High-Frequency Holocene Glacier Fluctuations in New Zealand Differ
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REPORTS ages from the respective moraine within ana- High-Frequency Holocene Glacier lytical standard deviation. The ages are calcu- lated by using the recent production rates given Fluctuations in New Zealand Differ in (20); given errors include a 5% production rate estimate. The variances between different published production rates do not affect any of from the Northern Signature the conclusions drawn below (table S3) (9). The 10Be chronology (Figs. 1 and 2, fig. S1, 1 2 1 2 Joerg M. Schaefer, * George H. Denton, Michael Kaplan, Aaron Putnam, and table S3) includes some of the youngest 3,4 5 6 1 Robert C. Finkel, David J. A. Barrell, Bjorn G. Andersen, Roseanne Schwartz, exposure ages reported so far. The 10Be mea- 7 8 9 Andrew Mackintosh, Trevor Chinn, Christian Schlüchter surements show low uncertainties, and the 10Be boulder ages from individual moraines are re- Understanding the timings of interhemispheric climate changes during the Holocene, along markably consistent (9). All ages are com- with their causes, remains a major problem of climate science. Here, we present a high-resolution patible with position in the moraine sequence 10 Be chronology of glacier fluctuations in New Zealand’s Southern Alps over the past 7000 years, except for two boulders from the outermost including at least five events during the last millennium. The extents of glacier advances decreased margin of the right lateral Hooker moraines from the middle to the late Holocene, in contrast with the Northern Hemisphere pattern. Several [–930 and –931 (Fig. 1)], which are incompat- glacier advances occurred in New Zealand during classic northern warm periods. These findings ibly young. Lying at the downslope margin of point to the importance of regional driving and/or amplifying mechanisms. We suggest that an alluvial fan, it is plausible that they fell atmospheric circulation changes in the southwest Pacific were one important factor in forcing high- from the nearby mountainside onto the mo- frequency Holocene glacier fluctuations in New Zealand. raine subsequent to its formation. Ages of Kiwi- 904 and -X60 plot outside the 95% confidence atural climate variability during the in- ern glacier behavior as a means of insight into level (fig. S1). Otherwise, the data set is free terglacial conditions of the Holocene Holocene climate forcing. of outliers. Hence, we include 70 out of 74 boul- N(the past 11,500 years) is a fundamen- Glaciers are highly sensitive to variations in ders (and 71 of the 75 10Be measurements) in the tal baseline for evaluating the anthropogenic temperature and precipitation (8) [supporting discussion (9). impact on global climate. Recent studies using online material (SOM text)], but difficulties in The innermost moraine of the Mueller se- on October 26, 2012 marine and terrestrial samples from the North obtaining reliable ages have been an impedi- quence (Figs. 1 and 2) represents a historically Atlantic region and the tropics (1, 2) challenge ment to placing glacier records in a global con- documented glacier position from the mid- to the traditional view of a stable Holocene cli- text. We focused on the large Mueller, Hooker, late 1800s (9, 12). Three boulders from this mate. Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate records and Tasman valley glaciers (Fig. 1 and table S1) ridge yielded 10Be ages of 132 T 17 years, 164 T suggest that temperatures cooled through the that drain east and south from the Main Di- 22 years, and 185 T 22 years (mean: 160 T 30 Holocene [e.g., (3)] and that this long-term trend vide of the Southern Alps. Their terminal zones years). The general correspondence between was overprinted by millennial-scale variations are fringed by well-preserved Holocene mo- the 10Be dating and the historic age of the mo- (4), culminating in the Medieval Warm Period raine complexes (Figs. 1 and 2). Large grey- raine provides confidence in the 10Be method 5 6 (MWP)/Little Ice Age (LIA) oscillation ( , ). wacke boulders protruding from the moraines and implies a maximum preexposure signal, the www.sciencemag.org Terrestrial paleoclimate data are sparse in the were the targets of our surface-exposure dat- concentration of 10Be atoms produced in the Southern Hemisphere, and it remains unclear ing program (9). sampled boulder surface before boulder depo- whether the northern trend of progressive cool- Previous chronological studies of these mo- sition on the moraine, of less than 100 years ing was followed in the south [e.g., (7)versus raines {including tree rings, radiocarbon brack- [difference between older bound of the oldest (6)] and whether northern millennial-scale cli- eting ages [e.g., (10–12)], lichenometry [e.g., age, 210 years, and the historic age (SOM text)]. mate changes, including the MWP/LIA oscil- (13, 14)], rock-weathering rinds (15, 16), and An outboard set of at least three moraines, the lation, were globally extensive. We explored this Schmidt hammer investigations [e.g., (6, 17)]} innermost of which is thought to be historic problem via the question: Were Holocene gla- suggested that the most recent cool interval in (10–12), yielded ages of 220 T 10 years (n =2), Downloaded from cier advances in New Zealand generally coeval New Zealand was equivalent to the termination 270 T 50 years (n = 10), and 400 T 70 years (n = with those in the Northern Hemisphere? We of the northern LIA (mid-19th century). How- 9). A little outside lies a complex of ridges dom- present a high-resolution surface-exposure chro- ever, recent tree ring studies argued for a glacier inating the last-millennium moraine sequence nology of Holocene climate fluctuations derived maximum in the south that is somewhat older of Mueller Glacier, 570 T 70 years (n =12)in from moraines deposited at the culmination of than the northern LIA termination (18, 19). age. The outermost left lateral Holocene ridge glacier advances in New Zealand’sSouthernAlps Our geomorphologic maps (Fig. 1) docu- gave an age of 2000 T 150 years (n = 2), consist- and evaluate the pattern of southern versus north- ment the detail and complexity of the preserved ent with the 2100 T 100 year age of Kiwi-X66 Holocene moraine sequences. We sampled a from the right lateral sequence. Seven boulders 1 total of 74 boulders, with one duplicate (Figs. from at least two distinct moraines slightly in- Geochemistry, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), 10 Palisades, NY 10964, USA. 2Department of Earth Sciences 1 and 2 and table S2), for Be surface-exposure board yielded ages ranging from 1720 years to and Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME dating. We focused on the Mueller Glacier Hol- 1990 years, with a mean of 1840 T 130 years. 04469, USA. 3Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, ocene moraines comprising the most complete The outermost well-preserved right lateral mo- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 95064, USA. T 4 ’ succession of preserved ridges, with comple- raine yielded a mean age of 3230 220 years CEREGE (Centre Européen de Recherche et d Enseignement n des Géosciences de l’Environnement), 13545 Aix-en-Provence, mentary samples from the moraine sequences ( = 4), and, lastly, an isolated mound of mo- Cedex 4, France. 5GNS Science, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. of Hooker and Tasman glaciers. We interpret raine (Foliage Hill; Fig. 1) represents the outer- 6Department of Geology, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo, Norway. the moraine exposure ages as dating the comple- most preserved remnant dated to 6370 T 760 7 Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. tion of moraine formation and thus the termina- years (n =1). 8Alpine and Polar Processes Consultancy, Lake Hawea, Otago 9382, New Zealand. 9Institut für Geologie, Universität Bern, tion of a glacier event (SOM text). Individual At Hooker Glacier (Fig. 1), two prominent CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. boulder exposure ages within 2s analytical un- left lateral ridges yielded ages of 1020 T 70 *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: certainties are plotted in fig. S1. Moraine ages years (n = 5) for the inner and 1370 T 180 years [email protected] are defined by arithmetic means of all boulder (n = 6) for the outer ridge. One boulder from an 622 1 MAY 2009 VOL 324 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org REPORTS isolated ridge inside gave an age of 810 T 70 (n = 5). Its overlap with the oldest Mueller raines (11). The 14C ages date glacier expan- years (–927). Glacier moraine (6370 years) suggests that both sion events after periods of reduced ice and At Tasman Glacier, an inner moraine ridge represent coeval glacier positions, distal to the distal soil formation (table S4). Together, the yielded an age of 1040 T 100 years (n =1),co- late Holocene moraines. 10Be and 14C data define a minimum number inciding with the 1020-year moraine of Hooker This precise, high-frequency 10Be chronol- of 15 pulses of glacier advance and retreat since Glacier, whereas an outer ridge gave 1650 T 110 ogy of Holocene fluctuations of the Mueller, the mid-Holocene, with the timing of the ad- years (n = 3). An isolated remnant of moraine Hooker, and Tasman glaciers compares well vance (14C) and/or termination (10Be) of events projecting a few meters from the outwash plain with a radiocarbon (14C) chronology from wood at about 6500 years ago (termination, 10Be), (Little Hump) has an age of 6550 T 370 years within soils buried by tills in the lateral mo- 3650 to 3200 years [advance commencing 3650 on October 26, 2012 www.sciencemag.org Downloaded from Fig. 1. Glacial geomorphology map, compiled at 1:5000 scale, of the Holocene moraine sequences of Mueller, Hooker, and Tasman glaciers, showing locations of sample sites. The map differentiates between discrete moraine ridges and areas of more diffuse moraine morphology.