Collaborative Research: A Southern Hemispheric Perspective on Holocene Climate Variability Based on Mountain Glacial Chronologies

Lead PI: Michael Kaplan , Dr. Joerg Michael Schaefer , Dr. George H. Denton

Unit Affiliation: Geochemistry, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)

September 2009 - August 2013
Inactive
South America ; Peru ; South America ; Patagonia
Project Type: Research

DESCRIPTION: In order to test the hypothesis that northern and southern climate changes were out of sync and to see if the European Little Ice Age occurred in the south, the team will use 10Be dating of moraines in the southern Andes to create a chronology of past climate changes.

OUTCOMES: Collected new samples for 10Be dating and calibrated 10Be accumulation rates using 14C dating. Found that the largest glacial extent in the south was 6kyr ago, not during the Little Ice Age. Found that 10Be can accurate for times less than even 300 years ago. Found that 10Be accumulation is >12% lower in South America than had been assumed. Two journal publications, four one-time publications, and a website.