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Assessing climatic and nonclimatic forcing of Pinedale Glaciation and deglaciation in the western United States

Nicolas E. Young, Jason P. Briner, Eric M. Leonard, Joseph M. Licciardi and Keenan Lee
Assessing climatic and nonclimatic forcing of Pinedale Glaciation and deglaciation in the western United States
Geology (Boulder) (February 2011) 39 (2): 171-174

Abstract

New (super 10) Be surface exposure ages from adjacent valleys in the upper Arkansas River basin, Colorado (United States), indicate that Pinedale maxima culminated asynchronously at 22.4+ or -1.4, 19.2+ or -0.2, 17.8+ or -0.6, and 15.8+ or -0.4 ka, but that deglaciation initiated synchronously between ca. 16 and 15 ka. These data are combined with published glacial chronologies across the western United States, and indicate that although the ages of Pinedale terminal moraines vary within individual ranges as well as regionally, most western United States glaciers remained near their Pinedale termini until ca. 16 ka, at which time widespread deglaciation commenced. We hypothesize that the near-synchronous demise of glaciers across the western U.S. between ca. 15 and ca. 13 ka was driven by the first major Northern Hemisphere warming following the Last Glacial Maximum, but that some differences in Pinedale culmination ages can be explained by nonclimatic factors intrinsic to individual valleys. These results suggest the need for caution in focusing exclusively on climate forcings to explain apparent asynchrony in Pinedale maxima.


ISSN: 0091-7613
EISSN: 1943-2682
Coden: GLGYBA
Serial Title: Geology (Boulder)
Serial Volume: 39
Serial Issue: 2
Title: Assessing climatic and nonclimatic forcing of Pinedale Glaciation and deglaciation in the western United States
Affiliation: University at Buffalo, Department of Geological Sciences, Buffalo, NY, United States
Pages: 171-174
Published: 201102
Text Language: English
Publisher: Geological Society of America (GSA), Boulder, CO, United States
References: 26
Accession Number: 2011-019907
Categories: Quaternary geologyGeochronology
Document Type: Serial
Bibliographic Level: Analytic
Annotation: With GSA Data Repository Item 2011072
Illustration Description: illus. incl. sketch map
N38°49'60" - N39°19'60", W106°30'00" - W106°00'00"
Secondary Affiliation: Colorado College, USA, United StatesUniversity of New Hampshire, USA, United StatesColorado School of Mines, USA, United States
Country of Publication: United States
Secondary Affiliation: GeoRef, Copyright 2017, American Geosciences Institute. Reference includes data from GeoScienceWorld, Alexandria, VA, United States. Reference includes data supplied by the Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, United States
Update Code: 201112
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