Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T11:23:15.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Last Glaciation in Central Magellan Strait, Southernmost Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Chalmers M. Clapperton ,
David E. Sugden ,
Darrell S. Kaufman  and
Robert D. McCulloch
Chalmers M. Clapperton
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2UF, Scotland, United Kingdom
David E. Sugden
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University, of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland, United Kingdom
Darrell S. Kaufman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322-4505
Robert D. McCulloch
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2UF, Scotland, United Kingdom
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Glacial landforms and drift stratigraphy in central Magellan Strait, southernmost Chile, document repeated fluctuations during the last glacial cycle of outlet lobes from an ice cap centered over the southern Andes. The lobes developed comparatively low-gradient profiles because of low basal shear stresses over soft deformable beds and this made them sensitive to even small-scale changes in the mass balance. Such low profiles and rapid calving in deep proglacial lakes during deglaciation may have made the Magellan ice lobe particularly responsive to climatic fluctuations during the last glacial cycle, and to advance and retreat over considerable distances. Study of the glacial landforms and drift stratigraphy has led to the identification of at least five glacier advances to limits at and south of the Segunda Angostura. Fragments of mollusc shells contained in basal till indicate marine incursions between some advances, thus documenting extensive deglaciation. A partial chronology based on amino acid studies and radiocarbon dating suggests that five of these advances occurred during the last glacial cycle. The most extensive advances may have culminated during substages of marine isotope stage 5 (substage 5b or 5d) and/or during stage 4. Slightly less extensive advances occurred between ca. 28,000 and 14,000 yr B.P.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , September 1995 , pp. 133 - 148
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bond, G. Broecker, W. Johnsen, S. McManus, J. Layberie, L. Jouzel, J., and Bonani, G. (1993). Correlations between climate records from North Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice. Nature 365 , 143–147.Google Scholar
Boulton, G. S., and Jones, A. S. (1979). Stability of temperate ice caps and ice sheets resting on beds of deformable sediment. Journal of Glaciology 24 , 29–3.Google Scholar
Caldenius, C. C. (1932). Las glaciaciones cuatemarias en la Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego. Geografiska Annaler 14 , 1–164.Google Scholar
Clapperton, C. M. (1989). Asymmetrical drumlins in Patagonia. Sedimentary Geology 62 , 387–398.Google Scholar
Clapperton, C. M. (in press). Fluctuations of local glaciers at the termination of the Pleistocene: 18-8ka BP. Quaternary International 28 , 41–50.Google Scholar
CLIMAP Project Members (1991). Seasonal reconstruction of the Earth’s surface at the last glacial maximum. Geological Society of America Map and Chart Series, 36 .Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W. Johnsen, S. J. Clausen, H. B. Dahl-Jensen, D. S. Gundestrup, N. Hammer, C. U. Hvidberg, C. S. Steffensen, J. R. Sveinsbjomsdottir, A. E. Jouzel, J., and Bond, G. (1993). Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record. Nature 364 , 218–220.Google Scholar
de Geer, G. (1927). Late glacial clay varves in Argentina, measured by Dr. Carl Caldenius, identified with the solar curve through the Swedish varve time scale. Geografiska Annaler 9 , 1–8.Google Scholar
de Geer, G. (1929). Gotiglacial clay varves in southern Chile, measured by Dr. Carl Caldenius, identified with synchronous varves in Sweden. Geograftska Annaler 11 , 247–256.Google Scholar
Gillespie, A. R., and Molnar, P. (1995). Asynchronous Maximum Advances of Mountain and Continental glaciers. Reviews of Geophysics 33 , 311–364.Google Scholar
Heusser, C. J. (1989). Southern Westerlies during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Research 31 , 423–425.Google Scholar
Hulton, N. Sugden, D. E. Payne, A., and Clapperton, C. M. (1994). Glacier modelling and the climate of Patagonia during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Research 42 , 1–19.Google Scholar
Kaufman, D. S. (1992). Aminostratigraphy of Pliocene-Pleistocene high sea-level deposits, Nome coastal plain and adjacent nearshore area, Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin 102 , 40–52.Google Scholar
Kerr, A., and Sugden, D. E. (1994). The sensitivity of the Chilean snowline to climatic change. Climatic Change 28 , 255–272.Google Scholar
Lowell, T. V. Heusser, C. J. Andersen, B. J. Moreno, P. J. Hauser, A. Denton, G. H. Heusser, L. E. Schlüchter, C., and Marchant, D. R. (in press). Interhemispheric symmetry of paleoclimatic events during the last glaciation. Science. Google Scholar
McCoy, W. D. (1987). The precision of amino acid geochronology and paleothermometry. Quaternary Science Reviews 6 , 43–54.Google Scholar
McCulloch, R. D. (1994). “Palaeoenvironmental evidence for the late-glacial in the Strait of Magellan, southern Chile.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Meglioli, A. (1992), “Glacial geology of southernmost Patagonia, the Strait of Magellan and northern Tierra del Fuego,” Ph.D, thesis, Lehigh University.Google Scholar
Mickleson, D. M. Clayton, L. Fullerton, D. S., and Boms, H. W. (1983). The late Wisconsin glacial record of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the United States. In “Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States” (Wright, H. E., Ed.), Vol. 1, “The Late Pleistocene” (Porter, S. C., Ed.), pp. 3–37. Longman, London.Google Scholar
Miller, G. H. (1985). Aminostratigraphy of Baffin Island shell-bearing deposits. In “Quaternary Environments, Baffin Island, Baffin Bay and West Greenland” (Andrews, J. T., Ed.), pp. 394–427. Allen & Unwin, Winchester, MA.Google Scholar
Miller, G. H., and Brigham-Grette, J. (1989). Amino acid geochronology-resolution and precision in carbonate fossils. Quaternary International 1 , 111–128.Google Scholar
Morner, N-A. and Sylwan, C. (1989). Magnetostratigraphy of the Patagonian moraine sequence at Lago Buenos Aires. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 2 , 385–390.Google Scholar
Porter, S. C. (1989). Character and ages of Pleistocene drifts in a transect across the Strait of Magellan. Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula 7 , pp. 35–50. Balkema, Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Porter, S. C. Stuiver, M., and Heusser, C. J. (1984). Holocene sea-level changes along the Strait of Magellan and Beagle Channel, southernmost South America. Sveriges Geologiska Undersökning Ser Ca, 81 , 233–239.Google Scholar
Raedeke, L. D. (1978). Formas del terreno y depositos cuatemarios, Tierra del Fuego Central, Chile. Revista Geologica de Chile 5 , 3–31.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N. J. (1987), Oxygen isotopes, ice volume and sea level. Quaternary Science Reviews 6 , 183–190.Google Scholar
Tukhanen, S. (1992). The climate of Tierra del Fuego from a vegetation geographical point of view and its ecoclimatic counterparts elsewhere. Acta Botanica Fennica 145 , 1–64.Google Scholar