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Exposure dating and glacial reconstruction at Mt. Field, Tasmania, Australia, identifies MIS 3 and MIS 2 glacial advances and climatic variability
Author(s) -
Mackintosh A. N.,
Barrows T. T.,
Colhoun E. A.,
Fifield L. K.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.989
Subject(s) - glacial period , deglaciation , glacier , moraine , geology , northern hemisphere , physical geography , marine isotope stage , southern hemisphere , quaternary , ice sheet , climatology , oceanography , paleontology , interglacial , geography
Tasmania is important for understanding Quaternary climatic change because it is one of only three areas that experienced extensive mid‐latitude Southern Hemisphere glaciation and it lies in a dominantly oceanic environment at a great distance from Northern Hemisphere ice sheet feedbacks. We applied exposure dating using 36 Cl to an extensive sequence of moraines from the last glacial at Mt. Field, Tasmania. Glaciers advanced at 41–44 ka during Marine oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and at 18 ka during MIS 2. Both advances occurred in response to an ELA lowering greater than 1100 m below the present‐day mean summer freezing level, and a possible temperature reduction of 7–8°C. Deglaciation was rapid and complete by ca. 16 ka. The overall story emerging from studies of former Tasmanian glaciers is that the MIS 2 glaciation was of limited extent and that some glaciers were more extensive during earlier parts of the last glacial cycle. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.