Was Scotland deglaciated during the Younger Dryas?

Recent work has produced data that challenges the canonical view that the Younger Dryas (c.12.9–11.7 ka) was a time of glacier expansion across the North Atlantic. Boulders on moraines located within the inner sector of the Scottish Loch Lomond Stadial (≈Younger Dryas) ice cap yield cosmogenic exposure ages 12.8–11.3 ka with a best estimate moraine age of 11.5 ± 0.6 ka. This age contradicts the interpretation that Scotland was completely deglaciated as early as 12,580 cal yr BP and no later than 12,200 cal yr BP. Our data supports the previously accepted scenario, supported by a wide variety of data, that final deglaciation of Scotland did not occur until late in the Loch Lomond Stadial or the early Holocene

Very low inheritance in cosmogenic surface exposure ages of glacial deposits: A field experiment from two Norwegian glacier forelands

Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating has been widely used to estimate the surface exposure age of bedrock and boulder surfaces associated with deglaciation and Holocene glacier variations, but the effect of inherited age has been rarely directly addressed. In this study, small clasts, embedded in flute surfaces on two cirque glacier forelands in Jotunheimen, southern Norway and deposited within the last ~60 years, were used to test whether such clasts have the modern surface exposure age expected in the absence of inheritance. Two different approaches were taken involving dating of (1) a single clast of cobble size from the proglacial area of Austanbotnbreen, and (2) 75 clasts mostly of pebble size from the proglacial area of Storbreen crushed and treated as a single sample. 10Be surface exposure ages were 99 ± 98 and 368 ± 90 years, respectively, with 95% confidence (±2σ). It is concluded that (1) these small glaciers have eroded and deposited rock fragments with a cosmogenic zero or near-zero concentration, (2) the likelihood of inherited cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in similar rock fragments deposited by larger warm-based glaciers and ice sheets should be small, and (3) combining a large number of small rock particles into one sample rather than using single large clasts of boulder size may provide a viable alternative to the commonly perceived need for five or more independent estimates of exposure age per site

Discordance between cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in amalgamated sands and individual fluvial pebbles in an arid zone catchment

Based on cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al analyses in 15 individual detrital quartz pebbles (16–21 mm) and cosmogenic 10Be in amalgamated medium sand (0.25–0.50 mm), all collected from the outlet of the upper Gaub River catchment in Namibia, quartz pebbles yield a substantially lower average denudation rate than those yielded by the amalgamated sand sample. 10Be and 26Al concentrations in the 15 individual pebbles span nearly two orders of magnitude (0.22 ± 0.01 to 20.74 ± 0.52 × 10610Be atoms g−1 and 1.35 ± 0.09 to 72.76 ± 2.04 × 10626Al atoms g−1, respectively) and yield average denudation rates of ∼0.7 m Myr−1 (10Be) and ∼0.9 m Myr−1 (26Al). In contrast, the amalgamated sand yields an average 10Be concentration of 0.77 ± 0.03 × 106 atoms g−1, and an associated mean denudation rate of 9.6 ± 1.1 m Myr−1, an order of magnitude greater than the rates obtained for the amalgamated pebbles. The inconsistency between the 10Be and 26Al in the pebbles and the 10Be in the amalgamated sand is likely due to the combined effect of differential sediment sourcing and longer sediment transport times for the pebbles compared to the sand-sized grains. The amalgamated sands leaving the catchment are an aggregate of grains originating from all quartz-bearing rocks in all parts of the catchment. Thus, the cosmogenic nuclide inventories of these sands record the overall average lowering rate of the landscape. The pebbles originate from quartz vein outcrops throughout the catchment, and the episodic erosion of the latter means that the pebbles will have higher nuclide inventories than the surrounding bedrock and soil, and therefore also higher than the amalgamated sand grains. The order-of-magnitude grain size bias observed in the Gaub has important implications for using cosmogenic nuclide abundances in depositional surfaces because in arid environments, akin to our study catchment, pebble-sized clasts yield substantially underestimated palaeo-denudation rates. Our results highlight the importance of carefully considering geomorphology and grain size when interpreting cosmogenic nuclide data in depositional surfaces

Lake Store Finnsjøen – a key for understanding Lateglacial/early Holocene vegetation and ice sheet dynamics in the central Scandes Mountains

The Lateglacial (LG) deglaciation and vegetation development in the Scandes Mountains has been debated for a century. Here we present new evidence from microfossils, radiocarbon dated plant macrofossils and sedimentary ancient DNA from laminated sediments in Lake Store Finnsjøen (1260 m a.s.l.) at Dovre, Central Norway. Combined with previous results from three other Dovre lakes, this allows for new interpretations of events during and immediately after the LG deglaciation. The Finnsjøen sediments present the first uninterrupted record of local vegetation development in the Scandes Mountains from the late Younger Dryas (YD), ca 12,000 cal years BP, to the early Holocene around 9700 cal years BP. The local vegetation in late YD/early Holocene was extremely sparse with pioneer herbs (e.g. Artemisia norvegica, Beckwithia, Campanula cf. uniflora, Koenigia, Oxyria, Papaver, Saxifraga spp.) and dwarf-shrubs (Betula nana, Salix including Salix polaris). From 11,300 cal years BP, local vegetation rapidly closed with dominant Dryas, Saxifraga spp., and Silene acaulis. From ca 10,700 cal years BP, open birch-forests with juniper, Empetrum nigrum and other dwarf-shrubs developed. Pine forests established within the area from 10,300 cal years BP. We identified the cold Preboreal Oscillation (PBO), not earlier described from pollen data in South Norway, around 11,400 cal years BP by a regional pollen signal. Distinct local vegetation changes were not detected until the post-PBO warming around 11,300 cal years BP. Apparently, the earlier warming at the YD/Holocene transition at 11,650 cal years BP was too weak and short-lived for vegetation closure at high altitudes at Dovre. For the first time, we demonstrate a regional glacier readvance and local ice cap formations during the YD in the Scandes Mountains. In two of the deep lakes with small catchments, YD glaciation blocked sedimentation without removing old sediments and caused a hiatus separating sediments of the ice-free LG interstadial (LGI) from those of the ice-free Holocene period. Both regional glaciers and local ice caps caused hiati. Ice-free pre-YD conditions at Dovre followed by a YD readvance point to a scenario that is intermediate between the maximum ice model postulating a thick glacier during the entire LG, and the minimum ice model postulating thin and multi-domed early LG ice

The Idre marginal moraine – an anchorpoint for Middle and Late Weichselian ice sheet chronology

We here report the results of luminescence and cosmogenic exposure dating of the Idre marginal moraine, located in the southern Scandinavian Mountains. This particular moraine is targeted because it is morphologically distinct and marks the margin of a former ice sheet. The till in the moraine contains erratics that provide strong evidence of flow from an ice sheet centred over Norway. The area immediately outside the moraine margin is an older residual soil. Luminescence ages of three samples taken from a sand lense within the moraine indicate that it formed at around 55 ka, during the early warm part of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Median exposure ages (10Be) of ten samples from boulders embedded in the surface till indicate that about 30 ka of ice-free time have elapsed since formation of the moraine. The difference between the age of the ridge and the duration of exposure provides a measure of the time of ice-cover in the ice sheet core area. Previous research indicates that final deglaciation of the site occurred at approximately 10 ka ago, which in combination with our results implies that the area around the Idre marginal moraine was ice free for ca. 20 ka, i.e. from around 55 ka to around 35 ka. Thereafter, the area was glaciated and the marginal moraine was covered by the Late Weichselian ice sheet for around 25 ka without experiencing any significant erosion or morphological destruction. While earlier studies have already pointed towards MIS 3 ice free conditions in northern and central Sweden, this study contributes a measurement-based duration estimate for the MIS 3 interstadial

Production of 21 Ne in depth-profiled olivine from a 54 Ma basalt sequence, Eastern Highlands (37° S), Australia

In this study we investigate the cosmogenic neon component in olivine samples from a vertical profile in order to quantify muogenic 21Ne production in this mineral. Samples were collected from an 11 m thick Eocene basalt profile in the Eastern Highlands of southeastern Australia. An eruption age of 54.15 ± 0.36 Ma (2σ) was determined from 40Ar/39Ar step-heating experiments (n = 6) on three whole-rock samples. A 36Cl profile on the section indicated an apparent steady state erosion rate of 4.7 ± 0.5 m Ma−1. The eruption age was used to calculate in situ produced radiogenic 4He and nucleogenic 3He and 21Ne concentrations in olivine. Olivine mineral separates (n = 4), extracted from the upper two metres of the studied profile, reveal cosmogenic 21Ne concentrations that attenuate exponentially with depth. However, olivine (Fo68) extracted from below 2 m does not contain discernible 21Ne aside from magmatic and nucleogenic components, with the exception of one sample that apparently contained equal proportions of nucleogenic and muogenic neon. Modelling results suggest a muogenic neon sea-level high-latitude production rate of 0.02 ± 0.04 to 0.9 ± 1.3 atoms g−1 a−1 (1σ), or <2.5% of spallogenic cosmogenic 21Ne production at Earth’s surface. These data support a key implicit assumption in the literature that accumulation of muogenic 21Ne in olivine in surface samples is likely to be negligible/minimal compared to spallogenic 21Ne

Evidence for rapid paraglacial formation of rock glaciers in southern Norway from 10Be surface-exposure dating

We evaluate the timing and environmental controls on past rock-glacier activity at Øyberget, upper Ottadalen, southern Norway, using in situ 10Be surface-exposure dating on (1) boulders belonging to relict rock-glacier lobes at c. 530 m asl, (2) bedrock and boulder surfaces at the Øyberget summit (c. 1200 m asl), and (3) bedrock at an up-valley site (c. 615 m asl). We find that the rock-glacier lobes became inactive around 11.1 ± 1.2 ka, coeval with the timing of summit deglaciation (11.2 ± 0.7 ka). This is slightly older than previously published Schmidt-hammer surface-exposure ages. The timing does not match known climatic conditions promoting rock-glacier formation in the early Holocene; hence we infer that lobe formation resulted from enhanced debris supply and burial of residual ice during and soon after deglaciation. The results demonstrate that rock glaciers may form over a relatively short period of time (hundreds rather than thousands of years) under non-permafrost conditions and possibly indicate a paraglacial type of process

The Importance of Lithology and Throw Rate on Bedrock River Behaviour and Evolution in the Gediz (Alasehir) Graben, Turkey

The Gediz (Alasehir) Graben is located in the highly tectonically active and seismogenic region of Western Turkey, which has been experiencing high-angle normal faulting since ~ 2 Ma. Rivers upstream of the normal fault-bounded graben each contain a lithologic knickpoint related to the change in bedrock geology (from soft sediments to hard metamorphic rocks) and a non-lithologic knickpoint, caused by an increase in fault slip rate at ~ 0.8 Ma. Therefore, this system represents an ideal natural laboratory to investigate the relative roles of bedrock lithology / rock strength and rates of faulting on the behaviour and evolution of bedrock river systems. Our results show that metamorphic rocks in the catchments are 2-3 times harder than the sedimentary rocks. Stream power increases downstream reaching local maxima upstream of the fault within the metamorphic bedrock but declines rapidly once softer sedimentary rocks are encountered. We also demonstrate a positive correlation between throw rate and stream power in the metamorphic rocks characteristic of rivers obeying a detachment-limited model of erosion. In sedimentary rocks stream powers are invariant with throw rate but do scale with the river's sediment transport capacity. We also present new Be10 denudation rates that show correlations with calculated stream power and fault throw rates. This study demonstrates that the strength of underlying bedrock is a major influence on river evolution and that the nature of the underlying lithology profoundly influences the way in which the river behaves