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Cosmogenic nuclide exposure age constraints on the glacial history of the Lake Wellman area, Darwin Mountains, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2010

B.C. Storey ,
D. Fink ,
D. Hood ,
K. Joy ,
J. Shulmeister ,
M. Riger-Kusk  and
M.I. Stevens
B.C. Storey*
Affiliation:
Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
D. Fink
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Research, ANSTO, PMB1, Menai 2234, Australia
D. Hood
Affiliation:
Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
K. Joy
Affiliation:
Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
J. Shulmeister
Affiliation:
Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, St Lucia 4072, Australia
M. Riger-Kusk
Affiliation:
Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
M.I. Stevens
Affiliation:
South Australian Museum, SA 5000, and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA 5000, Adelaide, Australia
*
Bryan.storey@canterbury.ac.nz
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Abstract

We present direct terrestrial evidence of ice volume change of the Darwin and Hatherton glaciers which channel ice from the Transantarctic Mountains into the Ross Ice Shelf. Combining glacial geomorphology with cosmogenic exposure ages from 25 erratics indicates a pre-LGM ice volume at least 600 m thicker than current Hatherton ice elevation was established at least 2.2 million years ago. In particular, five erratics spread across a drift deposit at intermediate elevations located below a prominent moraine feature mapped previously as demarcating the LGM ice advance limits, give a well-constrained single population with mean 10Be age of 37.0 ± 5.5 ka (1σ). At lower elevations of 50–100 m above the surface of Lake Wellman, a further five samples from within a younger drift deposit range in exposure age from 1 to 19 ka. Our preferred age model interpretation, which is partly dependent on the selection of a minimum or maximum age-elevation model, suggests that LGM ice volume was not as large as previously estimated and constrains LGM ice elevation to be within ± 50 m of the modern Hatherton Glacier ice surface, effectively little different from what is observed today.

Keywords

cosmogenic exposure datingLast Glacial MaximumLatitudinal Gradient Project
Type
Research Article
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 22 , Special Issue 6: The Latitudinal Gradient Project (LGP) , December 2010 , pp. 603 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2010

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