Late Holocene fluctuations of Qori Kalis outlet glacier, Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peruvian Andes

Abstract

The temporal and spatial patterns of late Holocene climate conditions provide valuable information for testing hypothesized mechanisms of recent climate changes. As a proxy for late Holocene climate in the southern tropics, we present a 10 Be chronology of moraines deposited by Qori Kalis, an outlet glacier of Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru. The Qori Kalis moraines are located downfl ow from the Quelccaya ice cores and provide the fi rst glacial extent record that can be compared directly to annually resolved tropical ice core records. Qori Kalis advanced to its late Holocene maximum extent prior to 520 ± 60 yr before CE 2009, when Quelccaya ice core net accumulation values were at or below their late Holocene average. Subsequent glacial retreat between ~520 and 330 yr before CE 2009 coincides with the highest net accumulation values of the ~1800-yr-long ice core record. Therefore, we suggest that temperature, rather than net accumulation, was the primary driver of these glacial fl uctuations. Comparison of the late Holocene fl uctuations of Qori Kalis glacier with glaciers in the southern tropical Andes, Patagonian Andes, Switzerland, Alaska and New Zealand suggests globally synchronous, centennial-scale cold events.

Toward a late Holocene glacial chronology for the eastern Nyainqêntanglha Range, southeastern Tibet

“…A pioneering study by Schaefer et al (2009) showed that the age range of 10 Be dating can be expanded to ages as young as 130 years due to the increasing sensitivity of measurements for glaciers in the Southern Alps, New Zealand. Recently, successful applications of cosmogenic nuclide dating on LIA moraines have also been reported for other regions, such as the European Alps (Schimmelpfennig et al, 2014) and the Peruvian Andes (Stroup et al, 2014). However, the high-energy environments of glaciers in the eastern Nyainqêntanglha Range pose great challenges to the application of this method, particularly regarding prior or incomplete exposure (cf.…”

Prospecting Glacial Ages and Paleoclimatic Reconstructions Northeastward of Nevado Coropuna (16° S, 73° W, 6377 m), Arid Tropical Andes

“…It is possible that NC9 and NC10 are dating 1-2 older advances and NCNE01 a younger advance, which reached the same place and added a new moraine to pre-existing moraines. The younger moraines aggregation on older moraines, could also be the cause of the dispersed ages in many Andean glacial sites, such as Cajamarca [45], Cordillera Blanca [29], Jeulla Raju [105], Huayhuash [106], Junín [28], Quelccaya ice cap [6,107], Carabaya [46], Huayna Potosí, Río Suturi and Huamaní Loma [39]; Coropuna [37,38]; (this work); Hualca Hualca [7], Cerro Tunupa [8], and Uturuncu volcano [9].…”

Constraints on southern hemisphere tropical climate change during the Little Ice Age and Younger Dryas based on glacier modeling of the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru

“…1], sits atop an ignimbrite plateau (Audebaud, 1973;Chavez et al, 1997) with multiple valleys connecting the plateau to the surrounding landscape that contain glacial features (Mercer et al, 1975;Mercer and Palacios, 1977;Goodman et al, 2001;Mark et al, 2002;Kelly et al, 2012;Stroup et al, 2014;Kelly et al, 2015). The Rio Huancan e valley, on the southwest side of the QIC (Fig.…”

“…First, the climate drivers of tropical glacier length changes are poorly understood. The relative importance of temperature versus precipitation rate changes on tropical glacier length changes is debated (Kaser et al, 2004;Taylor et al, 2006;Thompson et al, 2006;Vuille et al, 2008;Licciardi et al, 2009;Jomelli et al, 2011;Thompson et al, 2013;Stroup et al, 2014;Jomelli et al, 2014). Second, the climate interpretation of glacial geomorphic features is not fully understood.…”