This paper examines their effects on the current evidence for the timing of past glaciations, and the development and evolution of permafrost. There are two theories regarding glaciation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP). Kuhle suggested that there was a major, unified ice-cap during the Last Glacial Maximum(LGM), whereas major Chinese glaciologists and others have not found or verified reliable evidence for this per se. There have been limited glaciations during the last 1.1 Ma B.P. but with increasing dominance of permafrost including both primary and secondary tessellons infilled with rock, sand or loess. The East Asia Monsoon was absent in this area during the main LGM, starting at 30 ka B.P. on the plateau, with sufficient precipitation reappearing about 19 ka B.P. to produce ice-wedges. A weak Megathermal event took place between 8.5 and 6.0 ka B.P., followed by Neoglacial events exhibiting peak cold at 5.3–4.7 ka, 3.1–1.5 ka, and the Little Ice Age(LIA) after 0.7 ka. Subsequently,mean annual air temperature has increased by 4 °C.     

Late Quaternary fluctuations of the Leeuwin Current and palaeoclimates on the adjacent land masses: Clay mineral evidence

Clay minerals eroded from soils by rivers and wind action become entrained in shallow‐ as well as deep‐water masses of the surrounding seas. Their pattern on the sea floor gives clues to their propagation by ocean currents. Clay mineral assemblages in sediment cores can be used as a useful proxy to decipher past changes in the intensity of ocean currents or in the nature of the palaeoclimatic processes on the adjacent landmasses. Three cores taken from beneath the path of the present‐day Leeuwin Current in the Timor Passage, from off the Australian North West Shelf and off the North West Cape of Western Australia are investigated. They provide a Late Quaternary record of environmental changes. Kaolinite and chlorite are transported into the Timor Passage today by the Indonesian Throughflow, while illite is provided locally from Timor. The Leeuwin Current leaves the Timor Passage with a characteristic clay mineral signature acquired in the Indonesian Archipelago (kaolinite, chlorite and illite). Uptake of clay minerals along its way through the Timor Sea, e.g. illite from the Kimberley area, changes this signature. South of North West Cape chlorite, injected by the rivers of the Pilbara region into the path of the Leeuwin Current, is prominent in surface sediments in less than 1000 m water depth and outlines the flow of the current today. During the last glacial period, the volume of the Indonesian Throughflow decreased and less kaolinite and chlorite reached the Timor Passage. Offshore from North West Cape, a reduction in chlorite during the last glacial may indicate a decrease or absence of the Leeuwin Current and/or a reduction in the input of chlorite due to drier conditions on land. A maximum of illite in recent sediments and the Holocene offshore from North West Cape results from the input of material from rivers periodically draining the adjacent hinterland. Again, a reduction in illite points to a drier climate in the area during the last glacial.     

Glaciers and climate in Pacific Far NE Russia during the Last Glacial Maximum

A combined geomorphological–physical model approach is used to generate three‐dimensional reconstructions of glaciers in Pacific Far NE Russia during the global Last glacial Maximum (gLGM). The horizontal dimensions of these ice masses are delineated by moraines, their surface elevations are estimated using an iterative flowline model and temporal constraints upon their margins are derived from published age estimates. The equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) of these ice masses are estimated, and gLGM climate is reconstructed using a simple degree–day melt model. The results indicate that, during the gLGM, ice masses occupying the Pekulney, Kankaren and Sredinny mountains of Pacific Far NE Russia were of valley glacier and ice field type. These glaciers were between 7 and 80 km in length, and were considerably less extensive than during pre‐LGM phases of advance. gLGM ice masses in these regions had ELAs of between 575 ± 22 m and 1035 ± 41 m (above sea level) – corresponding to an ELA depression of 350–740 m, relative to present. Data indicate that, in the Pekulney Mountains, this ELA depression occurred because of a 6.4°C reduction in mean July temperature, and 200 mm a^?1 reduction in precipitation, relative to present. Thus reconstructions support a restricted view of gLGM glaciation in Pacific Far NE Russia and indicate that the region's aridity precluded the development of large continental ice sheets. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Climate variability during the Last Glacial Maximum in eastern Australia: evidence of two stadials?

A high‐resolution, multiproxy record encompassing the last glacial–interglacial transition is presented for Native Companion Lagoon, a coastal site in subtropical eastern Australia. Rates of aeolian sedimentation in the lake were established by trace element analyses of lacustrine sediments and used as a proxy for aridity. In conjunction with sediment moisture content, charcoal and pollen these provide a multi‐decadal record of palaeoenvironmental variability for the period 33–18 k cal. yr BP. Results indicate that the Last Glacial Maximum in eastern Australia spanned almost 10 k cal. yr, and was characterised by two distinct cold dry events at approximately 30.8 k cal. yr BP and 21.7 k cal. yr BP. Provenance of selected sediment samples by trace element geochemical fingerprinting shows that continental sourced aeolian sediments originated primarily from South Australia during these cold events and from sites in central Australia during the intervening time. Used in combination with a pollen record, the provenance of long‐travelled dust to mainland sites shows that the two cold events were characterised by frequent meridional dry southwesterly winds rather than zonal westerly airflow as previously believed. The intervening period was cool and humid, which we infer as being associated with more frequent southeasterly winds of maritime origin. These results lend support to previous research that indicates the Southern Hemisphere experienced a period of widespread climatic amelioration at the height of the last glacial known as the Antarctic Isotopic Maximum. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alkenones and coccoliths in ice‐rafted debris during the Last Glacial Maximum in the North Atlantic: implications for the use of UK37′ as a sea surface temperature proxy

The U^K₃₇′ index has proven to be a robust proxy to estimate past sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over a range of time scales, but like any other proxy, it has uncertainties. For instance, in reconstructions of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the northern North Atlantic, U^K₃₇′ indicates higher temperatures than those derived from foraminiferal proxies. Here we evaluate whether such warm glacial estimates are caused by the advection of reworked alkenones in ice‐rafted debris (IRD) to deep‐sea sediments. We have quantified both coccolith assemblages and alkenones in sediments from glaciogenic debris flows in the continental margins of the northern North Atlantic, and from a deep‐sea core from the Reykjanes Ridge. Certain debris flow deposits in the North Atlantic were generated by the presence of massive ice‐sheets in the past, and their associated ice streams. Such deposits are composed of the same materials that were present in the IRD at the time they were generated. We conclude that ice rafting from some locations was a transport pathway to the deep sea floor of reworked alkenones and pre‐Quaternary coccolith species during glacial stages, but that not all of the IRD contained alkenones, even when reworked coccoliths were present. We speculate that the ratio of reworked coccoliths to alkenone concentration might be useful to infer whether significant reworked alkenone inputs from IRD did occur at a particular site in the glacial North Atlantic. We also observe that alkenones in some of the debris flows contain a colder signal than estimated for LGM sediments in the northern North Atlantic. This is also clear in the deep‐sea core studied where the warmest intervals do not correspond to the intervals with large inputs of reworked coccoliths or IRD. We conclude that any possible bias to U^K₃₇′ estimates associated with reworked alkenones is not necessarily towards higher values, and that the high SST anomalies for the LGM are unlikely to be the result of a bias caused by IRD inputs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vegetation changes in the Neotropical Gran Sabana (Venezuela) around the Younger Dryas chron

The occurrence of the Younger Dryas cold reversal in northern South America midlands and lowlands remains controversial. We present a palaeoecological analysis of a Late Glacial lacustrine section from a midland lake (Lake Chonita, 4.6501 °N, 61.0157 °W, 884 m elevation) located in the Venezuelan Gran Sabana, based on physical and biological proxies. The sediments were mostly barren from ～15.3 to 12.7 k cal a BP, probably due to poor preservation. A ligneous community with no clear modern analogues was dominant from 12.7 to 11.7 k cal a BP (Younger Dryas chronozone). At present, similar shrublands are situated around 200 m elevation above the lake, suggesting a cooling‐driven downward shift in vegetation during that period. The interval from 11.7 to 10.6 k cal a BP is marked by a dramatic replacement of the shrubland by savannas and a conspicuous increase in fire incidence. The intensification of local and regional fires at this interval could have played a role in the vegetation shift. A change to wetter, and probably warmer, conditions is deduced after 11.7 k cal a BP, coinciding with the early Holocene warming. These results support the hypothesis of a mixed origin (climate and fire) of the Gran Sabana savannas, and highlight the climatic instability of the Neotropics during the Late Glacial. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.