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To better understand glacial history and process in New England (northeastern United States), a mountainous area overrun by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, we measured three cosmogenic nuclides in nine upland samples. The concentrations of 10Be and 26Al in some samples collected near the summits of Katahdin (Maine) and Mount Washington and Little Haystack Mountain (New Hampshire) are 2-10 times higher than expected for a single exposure period, considering field evidence indicating that continental ice-covered all New England peaks during the Last Glacial Maximum. In-situ 14C exposure ages from the summits are much younger, suggesting that high-elevation sampling sites were ice-covered before and during the Last Glacial Maximum. Field and isotopic data are consistent with New England summits being covered in part by cold-based continental ice that did not erode much rock. The contrast in erosion rates between stable summits and deeply eroded valleys likely contributes to the development and maintenance of northern Appalachian topography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U-series age patterns obtained on reef framework-forming cold-water corals collected over a nearly 6000-km-long continental margin sector, extending from off Mauritania (17°N; northwest Africa) to the southwestern Barents Sea (70°N; northeastern Europe), reveal strong climate influences on the geographical distribution and sustained development of these ecosystems. Over the past three glacial-interglacial cycles, framework-forming cold-water corals (Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata) seem to have predominantly populated reefs, canyons, and patches in the temperate East Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Above 50°N corals colonize reefs in the northern East Atlantic primarily during warm climate periods with the biogeographic limit advancing from ~50°N to ~70°N. We propose that north-south oscillations of the biogeographic limit of reef developments are paced by ice ages and may occur synchronously with north-south displacement of cold nutrient-rich intermediate waters and surface productivity related to changes of the polar front. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a 5000 km2 ice cap covered the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. The largest valley glacier draining this ice cap occupied the Animas Valley and fl owed 91 km to the south. To characterize the post-LGM demise of the Animas Valley glacier, we employ cosmogenic 10Be to date the LGM terrace outside the terminal moraines and a suite of seven glacially polished bedrock samples. The 10Be depth profile within the terrace sediments suggests abandonment at 19.4 ± 1.5 ka. As deglaciation began, the ponding of Glacial Lake Durango behind the terminal moraines shut off fluvial sediment supply and caused terrace abandonment. The age of the terrace therefore records the initiation of LGM retreat. Negligible 10Be inheritance in the terrace profile suggests that glacial erosion of the bedrock valley floor from which sediments were derived erased all cosmogenic inventory. Glacial polish exposure ages monotonically decrease up-valley from 17.1 to 12.3 ka, with the single exception of a sample collected from a quartzite rib, yielding an average retreat rate of 15.4 m/yr. This trend and the lack of inherited cosmogenic nuclides in the terrace sediments imply that polish ages accurately record the glacial retreat history. Retreat of the Animas lobe began at a time of regional drying recorded in sediments and shoreline elevations of large lakes. Deglaciation lasted for ∼7.2 k.y., and was complete by 12.3 ± 1.0 ka. The retreat history followed the pattern of increasing insolation and was perhaps fastest during a time of regional drying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories that propose feedbacks among climate, tectonics, and surface processes commonly assume that erosion is enhanced by glacial activity. Indeed, studies have shown that glaciers appear to limit the elevation of mountain ranges; however, comparisons between rates of glacial and nonglacial erosion are difficult to make. Ideally, such comparisons must hold precipitation and lithology constant, while only varying the erosional regime. Located in a climatic transition zone during the Pleistocene, the east-west-trending valleys of the Bitterroot Range present an opportunity for a quantitative analysis of glacial and nonglacial erosion because the north-facing sides of the valleys were glaciated, whereas the south-facing slopes were not. The different erosional regimes operating on either side of the valleys created strongly asymmetric ridges. Ridgelines separating the east-west-trending valleys have been pushed southward by glacial headwall retreat such that ridge-to-valley distances are ∼50% greater on the north-facing slopes than on the south-facing slopes. In addition, mean hillslope angles are 6° lower on the glaciated slopes than on the unglaciated slopes, and calculations of geophysical relief suggest that, on average, glaciers have removed nearly twice as much rock as nonglacial processes. Finally, we conclude that, although rates of vertical incision by glacial processes in the Bitterroot Range were more rapid than nonglacial processes, the dominant geomorphological impact of glaciers was lateral erosion by headwall retreat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accelerator mass spectrometer 14C dating of in situ monospecific marine microfaunas and reworked shells records high relative sea level on the western coast of Ireland between ca. 40 and 19 cal (calibrated) ka, requiring substantial isostatic loading by the Irish ice sheet (IIS) during that interval. Glacial and marine deposits also record a rapid fluctuation of the HS margin onto the continental shelf ca. 28 cal ka. Evidence that the coast was not subsequently overridden by the IIS indicates that, at least for this sector of the ice sheet, the ice margin during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was less extensive than the 28 cal ka event. Our data from western Ireland support 14C and 36Cl chronologies from the Irish Sea Basin in identifying an US that was as extensive and thick as the LGM IIS for much of the 20 k.y. interval prior to the LGM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Re-Os dates obtained from black shales overlying the Sturtian and Areyonga glacial deposits in southern and central Australia, respectively, challenge the prevailing consensus of three Neoproterozoic glaciations. The end of Sturtian glaciation in the Adelaide Rift Complex is constrained by a Re-Os date of 643.0 ± 2.4 Ma from the overlying Tindelpina Shale Member (basal Tapley Hill Formation). A Re-Os date of 657.2 ± 5.4 Ma for the basal Aralka Formation constrains the age of the underlying Areyonga glacial deposits in the Amadeus Basin. The Re-Os ages show that the Sturtian and Areyonga glacial deposits are younger than other radiometrically dated (ca. 685-750 Ma) Neoproterozoic glacial intervals previously regarded as possible correlatives. Thus, the "Sturtian" ice age was markedly diachronous, and/or there was more than one "Sturtian"-type glaciation. Some Neoproterozoic glacial deposits may represent the products of regional and diachronous glaciation associated with protracted breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia rather than "snowball" or "slushball" Earth ice ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key marker for examining the latest Pleistocene history of the New Jersey margin is the high-amplitude, long-recognized R- horizon reflector. This time-transgressive surface was formed 47- 33 ka and represents the integrated topographic and bathymetric surface developed during the complicated sea-level oscillation associated with the regression that preceded the Last Glacial Maxi- mum (LGM). From landward to seaward across the outer shelf, the R reflector changes from subhorizontal, in most locations <9 m beneath the modern seafloor, to seaward dipping, forming the base of two of flapping sediment wedges: the previously described outer-shelf wedge and a deep-shelf wedge seaward of it. This transition occurs across two inflection zones, where the dip of the II reflector steepens seaward, that can be traced for tens of kilometers along strike and mark the landward limits of these wedges. These inflection zones are possibly former wave-dominated shorefaces; these represent the primary topographic elements present during the last regression. We speculate that these inflections dictated both the locations for deposition of the two prograding, offlapping wedges that developed during the complex sea-level fall prior to the LGM and their successive erosion before and after the LGM. We suggest that such inflection zones and their associated wedges are important markers of regression in clastic-dominated outer-shelf settings along passive margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies evidence for restricted ice extent during the last glacial maximum in the Koryak Mountains of Chuhotka, far eastern Russia. Field evidence supporting three Pleistocene glacial advances; Cosmogenic elements; Glaciation; Erratics; Northwest Pacific.

Part 1. Investigates the constraints on the extent and configuration of ice sheets in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, during the last glacial maximum at late Pleistocene. Relative retreat histories of the ice sheets; Stratigraphic intervals related to retreat; Link between deglaciation and internal and external environmental influences.

Informs that the paleomagnetic data from the interglacial Nyborg Formation in northern Norway and Egersund dikes in southwest Norway indicate that the Varangerian tillites were deposited at intermediate paleolatitudes. Details.

This paper presents the first systematic attempt to map the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) configuration of the southern and central parts of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet, and to determine the timing of onshore ice-sheet retreat. Geomorphologic evidence shows that the LGM ice sheet expanded to form two ice domes in Palmer Land and merged with an expanded and thicker West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Weddell Sea. Ice from the Antarctic Peninsula merged with Alexander Island ice in George VI Sound. Cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al data from 29 erratics on nunataks yield model ages between 7.2 ka and older than 1 Ma. The data set contains a high proportion of erratics with evidence of nuclide inheritance. Once these ages have been excluded, the cosmogenic ages suggest that thinning of the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet to near-present configuration was almost complete by the early Holocene. These data, combined with previously published 14C data, exclude the possibility that the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet has been thinning throughout the Holocene, as has been demonstrated for some other sectors of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. On the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, ice-sheet thinning was under way prior to the early Holocene, but our data do not constrain the ice-sheet behavior more recently than 7.2 ka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]