New radiocarbon ages for Sierra Nevada deglaciation, the first 10 Be measurements from the Laurentide terminal moraine, and calculations based on paleomagnetic field strength have the potential to substantially improve the accuracy of cosmogenic age estimates. Specifically, three new constraints apply to the interpretation of measured abundances of in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al: (1) A suite of minimum-limiting radiocarbon dates indicates that the Sierra Nevada was deglaciated at least several thousand years earlier than assumed when Nishiizumi et al. (1989) first calibrated 10Be and 26 Al production rates based on polished bedrock surfaces in the range, with retreat beginning by 18,000 cal yr B.P. and completed by 13,000 cal yr B.P. (2) Concentrations of 10Be in moraine boulders and glacier-polished bedrock in New Jersey show little variance (10%, 1σ) and can be used to calculate a preliminary 10Be production rate (integrated over the past 21,000-22,000 cal yr B.P. at 41°, 200-300 m altitude) that is about 20% lower than currently accepted. (3) Calculations of the effect of past geomagnetic field-strength variations on production rates suggest that the use of temporally averaged production rates may generate age errors of >20%; however, cosmogenic exposure ages can be corrected for this effect, although the corrections currently are imprecise. Many previously reported late-Pleistocene 10Be and 26Al exposure ages are probably too young and are less accurate and less precise than implied by reported uncertainties. The discrepancy between accepted production rates and those calculated from Laurentide exposures, when considered together with the Sierran deglacial chronology and the model results, suggest that correlations between cosmogenic and other numerical ages, especially for brief events like the Younger Dryas and Heinrich events, will not be robust until temporal variations and the altitude/latitude scaling of production rates are fully understood and quantified at levels comparable to current analytic uncertainties (∼3%).

The time at which the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached its maximum extent and subsequently retreated from its terminal moraine in New Jersey has been constrained by bracketing radiocarbon ages on preglacial and postglacial sediments. Here, we present measurements of in situ produced 10Be and 26Al in 16 quartz-bearing samples collected from bedrock outcrops and glacial erratics just north of the terminal moraine in north-central New Jersey; as such, our ages represent a minimum limit on the timing of ice recession from the moraine. The data set includes field and laboratory replicates, as well as replication of the entire data set five years after initial measurement. We find that recession of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the terminal moraine in New Jersey began before 25.2±2.1 ka (10Be, n=16, average, 1 standard deviation). This cosmogenic nuclide exposure age is consistent with existing limiting radiocarbon ages in the study area and cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages from the terminal moraine on Martha’s Vineyard ~300 km to the northeast. The age we propose for Laurentide Ice Sheet retreat from the New Jersey terminal position is broadly consistent with regional and global climate records of the last glacial maximum termination and records of fluvial incision.

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