Pleistocene lake outburst floods and fan formation along the eastern Sierra Nevada, California:implications for the interpretation of intermontane lacustrine records

Variations in the rock flour fraction in intermontane lacustrine sediments have the potential to provide more complete records of glacier fluctuations than moraine sequences, which are subject to erosional censoring. Construction of glacial chronologies from such records relies on the assumption that rock flour concentration is a simple function of glacier extent. However, other factors may influence the delivery of glacigenic sediments to intermontane lakes, including paraglacial adjustment of slope and fluvial systems to deglaciation, variations in precipitation and snowmelt, and lake outburst floods. We have investigated the processes and chronology of sediment transport on the Tuttle and Lone Pine alluvial fans in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California, USA, to elucidate the links between former glacier systems located upstream and the long sedimentary record from Owens Lake located downstream. Aggradation of both fans reflects sedimentation by three contrasting process regimes: (1) high magnitude, catastrophic floods, (2) fluvial or glacifluvial river systems, and (3) debris flows and other slope processes. Flood deposits are represented by multiple boulder beds exposed in section, and extensive networks of large palaeochannels and boulder deposits on both fan surfaces. Palaeohydrological analysis implies peak discharges in the order of 10(3)-10(4)m(3)s(-1), Most probably as the result of catastrophic drainage of ice-, moraine-, and landslide-dammed lakes. Cosmogenic radionuclide surface exposure dating shows that at least three flood events are represented on each fan, at 9-13, 16-18 and 32-44 ka (Tuttle Fan); and at similar to 23-32, similar to 80-86 ka, and a poorly constrained older event (Lone Pine Fan). Gravels and sands exposed in both fans represent fluvial and/or glacifluvial sediment transport from the Sierra Nevada into Owens Valley, and show that river systems incised and reworked older sediment stored in the fans. We argue that millennial-scale peaks in rock flour abundance in the Owens Lake core reflect (1) fluctuations in primary subglacial erosion in the catchments in response to glacier advance-retreat cycles; (2) short-lived pulses of sediment delivered directly by catastrophic flood events; and (3) sediment released from storage in alluvial fans by fluvial and glacifluvial incision and reworking. As a result of this complexity the coarse sediment peaks in lake deposits may not simply reflect periods of increased glaciation, but likely also reflect changes in sediment storage and flux controlled by paraglacial processes. Current dating evidence is inadequate to allow precise correlation of individual flood or incision events with the Owens Lake rock flour record, although given the widespread occurrence of flood deposits in fans along the eastern margins of the Sierra Nevada, it is clear that fan deposition and incision played a very important role in modulating the delivery of glacigenic sediment to Owens Lake. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p

Tropical glacier fluctuations in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru between 12.5 and 7.6 ka from cosmogenic 10Be dating

We report cosmogenic surface exposure &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be ages of 21 boulders on moraines in the Jeullesh and Tuco Valleys, Cordillera Blanca, Peru (&#8764;10°S at altitudes above 4200 m). Ages are based on the sea-level at high-latitude reference production rate and scaling system of Lifton et al. (2005. Addressing solar modulation and long-term uncertainties in scaling secondary cosmic rays for in situ cosmogenic nuclide applications. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 239, 140–161) in the CRONUS-Earth online calculator of Balco et al. (2008. A complete and easily accessible means of calculating surface exposure ages or erosion rates from &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be and &lt;sup&gt;26&lt;/sup&gt;Al measurements. Quaternary Geochronology 3, 174–195). Using the Lifton system, large outer lateral moraines in the Jeullesh Valley have a &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be exposure age of 12.4 ka, inside of which are smaller moraine systems dated to 10.8, 9.7 and 7.6 ka. Large outer lateral moraines in the Tuco Valley have a &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be exposure age of 12.5 ka, with inner moraines dated to 11.3 and 10.7 ka. Collectively, these data indicate that glacier recession from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Cordillera Blanca was punctuated by three to four stillstands or minor advances during the period 12.5–7.6 ka, spanning the Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC; &#8764;12.9–11.6 ka) and the cold event identified in Greenland ice cores and many other parts of the world at 8.2 ka. The inferred fluctuations of tropical glaciers at these times, well after their withdrawal from the LGM, indicate an increase in precipitation or a decrease in temperature in this region. Although palaeoenvironmental records show regional and temporal variability, comparison with proxy records (lacustrine sediments and ice cores) indicate that regionally this was a cold, dry period so we ascribe these glacier advances to reduced atmospheric temperature rather than increased precipitation

Post-1850 changes in Glacier Benito, North Patagonian Icefield, Chile

Glacier Benito is a temperate outlet glacier on the west side of the North Patagonian Icefield. Rates of thinning and ablation were obtained using data collected by the British Joint Services Expedition in 1972/73 and subsequent data collected in 2007 and 2011. Ice-front recession rates were based on dendrochronological dating for the terminal moraines and aerial and satellite imagery of the ice front in 1944, 1998 and 2002. Between the first Benito survey in 1973 and 2007, the lower glacier thinned by nearly 150 m at an average rate of 4.3 m yr−1 with the rate increasing to 6.1 m yr−1 between 2007 and 2011, a 28.7% increase during the latter period. Increases in ice movement and ablation were negligible: ice movement for 1973 and 2007 averaged 0.45 m day−1 and ablation averaged 0.05 m day−1. Ice front recession along the glacier's centre line from 1886 to 2002 was approximately 1860 m. Retreat rates between 1886 and 1944 averaged 8.9 m yr−1. Thereafter glacier asymmetry makes measurement along the glacier centre line unrepresentative of areal change until 1998 when symmetry was restored; retreat between 1944 and 1998 was 15.4 m yr−1. From 1998 to 2002 the rate increased dramatically to 127.2 m yr−1. Recession from the southern end of Benito's terminal moraine in the 1850s supports an early date for initial retreat of the Icefield's glaciers