scholarly journals Glacio-archaeological evidence of warmer climate during the Little Ice Age in the Miyar basin, Lahul Himalaya, India

Author(s):  
Rakesh Saini ◽  
Milap Chand Sharma ◽  
Sanjay Deswal ◽  
Iestyn David Barr ◽  
Parvendra Kumar

Abstract. Impressive glacio-archaeological evidence is described from the Miyar basin, Lahul Himalaya, India. Three ruins, namely Tharang, Phundang and Patam are identified along with evidence for past settlement and rich irrigation practices in the basin. These ruins are located in the end moraine complex of Tharang glacier, just ~ 2–3 km from the present glacier snout. Reconstruction of these ruins was undertaken based on mapping and radiocarbon (14C) dating. The radiocarbon dates (9 samples were dated) indicate that the settlement was occupied between cal AD ~ 1170 and cal AD ~ 1730, thereby encompassing the majority of Little Ice Age period. The settlement’s occupation at ~ 3700 m a.s.l. (whereas present habitation is restricted to areas below ~ 3500 m  a.s.l.) for almost ~ 550 years during the 12th to 17th centuries suggest warmer conditions than today. Moreover, the study finds no evidence to suggest any noticeable glacier advance during this period.

1986 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Matthews ◽  
John L. Innes ◽  
Christopher J. Caseldine

1991 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atle Neshe ◽  
Svein Olaf Dahl

AbstractA 1-m-deep gully section 460 m beyond the maximum Little Ice Age marginal moraines of Blåisen, Hardangerjøkulen, central southern Norway, revealed alternations of minerogenic and organic sediments. The geographical/geological settings of the dated section provides a unique on/off signal of Holocene glacier fluctuations of Blåisen. Lithostratigraphy, sediment characteristics, and radiocarbon dates from the study section indicate one period of glacier (re)advance between the late Preboreal deglaciation of the inland ice sheet and 8660 ± 100 yr B.P. A grey sand layer 56–57 cm below the surface is interpreted to be of fluvial/colluvial origin and is radiocarbon dated to about 7700 yr B.P. At 48 cm below the surface, a bluish-grey sand/silt layer is radiocarbon dated to 7590 ± 12 yr B.P. (6560–6240 B.C.) and interpreted to be glaciofluvial origin. A minor glacier oscillation postdates 1130 ± 70 yr B.P. (810–990 A.D.). The Medieval/Little Ice Age glacier advance of Blåisen beyond its modern extent occurred after 1040 ± 60 yr B.P. (960–1030 A.D.). Calculations of the modern and Little Ice Age equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) on Hardangerjøkulen suggest an ELA depression of ca. 130 m during the Little Ice Age maximum.


Boreas ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Adamson ◽  
Timothy Lane ◽  
Matthew Carney ◽  
Thomas Bishop ◽  
Cathy Delaney

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 1153-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.H. Luckman ◽  
M.H. Masiokas ◽  
K. Nicolussi

As glaciers in the Canadian Rockies recede, glacier forefields continue to yield subfossil wood from sites overridden by these glaciers during the Holocene. Robson Glacier in British Columbia formerly extended below tree line, and recession over the last century has progressively revealed a number of buried forest sites that are providing one of the more complete records of glacier history in the Canadian Rockies during the latter half of the Holocene. The glacier was advancing ca. 5.5 km upvalley of the Little Ice Age terminus ca. 5.26 cal ka BP, at sites ca. 2 km upvalley ca. 4.02 cal ka BP and ca. 3.55 cal ka BP, and 0.5–1 km upvalley between 1140 and 1350 A.D. There is also limited evidence based on detrital wood of an additional period of glacier advance ca. 3.24 cal ka BP. This record is more similar to glacier histories further west in British Columbia than elsewhere in the Rockies and provides the first evidence for a post-Hypsithermal glacier advance at ca. 5.26 cal ka BP in the Rockies. The utilization of the wiggle-matching approach using multiple 14C dates from sample locations determined by dendrochronological analyses enabled the recognition of 14C outliers and an increase in the precision and accuracy of the dating of glacier advances.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1527-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon L. Pendleton ◽  
Gifford H. Miller ◽  
Robert A. Anderson ◽  
Sarah E. Crump ◽  
Yafang Zhong ◽  
...  

Abstract. Records of Neoglacial glacier activity in the Arctic constructed from moraines are often incomplete due to a preservation bias toward the most extensive advance, often the Little Ice Age. Recent warming in the Arctic has caused extensive retreat of glaciers over the past several decades, exposing preserved landscapes complete with in situ tundra plants previously entombed by ice. The radiocarbon ages of these plants define the timing of snowline depression and glacier advance across the site, in response to local summer cooling. Erosion rapidly removes most dead plants that have been recently exposed by ice retreat, but where erosive processes are unusually weak, dead plants may remain preserved on the landscape for decades. In such settings, a transect of plant radiocarbon ages can be used to construct a near-continuous chronology of past ice margin advance. Here we present radiocarbon dates from the first such transect on Baffin Island, which directly dates the advance of a small ice cap over the past two millennia. The nature of ice expansion between 20 BCE and ∼ 1000 CE is still uncertain, but episodic advances at ∼ 1000 CE, ∼ 1200, and  ∼ 1500 led to the maximum Neoglacial dimensions ~ 1900 CE. We employ a two-dimensional numerical glacier model calibrated using the plant radiocarbon ages ice margin chronology to assess the sensitivity of the ice cap to temperature change. Model experiments show that at least ∼ 0.44 °C of cooling over the past 2 kyr is required for the ice cap to reach its 1900 CE margin, and that the period from ∼ 1000 to 1900 CE must have been at least 0.25° C cooler than the previous millennium, results that agree with regional temperature reconstructions and climate model simulations. However, significant warming since 1900 CE is required to explain retreat to its present position, and, at the same rate of warming, the ice cap will disappear before 2100 CE.


The Holocene ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1350-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P Moran ◽  
Susan Ivy Ochs ◽  
Marcus Christl ◽  
Hanns Kerschner

A two-phased moraine system in the high Alpine valley of Lisenser Längental in the Stubai Alps of western Austria is located in an intermediate morphostratigraphic position constrained by ‘Egesen Stadial’ (Younger Dryas) moraines down valley and ‘Little Ice Age’ (‘LIA’) positions (modern times) up valley. The equilibrium line altitude (ELA) was about 50 m lower than during the ‘LIA’ when applying an accumulation area ratio of 0.67. Exposure dating of boulders with 10Be yields a mean age of 3750 ± 330 years for the more extensive outer moraine system and a single age of 3140 ± 280 years for the inner one. The ages correspond well to the ‘Loebben oscillation’, a sequence of multi-decadal to multi-centennial cooling phases at the onset of the late-Holocene, also recognized in other Alpine records. The climatic downturn was severe enough to cause small to medium-sized Alpine glaciers in the central Alps to advance significantly beyond their ‘LIA’ extent, but too short to trigger a similar reaction with large glaciers.


1986 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Porter

Time series depicting mountain glacier fluctuations in the Alps display generally similar patterns over the last two centuries, as do chronologies of glacier variations for the same interval from elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Episodes of glacier advance consistently are associated with intervals of high average volcanic aerosol production, as inferred from acidity variations in a Greenland ice core. Advances occur whenever acidity levels rise sharply from background values to reach concentrations ≥1.2 μequiv H+/kg above background. A phase lag of about 10–15 yr, equivalent to reported response lags of Alpine glacier termini, separates the beginning of acidity increases from the beginning of subsequent ice advances. A similar relationship, but based on limited and less-reliable historical data and on lichenometric ages, is found for the preceding 2 centuries. Calibrated radiocarbon dates related to advances of non-calving and non-surging glaciers during the earlier part of the Little Ice Age display a comparable consistent pattern. An interval of reduced acidity values between about 1090 and 1230 A.D. correlates with a time of inferred glacier contraction during the Medieval Optimum. The observed close relation between Noothern Hemisphere glacier fluctuations and variations in Greenland ice-core acidity suggests that sulfur-rich aerosols generated by volcanic eruptions are a primary forcing mechanism of glacier fluctuations, and therefore of climate, on a decadal scale. The amount of surface cooling attributable to individual large eruptions or to episodes of eruptions is simlar to the probable average temperature reduction during culminations of Little Ice Age alacier advances (ca. 0.5°–1.2°C), as inferred from depression of equilibrium-line altitudes.


2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Smith ◽  
Colin P. Laroque

ABSTRACT Dendrochronological investigations at Moving Glacier provide the first calendar-dating of a Little Ice Age glacier advance on Vancouver Island. In 1931, Moving Glacier was within 30 to 50 m of a distinct trimline and terminal moraine marking its maximum Little Ice Age extent. A reconnaissance of the site in 1993 revealed the presence of sheared in situ stumps and detrital trunks inside the 1931 ice limit. Sampling in 1994 showed the site was covered by a mature subalpine forest prior to the glacial advance which overrode the site after 1718 A.D. Following this period of expansion, which saw Moving Glacier expand to its maximum Little Ice Age position after 1818 A.D., the glacier apparently experienced only minimal retreat prior to first being photographed in 1931.


1984 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.E. Wright

Small ice fields on the western cordillera northeast of Lima were expanded to three times their present size in the recent past, and the regional snow line was probably about 100 m lower than it is today. Outwash from the expanded glaciers formed deltas of silt in valley-bottom lakes. When the ice lobes retreated, the reduced outwash was trapped behind recessional moraines, and the clear meltwater infiltrated into the limestone bedrock and emerged at the heads of the deltas in spring pools. The delta surfaces then became covered with peat, and radiocarbon dates for the base of the peat (1100 ± 70 and 430 ± 70 yr B.P. for two different deltas) indicate that the maximum ice advance was older than those dates and, thus, older than the Little Ice Age of many north-temperate regions. Much older moraines date from expansion of the same local summit glaciers to even lower levels in the main valleys, which had previously been inundated by the cordilleran ice field. The cordilleran deglaciation and this expansion of local glaciers probably occurred between 12,000 and 10,000 yr ago, on the basis of slightly contradictory radiocarbon dates.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document