Recognition and paleoclimatic implications of late-Holocene glaciation on Mt Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand (original) (raw)
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Earth and Planetary Science Letters
During the late Quaternary, the Southern Alps of New Zealand experienced multiple episodes of glaciation with large piedmont glaciers reaching the coastal plains in the west and expanding into the eastern alpine forelands. Here, we present a new 10Be exposure age chronology for a moraine sequence in the Waimakariri Valley (N-Canterbury), which has long been used as a reference record for correlating glacial events across New Zealand and the wider Southern Hemisphere. Our data indicate that the Waimakariri glacier reached its maximum last glaciation extent prior to ∼26 ka well before the global last glaciation maximum (LGM). This was followed by a gradual reduction in ice volume and the abandonment of the innermost LGM moraines at about 17.5 ka. Significantly, we find that during its maximum extent, the Waimakariri glacier overflowed the Avoca Plateau, previously believed to represent a mid-Pleistocene glacial surface (i.e. MIS 8). At the same time, the glacier extended to a position...
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2010
A 110 m thick succession of glacial valley fill is described from Poplars Gully, central South Island, New Zealand. The section consists of eight lithofacies assemblages that represent different stages of ice occupation in the valley. Basal sediments record an ice retreat phase followed by a glacial re-advance which deposited mass flow diamictons and till. A subsequent ice retreat from the site is indicated by the stratigraphic transition from till to thick glacio-fluvial gravels. This is followed by a probably short-lived glacier re-advance that caused folding and thrusting of proglacial sediments. Final glacial retreat from the valley led to the formation of a large proglacial lake. In total, Poplars Gully holds evidence for two major ice advances, separated by a glacial retreat that resulted in complete ice evacuation from the lower Hope Valley.
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 1993
Pillans, B., McGlone, M., Palmer, A., Mildenhall, D., Alloway, B. and Berger, G., 1993. The Last Glacial Maximum in central and southern North Island, New Zealand: a paleoenvironmental reconstruction using the Kawakawa Tephra Formation as a chronostratigraphic marker. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 101: 283-304.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2013
ABSTRACT The termination of the last ice age featured a major reconfiguration of Earth's climate and cryosphere, yet the underlying causes of these massive changes continue to be debated. Documenting the spatial and temporal variations of atmospheric temperature during deglaciation can help discriminate among potential drivers. Here, we present a 10Be surface-exposure chronology and glaciological reconstruction of ice recession following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Rakaia valley, Southern Alps of New Zealand. Innermost LGM moraines at Big Ben have an age of 17,840 ± 240 yrs, whereas ice-marginal moraines or ice-molded bedrock surfaces at distances up-valley from Big Ben of 12.5 km (Lake Coleridge), ˜25 km (Castle Hill), ˜28 km (Double Hill), ˜43 km (Prospect Hill), and ˜58 km (Reischek knob) have ages of 17,020 ± 70 yrs, 17,100 ± 110 yrs, 16,960 ± 370 yrs, 16,250 ± 340 yrs, and 15,660 ± 160 yrs, respectively. These results indicate extensive recession of the Rakaia glacier, which we attribute primarily to the effects of climatic warming. In conjunction with geomorphological maps and a glaciological reconstruction for the Rakaia valley, we use our chronology to infer timing and magnitude of past atmospheric temperature changes. Compared to an overall temperature rise of ˜4.65 °C between the end of the LGM and the start of the Holocene, the glacier recession between ˜17,840 and ˜15,660 yrs ago is attributable to a net temperature increase of ˜4.0 °C (from ‑6.25 to ‑2.25 °C), accounting for ˜86% of the overall warming. Approximately 3.75 °C (˜70%) of the warming occurred between ˜17,840 and ˜16,250 yrs ago, with a further 0.75 °C (˜16%) increase between ˜16,250 and ˜15,660 yrs ago. A sustained southward shift of the Subtropical Front (STF) south of Australia between ˜17,800 and ˜16,000 yrs ago coincides with the warming over the Rakaia valley, and suggests a close link between Southern Ocean frontal boundary positions and southern mid-latitude climate. Most of the deglacial warming in the Southern Alps occurred during the early part of Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1) of the North Atlantic region. Because the STF is associated with the position of the westerly wind belt, our findings support the concept that a southward shift of Earth's wind belts accompanied the early part of HS1 cooling in the North Atlantic, leading to warming and deglaciation in southern middle latitudes.
Towards a climate event stratigraphy for New Zealand over the past 30 000 years (NZ-INTIMATE project
Journal of Quaternary Science, 2007
It is widely recognised that the acquisition of high-resolution palaeoclimate records from southern mid-latitude sites is essential for establishing a coherent picture of inter-hemispheric climate change and for better understanding of the role of Antarctic climate dynamics in the global climate system. New Zealand is considered to be a sensitive monitor of climate change because it is one of a few sizeable landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere westerly circulation zone, a critical transition zone between subtropical and Antarctic influences. New Zealand has mountainous axial ranges that amplify the climate signals and, consequently, the environmental gradients are highly sensitive to subtle changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Since 1995, INTIMATE has, through a series of international workshops, sought ways to improve procedures for establishing the precise ages of climate events, and to correlate them with high precision, for the last 30 000 calendar years. The NZ-INTIMATE project commenced in late 2003, and has involved virtually the entire New Zealand palaeoclimate community. Its aim is to develop an event stratigraphy for the New Zealand region over the past 30 000 years, and to reconcile these events against the established climatostratigraphy of the last glacial cycle which has largely been developed from Northern Hemisphere records (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Termination I, Younger Dryas). An initial outcome of NZ-INTIMATE has been the identification of a series of well-dated, high-resolution onshore and offshore proxy records from a variety of latitudes and elevations on a common calendar timescale from 30 000 cal. yr BP to the present day. High-resolution records for the last glacial coldest period (LGCP) (including the LGM sensu stricto) and last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT) from Auckland maars, Kaipo and Otamangakau wetlands on eastern and central North Island, marine core MD97-2121 east of southern North Island, speleothems on northwest South Island, Okarito wetland on southwestern South Island, are presented. Discontinuous (fragmentary) records comprising compilations of glacial sequences, fluvial sequences, loess accumulation, and aeolian quartz accumulation in an andesitic terrain are described. Comparisons with ice-core records from Antarctica (EPICA Dome C) and Greenland (GISP2) are discussed. A major advantage immediately evident from these records apart from the speleothem record, is that they are linked precisely by one or more tephra layers. Based on these New Zealand terrestrial and marine records, a reasonably coherent, regionally applicable, sequence of climatically linked stratigraphic events over the past 30 000 cal. yr is emerging. Three major climate events are recognised: (1) LGCP beginning at ca. 28 000 cal. yr BP, ending at Termination I, ca. 18 000 cal. yr BP, and including a warmer and more variable phase between ca. 27 000 and 21 000 cal. yr BP, (2) LGIT between ca. 18 000 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, including a Lateglacial warm period from ca. 14 800 to 13 500 cal. yr BP and a Lateglacial climate reversal between ca. 13 500 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, and (3) Holocene interglacial conditions, with two phases of greatest warmth between ca. 11 600 and 10 800 cal. yr BP and from ca. 6 800 to 6 500 cal. yr BP. Some key boundaries coincide with volcanic tephras. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2019
Recently, Barrell et al. (2019) published an article that responded to our article (Shulmeister et al., 2018a) on gradual evacuation of ice from the Upper Rangitata Valley, South Island, New Zealand, during the last glaciation. They base their contrasting interpretation of substantial and rapid ice-lowering of Rangitata glacier shortly after 18 ka on a revision of our 10 Be cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) chronology and by reference to published sources (e.g. Mabin, 1980, 1987). Their interpretation relies on glacial landform features extracted from a geomorphology map of the central Southern Alps by Barrell et al. (2011). Barrell et al. (2019) highlight that rapid ice recession of the Rangitata glacier is compatible to their results from Mackenzie Basin and Rakaia Valley (Putnam et al., 2013a, b). We highlight four points in response to Barrell et al. (2019):