scholarly journals Rapid age assessment of glacial landforms in the Pyrenees using Schmidt hammer exposure dating (SHED)

2018 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt D. Tomkins ◽  
Jason M. Dortch ◽  
Philip D. Hughes ◽  
Jonny J. Huck ◽  
Andrew G. Stimson ◽  
...  

AbstractSchmidt hammer (SH) sampling of 54 10Be-dated granite surfaces from the Pyrenees reveals a clear relationship between exposure and weathering through time (n=52, R2=0.96, P<0.01) and permits the use of the SH as a numerical dating tool. To test this 10Be-SH calibration curve, 100 surfaces were sampled from five ice-front positions in the Têt catchment, eastern Pyrenees, with results verified against independent 10Be and 14C ages. Gaussian modelling differentiates Holocene (9.4±0.6 ka), Younger Dryas (12.6±0.9 ka), Oldest Dryas (16.1±0.5 ka), last glacial maximum (LGM; 24.8±0.9 ka) and Würmian maximum ice extent stages (MIE; 40.9±1.1 ka). These data confirm comparable glacier lengths during the LGM and MIE (~300 m difference), in contrast to evidence from the western Pyrenees (≥15 km), reflecting the relative influence of Atlantic and Mediterranean climates. Moreover, Pyrenean glaciers advanced significantly during the LGM, with a local maximum at ~25 ka, driven by growth of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, southward advection of the polar front, and a solar radiation minimum in the Northern Hemisphere. This calibration curve is available online (http://shed.earth) to enable wider application of this method throughout the Pyrenees.

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt D. Tomkins ◽  
Jonny J. Huck ◽  
Jason M. Dortch ◽  
Philip D. Hughes ◽  
Martin P. Kirbride ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magali Delmas ◽  
Yanni Gunnell ◽  
Régis Braucher ◽  
Marc Calvet ◽  
Didier Bourlès

We present a chronology of ice recession in the eastern Pyrenees based onin situ-produced10Be data obtained from the Têt paleoglacier complex. The sampling strategy is based on the relative chronology provided by a detailed geomorphological map of glacial landforms. Results indicate that the last maximum ice advance occurred late (i.e., during Marine Isotope Stage 2) compared to the chronology currently established for the rest of the Pyrenees. Despite debatable evidence for a glacial readvance during the Oldest Dryas stade, ice-cap melt-out was rapid, residual cirque glaciers having disappeared by the Allerød interstade. This is consistent both with North Atlantic excursions established by the Greenland ice cores and paleoenvironmental data for the region. The rapid response of the east-Pyrenean ice cap to temperature variations is primarily linked to its small size compared to larger Pyrenean ice fields, to the dry Mediterranean climate, and to topography-related nonlinearities in which a small vertical rise in equilibrium line altitude generates a large change in ice mass. Possible sources of age uncertainty are discussed in the context of sampling design for single-nuclide (10Be) dating of landform sequences in formerly glaciated landscapes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 67-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Dortch ◽  
P.D. Hughes ◽  
M.D. Tomkins

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 88-98
Author(s):  
Stephanie L. Heath ◽  
Thomas V. Lowell ◽  
Brenda L. Hall

AbstractThe Laurentide Ice Sheet of the last glacial period terminated in several lobes along its southern margin. The timing of maximum extent may have varied among the terminal lobes owing to internal ice sheet dynamics and spatially variable external controls. Some terminal ice lobes, such as the westernmost James Lobe, remain poorly dated. To determine the timing of maximum ice extent in this key location, we have mapped glacial deposits left by the Pierre Sublobe in South Dakota and applied 10Be surface exposure age dating on boulders on moraine ridges associated with three distinct late Quaternary glacial drifts. The oldest and most extensive “Tazewell” drift produced variable 10Be surface exposure ages spanning 20–7 ka; the large range is likely attributable to moraine degradation and subsequent boulder exhumation. The oldest ages of about 20 ka are probably limiting minimum ages for the Tazewell moraine surfaces. By contrast, exposure ages of the youngest “Mankato” drift of the easternmost Pierre Sublobe tightly cluster at about 16 ka. This age for the Pierre Sublobe is consistent with the nearby Des Moines Lobe, suggesting both acted together.


Polar Record ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 35 (194) ◽  
pp. 215-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail G. Grosswald ◽  
Terence J. Hughes ◽  
Norman P. Lasca

AbstractOriented assemblages of parallel ridges and elongated lakes are widespread on the coastal lowlands of northeast Eurasia and Arctic North America, in particular, in Alaska, Arctic Canada, and northeast Siberia. So far, only the oriented lakes have been of much scientific interest. They are believed to be formed by thermokarst in perennially frozen ice-rich sediments, while their orientation is accounted for either by impact of modern winds blowing at right angles to long axes of the lakes (when it concerns individual lakes), or by the influence of underlying bedrock structures (in the case of longitudinal and transverse alignment of lake clusters).En masseexamination of space images suggests that oriented lake-and-ridge assemblages, not the oriented lakes alone, occur in the Arctic. Hence any theory about their formation should account for the origin and orientation of the assemblages as a whole. The existing hypotheses appear inadequate for this end, so this paper proposes that the assemblages were initially created by glacial activity, that is, by ice sheets that drumlinized and tectonized their beds, as well as by sub- and proglacial meltwater, and then they were modified by thermokarst, solifluction, and aeolian processes. This assumption opens up an avenue by which all known features of oriented landforms in the Arctic can be explained. The paper suggests that the oriented landforms in Siberia and Alaska are largely signatures of a marine Arctic ice sheet that transgressed from the north, while the Baffin Island and Mackenzie Delta forms were created by the respective sectors of the Laurentide ice sheet. The oriented features discussed belong to the last Late Glacial through the Early Holocene.


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