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Late-glacial fluctuations of two southern Patagonia outlet glaciers revealed by high-resolution seismic surveys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Emanuele Lodolo Open the ORCID record for Emanuele Lodolo [Opens in a new window] ,
Jorge Lozano ,
Federica Donda ,
Donald Bran ,
Luca Baradello ,
Alejandro Tassone ,
Roberto Romeo ,
Marcelo Paterlini ,
Maurizio Grossi  and
Mauro Caffau
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Emanuele Lodolo*
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 - Sgonico (Trieste), Italy
Jorge Lozano
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, C1428EHA - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Federica Donda
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 - Sgonico (Trieste), Italy
Donald Bran
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, C1428EHA - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Luca Baradello
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 - Sgonico (Trieste), Italy
Alejandro Tassone
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, C1428EHA - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Roberto Romeo
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 - Sgonico (Trieste), Italy
Marcelo Paterlini
Affiliation:
Servicio de Hidrografía Naval, Av. Montes de Oca 2124, C1270ABV - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Maurizio Grossi
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 - Sgonico (Trieste), Italy
Mauro Caffau
Affiliation:
Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 - Sgonico (Trieste), Italy
Juan Francisco Vilas
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón II, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, C1428EHA - Buenos Aires, Argentina
*
*Corresponding author at: Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Borgo Grotta Gigante, Trieste, Italy. E-mail address: elodolo@inogs.it (E. Lodolo).
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Abstract

Lago Argentino hosts various calving glaciers, among them the famous Perito Moreno. Whereas the onland late Pleistocene–Holocene glacial history is rather well constrained, the submerged glacier-related features were until now undisclosed. Here we present a series of high-resolution seismic profiles revealing moraine bodies associated with the late-glacial glacier dynamics and the first bathymetric map of the Brazo Rico and Brazo Sur, the two southern arms of Lago Argentino. At the eastern termination of Brazo Rico, we identified at the lake floor the submerged expression of the Puerto Bandera 3 moraine mapped onshore, which represents the oldest event (12,660 ± 70 cal yr BP oldest minimum age) recognized in this lake arm, and seven other younger events expressed by a series of terminal and recessional moraines. Along the Brazo Sur, few moraine bodies have been imaged by seismic data. Here, the youngest temporal constraint comes from the Frías moraine (ca. 6000 cal yr BP), which closes off the southern end of the Brazo Sur. At the confluence of the two arms, the Perito Moreno and the former Frías glacier merged and flowed toward east during their late-glacial maximum advance (i.e., Puerto Bandera 1 moraine). The subaqueous evidence of moraine bodies testifies to the occurrence of previously undocumented pulses of the Perito Moreno and former Frías glaciers within the general phase of late Pleistocene–Holocene regression.

Keywords

South PatagoniaLago ArgentinoBrazo RicoBrazo SurPerito Moreno glacierFormer Frías glacierH-R seismic profilesBathymetric mapTerminal and recessional morainesLate-glacial glacier fluctuations
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 97 , September 2020 , pp. 111 - 124
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Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020

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