Timing of Pleistocene glaciations in the High Atlas, Morocco: New 10Be and 36Cl exposure ages

Hughes, Philip D.; Fink, David; Rodés, Ángel; Fenton, Cassandra R.; Fujioka, Toshiyuki

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.11.015

Cited by 43 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 78 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The igneous rocks consist of intrusive rocks, including a variety of grades of granites and diorites, and a thick stack of extrusive basaltic rocks including various grades of andesites, rhyolites and ignimbrites (Pouclet et al 2007). Triassic sandstones and Cambrian limestones are present locally, although these lithologies have not been subject to glaciation (Hughes et al 2018). The Marrakech High Atlas are dominated by Jebel Toubkal (4167 m) the highest peak in the Atlas Mountains.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Pleistocene glaciers to present-day snowpatches: a review and research recommendations for the Marrakech High Atlas

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There are no glaciers today in the High Atlas, Morocco. However, there is evidence that niche glaciers and late-lying snowpatches in the High Atlas were present as recently as the last century and there are at least four sites where snowpatches appear to survive some summer seasons today. Many other sites also support non-perennial late-lying snow below steep shaded north and northeast-facing cliffs at altitudes > 3100 m. Coarse sediment ridges interpreted as moraines or pronival ramparts enclose most of these snowpatches. These landforms most likely record the positions of former niche glaciers and late-lying snowpatches in the Little Ice Age. The niche glaciers and late-lying snowpatches survived below the regional equilibrium line altitude because of strong local topoclimatic controls. In addition to strong shading, many of the current late-lying snowpatches are fed by long deep gullies which funnel avalanching snow from the cirque backwalls. The disappearance of many perennial snowpatches in the last few decades coincides with a strong trend towards warmer summer air temperatures since the 1970s (> 2 °C). However, inter-annual changes in snowpack mass balance are affected by very large variations (> 400% variability) in winter precipitation. A new research programme is underway investigating the history of late-lying snow and cirque glaciers in the High Atlas. A particular focus of this research is to utilise geomorphological and geochronological evidence to understand fluctuations in snow and ice through the Holocene and link this to continuous records of environmental change in the High Atlas region.

show abstract

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Pleistocene glaciers to present-day snowpatches: a review and research recommendations for the Marrakech High Atlas

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Çiner et al 2017;Fig. 6 Photos of the sampled boulders and their ages from the Svinjača hummocky (SV16-01-SV16-05) and lateral moraines (SV16-06-SV16-08) Hughes et al 2018), it seems likely that this was also the case in our study area.…”

Section: Piedmont Glaciers and Hummocky Morainesmentioning

confidence: 72%

Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas piedmont glaciations in Blidinje, the Dinaric Mountains (Bosnia and Herzegovina): insights from 36Cl cosmogenic dating

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The highest parts of the Dinaric Mountains along the eastern Adriatic coast of the southern Europe, known for their typical Mediterranean karst-dominated landscape and very humid climate, were glaciated during the Late Pleistocene. Palaeo-piedmont type glaciers that originated from Čvrsnica Mountain (2226 m a.s.l.; above sea level) in Bosnia and Herzegovina deposited hummocky, lateral and terminal moraines into the Blidinje Polje. We constrained the timing of the largest recognized glacier extent on Svinjača and Glavice piedmont glaciers by applying the cosmogenic 36 Cl surface exposure dating method on twelve boulder samples collected from lateral, terminal and hummocky moraines. Using 40 mm ka-1 bedrock erosion rate due to high precipitation rates, we obtained 36 Cl ages of Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 22.7 ± 3.8 ka) from the hummocky moraines, and Younger Dryas (13.2 ± 1.8 ka) from the lateral moraine in Svinjača area. The amphitheater shaped terminal moraine in Glavice area also yielded a Younger Dryas (13.5 ± 1.8 ka) age within the error margins. Our results provide a new dataset, and present a relevant contribution towards a better understanding of the glacial chronologies of the Dinaric Mountains. Because our boulder ages reflect complex exhumation and denudation histories, future work is needed to better understand these processes and their influence on the cosmogenic exposure dating approach in a karstic landscape.

show abstract

“…Regional humidity indexes (Grant et al., ; Tjallingii et al., ) reveal that humid periods recorded by S1 are not anticipated by these indexes. Timing of moraines development in the High Atlas Mountain (from Hughes et al., ) indicates a regional cooling probably related with the change in material production in the catchment and increased sediment supply in the depocentre during the LGM…”

Section: Interpretation and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluvio‐lacustrine sedimentation in the Agadir‐Tissint Feija (Anti‐Atlas, Morocco): A promising palaeoclimate archive for the last glacial cycle in northwest Africa

Nutz

Kwiecien

Breitenbach

et al. 2019

The Depositional Record

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mountainous depocentres are often the single available archives in intracontinental areas. As such, the investigation of their sedimentary dynamics is the only way to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental evolution in these peculiar regions. Here, the basin‐scale sedimentary dynamics of the Agadir‐Tissint Feija (i.e. feija is the local name for lowlands) are discussed together with new palaeoenvironmental information on the late Quaternary in the north‐western Sahara margin. The succession consists of up to ca 40 m thick fluvio‐lacustrine deposits subdivided into three depositional sequences (S1–S3) that were deposited between ca 75 ka and ca 10 ka. S1 and S2 reflect the evolution of a palaeolake intercalated by carbonate‐rich palustrine to alluvial plain environments, while S3 shows the transition to an entirely clastic alluvial plain environment. The three sequences are genetically associated with three pulses of tufa buildups at the outlet of the depocentre. Each pulse of tufa buildup is attributed to wet conditions, while each interruption is associated with drier conditions. The wet–dry alternation at the origin of S1 fits with summer insolation fluctuation suggesting that precession parameters may have paced long‐term climate variability in the area. Superimposed on wet–dry cycles, submillennial‐scale (750–900 year) shorter‐term lake fluctuations are identified in S1 and S2; their origins may be related to North Atlantic Oscillation mechanisms. Furthermore, the sudden increase in clastic sediment supply in S3 evidences a change in sediment production in the catchment area attributed to lower temperatures established during the last glacial period. Finally, this newly identified continental archive is unique at the northern Sahara margin; it enables reconstructions of the local and regional hydrological conditions during the last glacial cycle. Even if a more systematic investigation of palaeoclimate forcing is still necessary, the Agadir‐Tissint Feija will potentially bring important information to understand past and anticipate future regional climate change.

show abstract

Timing of Pleistocene glaciations in the High Atlas, Morocco: New 10Be and 36Cl exposure ages

Cited by 43 publications

References 78 publications

Late Pleistocene glaciers to present-day snowpatches: a review and research recommendations for the Marrakech High Atlas

Late Pleistocene glaciers to present-day snowpatches: a review and research recommendations for the Marrakech High Atlas

Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas piedmont glaciations in Blidinje, the Dinaric Mountains (Bosnia and Herzegovina): insights from 36Cl cosmogenic dating

Fluvio‐lacustrine sedimentation in the Agadir‐Tissint Feija (Anti‐Atlas, Morocco): A promising palaeoclimate archive for the last glacial cycle in northwest Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About