Revised palaeoclimatic significance of Mueller Glacier moraines,Southern Alps,New Zealand

A sequence of Late Holocene moraines on the foreland of the Mueller Glacier, Southern Alps, New Zealand, forms part of a local moraine‐age database used to establish a regional glacier chronology and subsequently to investigate potential intra‐hemispheric and global climate forcing mechanisms. We present new sedimentological and geomorphological evidence that a set of these moraine ridges, previously considered to represent individual advances, constitutes a single moraine complex (the ‘Mueller Memorial Moraine’) formed by supraglacial transport of a large volume of landslide debris to the glacier terminus. Because a moraine formed in this way is not necessarily associated with an advance triggered by a climate event, we question the palaeoclimatic significance of the Mueller Memorial Moraine, as well as that of other moraines in comparable settings. Our findings suggest that the mode of formation and glacio‐dynamical context of moraines whose ages contribute to existing palaeoclimate reconstructions need to be re‐examined in order to assess the reliability of these reconstructions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

TESTING LAKE SEDIMENT AND DENDROGEOMORPHIC PROXIES FOR LITTLE ICE AGE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN THE UPPER FRASER RIVER AREA,BRITISH COLUMBIA,CANADA

This study assesses Little Ice Age (LIA) lake sediment morphological and geochemical records and moraine chronologies in the upper Fraser River watershed, British Columbia, Canada, to resolve differences in paleoenvironmental interpretation and to clarify sediment production and sediment delivery processes within alpine geomorphic systems. Moose Lake (13.9 km²), situated at 1032 m a.s.l., contains a partially varved record indicating variable rates of accumulation during the last millennium that, in general, coincide with previously documented LIA glacial advances in the region and locally. Dendrochronological assessment of forefield surfaces in the headwaters of the catchment (Reef Icefield) shows that periods of moraine construction occurred just prior to ad 1770, ad 1839 and ad 1883, and some time before ad 1570. Taken collectively, increases in varve thickness within eight Moose Lake sediment cores coincide with documented glacier advances over the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, the eighteenth century, and nineteenth through twentieth centuries. Glacial activity during the sixteenth century is also indicated. While varve thickness variations in proximal and distal sediments clearly reflect glacial activity upstream of Moose Lake, the intermediate varve record is relatively insensitive to these decadal and longer‐term catchment processes. Variations in Ca and related elements derived from glaciated carbonate terrain within the Moose River sub‐catchment (including Reef Icefield) indicate gradually increasing delivery from these sources from the twelfth through twentieth centuries even where the varve thickness record is unresponsive. Elevated carbonate concentrations confirm glacial activity c. ad 1200, ad 1500, ad 1750, and ad 1900.     

Morphology, distribution and formation of relict marginal moraines in the Swedish mountains

Relict marginal moraines are commonly used landforms in palaeoglaciological reconstructions. In the Swedish mountains, a large number of relict marginal moraines of variable morphology and origin occur. In this study, we have mapped 234 relict marginal moraines distributed all along the Swedish mountains and classified them into four morphological classes: cirque‐and‐valley moraines, valley‐side moraines, complex moraines and cross‐valley moraines. Of these, 46 moraines have been reclassified or are here mapped for the first time. A vast majority of the relict moraines are shown to have formed during deglaciation of an ice‐sheet, rather than by local mountain glaciers as suggested in earlier studies. The relict marginal moraines generally indicate that deglaciation throughout the mountains was characterised by a retreating ice‐sheet, successively damming glacial lakes, and downwasting around mountains. The general lack of moraines indicating valley and cirque glaciers during deglaciation suggests that climatic conditions were unfavourable for local glaciation during the last phase of the Weichselian. This interpretation contrasts with some earlier studies that have reconstructed the formation of local glaciers in the higher parts of the Swedish mountains during deglaciation.