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Little Ice Age fluctuations of Glaciar Río Manso in the North Patagonian Andes of Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

M.H. Masiokas ,
B.H. Luckman ,
R. Villalba ,
A. Ripalta  and
J. Rabassa
M.H. Masiokas*
Affiliation:
Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), CCT-CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina
B.H. Luckman
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
R. Villalba
Affiliation:
Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), CCT-CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina
A. Ripalta
Affiliation:
Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), CCT-CONICET, Mendoza, Argentina
J. Rabassa
Affiliation:
Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
*
*Corresponding author. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), CCT Mendoza-CONICET, C.C. 330, 5500, Mendoza, Argentina. Fax: +54 261 524 4201. E-mail address:mmasiokas@mendoza-conicet.gov.ar
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Abstract

Little Ice Age (LIA) fluctuations of Glaciar R"o Manso, north Patagonian Andes, Argentina are studied using information from previous work and dendrogeomorphological analyses of living and subfossil wood. The most extensive LIA expansion occurred between the late 1700s and the 1830"1840s. Except for a massive older frontal moraine system apparently predating ca. 2240 14C yr BP and a small section of a south lateral moraine ridge that is at least 300 yr old, the early nineteenth century advance overrode surficial evidence of any earlier LIA glacier events. Over the past 150 yr the gently sloping, heavily debris-covered lower glacier tongue has thinned significantly, but several short periods of readvance or stasis have been identified and tree-ring dated to the mid-1870s, 1890s, 1900s, 1920s, 1950s, and the mid-1970s. Ice mass loss has increased in recent years due to calving into a rapidly growing proglacial lake. The neighboring debris-free and land-based Glaciar Fr"as has also retreated markedly in recent years but shows substantial differences in the timing of the peak LIA advance (early 1600s). This indicates that site-specific factors can have a significant impact on the resulting glacier records and should thus be considered carefully in the development and assessment of regional glacier chronologies.

Keywords

North Patagonian AndesGlacier fluctuationsLittle Ice AgeDendroglaciology
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 96 - 106
Copyright
University of Washington

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