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Improved moraine age interpretations through explicit matching of geomorphic process models to cosmogenic nuclide measurements from single landforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Patrick J. Applegate ,
Nathan M. Urban ,
Klaus Keller ,
Thomas V. Lowell ,
Benjamin J.C. Laabs ,
Meredith A. Kelly  and
Richard B. Alley
Patrick J. Applegate*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Nathan M. Urban
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Klaus Keller
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Thomas V. Lowell
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
Benjamin J.C. Laabs
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York at Geneseo, Geneseo, NY 14454, USA
Meredith A. Kelly
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
Richard B. Alley
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Bert Bolin Climate Centre and Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, S106-91 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail address:patrick.applegate@natgeo.su.se (P.J. Applegate)
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Abstract

The statistical distributions of cosmogenic nuclide measurements from moraine boulders contain previously unused information on moraine ages, and they help determine whether moraine degradation or inheritance is more important on individual moraines. Here, we present a method for extracting this information by fitting geomorphic process models to observed exposure ages from single moraines. We also apply this method to 94 10Be apparent exposure ages from 11 moraines reported in four published studies. Our models represent 10Be accumulation in boulders that are exhumed over time by slope processes (moraine degradation), and the delivery of boulders with preexisting 10Be inventories to moraines (inheritance). For now, we neglect boulder erosion and snow cover, which are likely second-order processes. Given a highly scattered data set, we establish which model yields the better fit to the data, and estimate the age of the moraine from the better model fit. The process represented by the better-fitting model is probably responsible for most of the scatter among the apparent ages. Our methods should help resolve controversies in exposure dating; we reexamine the conclusions from two published studies based on our model fits.

Keywords

CosmogenicExposure datingStatistical distributionMoraineBoulderPaleoglaciologyGlacial geomorphologyHillslopeProcess geomorphology
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 293 - 304
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1 Now in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

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