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Quantifying Glacier Sensitivity to Late Glacial and Holocene Climate Changes in the Southern Peruvian Andes

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Quantifying Glacier Sensitivity to Late Glacial and Holocene Climate Changes in the Southern Peruvian Andes University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Master's Theses and Capstones Student Scholarship Spring 2015 Quantifying glacier sensitivity to Late Glacial and Holocene climate changes in the southern Peruvian Andes Elizabeth Grace Huss University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Huss, Elizabeth Grace, "Quantifying glacier sensitivity to Late Glacial and Holocene climate changes in the southern Peruvian Andes" (2015). Master's Theses and Capstones. 1023. https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/1023 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Capstones by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. QUANTIFYING GLACIER SENSITIVITY TO LATE GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE CLIMATE CHANGES IN THE SOUTHERN PERUVIAN ANDES BY ELIZABETH G. HUSS B.A., State University of New York at Geneseo, 2012 THESIS Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Earth Sciences: Geology May, 2015 This thesis has been examined and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Earth Sciences by: Thesis Director, Joseph M. Licciardi, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Matthew Huber, Professor of Earth Sciences Faron S. Anslow, Research Climatologist, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium On May 1, 2015 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School. ii DEDICATION For my parents, Julie and Bernie, who have supported me in every way imaginable over the course of this journey. Their encouragement has taught me that even the most daunting tasks can be accomplished if they are taken one day at a time. This work is also dedicated to Sean. Without his unwavering reassurance, endless patience, and warm-hearted sense of humor, this work would never have seen completion. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first extend particular appreciation and gratitude to my advisor, Joe Licciardi, who has been an incredible mentor to me. Thank you to Joe for all of the support and encouragement he has given, as well as the expertise he has lent along the course of this study. I especially appreciate Joe’s guidance with developing research questions, discussion of results, and many revisions of grant proposals, posters, and thesis chapters. Without his supervision and constant help this thesis would not have been possible. I also would like to thank my committee members, Faron Anslow and Matt Huber, for the time they invested in this project. This project would never have gotten off the ground without all of the time Faron spent setting up the model and training me in its use. I appreciate all of the insight Matt lent in project discussions, and specifically for his help with correction of the meteorological record. I truly am grateful for my committee’s patience and support throughout this project. Thank you also to the many people who provided assistance in various areas of this work. I am grateful to Mike Ruthier, for help with ArcGIS tools, to Jon Buzan for assistance with coding, to Anton Seimon for sharing the meteorological data used in this study, and to Mathias Vuille and Joerg Schaefer, who shared valuable expertise during discussions that greatly advanced the interpretations in this study. This project would not have been possible without generous funding in the form of a teaching assistantship and research grant from the University of New Hampshire Department of Earth Sciences, a graduate student research grant from the Geological Society of America, a scholarship supported by Jon Herndon, and NSF Grant EAR-1103380 awarded to Joseph Licciardi and Joerg Schaefer. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. xii CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project Overview .............................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Study Area ........................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Climate Setting.................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Glacier Mass Balance Controls ......................................................................................... 9 1.5 Previous Work ................................................................................................................ 10 1.5.1 Established Glacial Chronologies ............................................................................ 10 1.5.2 ELA Reconstructions ............................................................................................... 12 1.5.3 Applications of Numerical Modeling in the Tropics ............................................... 13 1.6 Overview of Numerical Models Used in the Vilcabamba .............................................. 15 1.6.1 Energy Balance Model ............................................................................................. 15 1.6.2 Ice Dynamics Model ................................................................................................ 17 II. METHODS............................................................................................................................... 19 v 2.1 Modeling Strategy Overview .......................................................................................... 19 2.2 Development of the Meteorological Forcing File ........................................................... 21 2.2.1 Overview of Regional Meteorological Data ............................................................ 21 2.2.2 Bias Correction of UNSAAC Record ...................................................................... 21 2.2.3 Extrapolation of UNSAAC Data to Vilcabamba Glaciers ....................................... 23 2.3 Removal of Vilcabamba Moraines ................................................................................. 28 2.4 Modern Glacier Tuning ................................................................................................... 31 2.4.1 Overview of Modern Glacier Tuning Approach ...................................................... 31 2.4.2 Optimization of SEBM Parameters ......................................................................... 33 2.4.3 Coupling the Tuned SEBM with the Ice Dynamics Model ..................................... 41 2.5 Paleoglacier Simulations ................................................................................................. 45 2.6 Glacier Sensitivity Experiments ..................................................................................... 47 2.6.1 Glacier Length Sensitivity to Climate Components ................................................ 47 III. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................... 49 3.1 Modern Glacier Sensitivity ............................................................................................. 49 3.1.1 Glacier Length Sensitivity to Climate Components ................................................ 49 3.1.2 Modern Glacier Response to ENSO Variability ...................................................... 51 3.2 Paleoglacier Solutions ..................................................................................................... 53 3.3 Paleoglacier Sensitivity ................................................................................................... 58 3.3.1 Glacier Sensitivity to Temperature .......................................................................... 58 3.3.2 Glacier Sensitivity to Precipitation .......................................................................... 59 IV. DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................................... 63 4.1 Debris Cover ................................................................................................................... 63 vi 4.2 Comparison of Modeled Ice Extents with Satellite Imagery .......................................... 65 4.3 Constraints on Modeled Paleoclimate Ranges ................................................................ 66 4.3.1 South American Climate Proxy Records ................................................................. 66 4.3.2 Plausible Limits on Paleoclimate Solutions ............................................................
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