Collaborative Research: The Pulse of the Holocene Glaciations in New Zealand's Southern Alps

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

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

October 2008 - September 2014
Inactive
Oceania
Project Type: Research

DESCRIPTION: A region detailed chronology of glacial pulses during the Holocene will developed for New Zealand's Southern Alps by 10Be surface exposure dating moraines from both the eastern and western flanks of New Zealand and from both large glacier valleys and small glacier valleys in order to better understand climate instability during the Holocene and its affects on humans.

OUTCOMES: Found that New Zealand's Southern Alp's glaciers showed anti-symmetric patterns compared to northern glaciers, however northern and southern glaciers have been retreating in sync over the last 150 years. This has shown that there was not a "global Little Ice Age" and that anthropogenic forcing has surpassed the natural inter-hemispherically anti-phased climate pattern. Six journal publications and two websites.