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Holocene glacial retreat

May 04, 2023

For recent (post-Little Ice Age) effects, see Retreat of glaciers since 1850.

The Holocene glacial retreat is a geographical phenomenon that involved the global retreat of glaciers (deglaciation) that previously had advanced during the Last Glacial Maximum. Ice sheet retreat initiated ca. 19,000 years ago and accelerated after ca. 15,000 years ago. The Holocene, starting with abrupt warming 11,700 years ago, resulted in rapid melting of the remaining ice sheets of North America and Europe.

Geographical alterations

Antarctica

 
Fragments of Larsen B ice shelf lingered until 2005.

Radiocarbon dating has been used to date the start of glacial retreat on Alexander island 18,000 years ago.[1] The outermost locations like Marguerite Bay were fully deglaciated 12,000 years ago and the further inland locations continued deglaciating for an additional 3,000 years.[1] The Larsen ice shelf was formed in the early Holocene at a latest estimation of 10,700 years ago.[2] Certain segments of the ice shelf have collapsed as recently as 1995 for Larsen A and a large segment of Larsen B collapsed in 2002.[2]

Europe

The many valleys of the Cairngorms, a mountainous region in the Eastern Scottish Highlands are littered with deposits from this period.

In northwestern Iceland, the Icelandic ice sheet began its non-uniform retreat about 15,000 years ago.[3] Surface exposure dating using the isotope 36Cl was the primary means of dating boulders and terminal moraines in the Drangajökull area in Iceland.[3] Ages of erratic boulders found near the Leirufjörður valley and moraine range from 7-12 thousand years old.[3] The average ages for the groupings of boulders in the Leirufjörður area is 9.3 thousand years ago.[3] Directly south of Leirufjörður in the Kaldalon Valley the average age of the boulders is 15,000 years old.[3] The two different average ages are a result of different rates of glacial activity in Iceland.[3]

 
Modern glacial activity. Antarctica is not pictured.

Another area that has experienced deglaciation during the Holocene is Spitsbergen island within the Svalbard archipelago in Norway.[4] For the last 12,000 years exposed rockwalls have been eroding due to a mixture of biogenic flaking, frost shattering, and stress relaxation that results when glaciers retreat.[4] One way the rate of rockwall retreat is measured is by examining the diameters of local lichen to establish an age of growth.[4]

North America

The retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in Canada led to the formation of moraines and up to 26 proglacial lakes scattered throughout central Canada. The deglaciation occurred from the last glacial maximum (21,000 years ago) until about 7000 years ago. Some of the lakes in the southern Ungava Bay area were fully deglaciated c. 6,000 years ago.[5] Meltwater from the glacial prehistoric Lake Agassiz contributed to the neoglaciation during the Holocene, which resulted in an uptick of glacial activity at least as far away as Iceland.[3]

The Nuup Kangerlua and Sermilik regions, in southwestern and southeastern Greenland respectively, are two localities that experienced deglaciation after the Holocene warming period started.[6] Warming atmospheric temperatures as well as warming waters in the Labrador Sea accelerated the speed of deglaciation which started on the coasts of Greenland before heading inland.[6] Moraines located in the interior of the Nuup Kangerlua area have been dated to 8.1 to 8.3 thousand years ago; they mark a local cooling that caused glaciers to re-advance and leave moraines behind.[6]

The modern Ohio River was formed when the river was temporarily dammed just southwest of Louisville, Kentucky, creating a large lake until the dam burst. The Ohio River largely supplanted the former Teays River drainage system, which was disrupted by the glaciers.

Ancient Lake Chicago, on the southern margin of the Wisconsin Glacier, found successive lower outlets as the glacier retreated, until the Saint Lawrence River route was uncovered. Corresponding to each level, remnant lake shore features may be found in many areas. One prehistoric shoreline is delineated by Bluff Avenue, a north–south street on the La Grange, Illinois, east side.

 
Changes in sea level during the Holocene.

Current river delta positioning and sediment composition in northern Michigan were created by a glacial lake. The lake resulted from retreating glaciers.[7]

South America

The Northern Patagonian Icefield is one of the locations that experienced a surge in glacial activity during the neoglaciation period. Terminal moraines formed 5.7 thousand years ago in the San Rafael Glacier and around 4.96 thousand years ago they formed in the nearby Colonia glacier.[8] In the Southern Patagonian Icefield located in Argentina and Chile, some glaciers have actually been advancing to their peak extents as recently as the 19th century as evidenced by moraines.[9] Another remnant of glacial activity in the southern Patagonian icefield is the creation of meltwater channels within the El Canal spillway found near the Lago del Toro in Chile. The different layers of stratification have been used to date different occurrences of glacial lakes in the region.[10]

New Zealand

Within the last 30 years while most locations have experienced continue glacial retreat, glaciers located in the Southern Alps of New Zealand have advanced in position. Glaciers located near coasts such as those in New Zealand are especially responsive to climate change and serve as an indicator of local climate change. The anticipated warming waters near New Zealand in the Tasman Sea will lead to a reduction in glacial mass balance.[11]

 
Eight records of local temperature variability on multi-centennial scales throughout the course of the Holocene, and an average of these (thick dark line).

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Roberts, S. J.; Hodgson, D. A.; Bentley, M. J.; Sanderson, D. C. W.; Milne, G.; Smith, J. A.; Verleyen, E.; Balbo, A. (2009-11-01). "Holocene relative sea-level change and deglaciation on Alexander Island, Antarctic Peninsula, from elevated lake deltas". Geomorphology. 112 (1–2): 122–134. Bibcode:2009Geomo.112..122R. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.05.011.
  2. ^ a b Curry, Philip; Pudsey, Carol J. (2007). "New Quaternary sedimentary records from near the Larsen C and former Larsen B ice shelves; evidence for Holocene stability". Antarctic Science. 19 (3): 355–364. Bibcode:2007AntSc..19..355C. doi:10.1017/S0954102007000442. ISSN 1365-2079. S2CID 129610602.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Brynjólfsson, Skafti; Schomacker, Anders; Ingólfsson, Ólafur; Keiding, Jakob K. (2015-10-15). "Cosmogenic 36Cl exposure ages reveal a 9.3 ka BP glacier advance and the Late Weichselian-Early Holocene glacial history of the Drangajökull region, northwest Iceland". Quaternary Science Reviews. 126: 140–157. Bibcode:2015QSRv..126..140B. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.09.001.
  4. ^ a b c André, Marie-Françoise (1997-05-01). "Holocene Rockwall Retreat in Svalbard: A Triple-Rate Evolution". Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 22 (5): 423–440. Bibcode:1997ESPL...22..423A. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9837(199705)22:5<423::AID-ESP706>3.3.CO;2-Y. ISSN 1096-9837.
  5. ^ Jansson, Krister N (2003-05-01). "Early Holocene glacial lakes and ice marginal retreat pattern in Labrador/Ungava, Canada". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 193 (3): 473–501. Bibcode:2003PPP...193..473J. doi:10.1016/s0031-0182(03)00262-1.
  6. ^ a b c Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Funder, Svend; Kjær, Kurt H.; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Knudsen, Mads F.; Linge, Henriette (2014-05-15). "Rapid early Holocene ice retreat in West Greenland". Quaternary Science Reviews. APEX II: Arctic Palaeoclimate and its Extremes. 92: 310–323. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.05.027.
  7. ^ Schaetzl, Randall J.; Lepper, Kenneth; Thomas, Sarah E.; Grove, Leslie; Treiber, Emma; Farmer, Alison; Fillmore, Austin; Lee, Jordan; Dickerson, Bethany (2017-03-01). "Kame deltas provide evidence for a new glacial lake and suggest early glacial retreat from central Lower Michigan, USA". Geomorphology. 280: 167–178. Bibcode:2017Geomo.280..167S. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.11.013.
  8. ^ Nimick, David A.; McGrath, Daniel; Mahan, Shannon A.; Friesen, Beverly A.; Leidich, Jonathan (2016-08-01). "Latest Pleistocene and Holocene glacial events in the Colonia valley, Northern Patagonia Icefield, southern Chile". Journal of Quaternary Science. 31 (6): 551–564. Bibcode:2016JQS....31..551N. doi:10.1002/jqs.2847. ISSN 1099-1417. S2CID 132303469.
  9. ^ Strelin, Jorge A.; Kaplan, Michael R.; Vandergoes, Marcus J.; Denton, George H.; Schaefer, Joerg M. (2014-10-01). "Holocene glacier history of the Lago Argentino basin, Southern Patagonian Icefield". Quaternary Science Reviews. 101: 124–145. Bibcode:2014QSRv..101..124S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.06.026.
  10. ^ García, Juan-Luis; Strelin, Jorge A.; Vega, Rodrigo M.; Hall, Brenda L.; Stern, Charles R. (2015-05-13). "Deglacial ice-marginal glaciolacustrine environments and structural moraine building in Torres del Paine, Chilean southern Patagonia". Andean Geology. 42 (2): 190–212. doi:10.5027/andgeov42n2-a03. ISSN 0718-7106.
  11. ^ Mackintosh, Andrew N.; Anderson, Brian M.; Lorrey, Andrew M.; Renwick, James A.; Frei, Prisco; Dean, Sam M. (2017-02-14). "Regional cooling caused recent New Zealand glacier advances in a period of global warming". Nature Communications. 8: ncomms14202. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814202M. doi:10.1038/ncomms14202. PMC 5316876. PMID 28195582.

External links

    May 04, 2023
    holocene, glacial, retreat, recent, post, little, effects, retreat, glaciers, since, 1850, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, needs, additio. For recent post Little Ice Age effects see Retreat of glaciers since 1850 This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Holocene glacial retreat news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed July 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message The Holocene glacial retreat is a geographical phenomenon that involved the global retreat of glaciers deglaciation that previously had advanced during the Last Glacial Maximum Ice sheet retreat initiated ca 19 000 years ago and accelerated after ca 15 000 years ago The Holocene starting with abrupt warming 11 700 years ago resulted in rapid melting of the remaining ice sheets of North America and Europe Contents 1 Geographical alterations 1 1 Antarctica 1 2 Europe 1 3 North America 1 4 South America 1 5 New Zealand 2 See also 3 References 4 External linksGeographical alterations EditAntarctica Edit Fragments of Larsen B ice shelf lingered until 2005 Radiocarbon dating has been used to date the start of glacial retreat on Alexander island 18 000 years ago 1 The outermost locations like Marguerite Bay were fully deglaciated 12 000 years ago and the further inland locations continued deglaciating for an additional 3 000 years 1 The Larsen ice shelf was formed in the early Holocene at a latest estimation of 10 700 years ago 2 Certain segments of the ice shelf have collapsed as recently as 1995 for Larsen A and a large segment of Larsen B collapsed in 2002 2 Europe Edit The many valleys of the Cairngorms a mountainous region in the Eastern Scottish Highlands are littered with deposits from this period In northwestern Iceland the Icelandic ice sheet began its non uniform retreat about 15 000 years ago 3 Surface exposure dating using the isotope 36Cl was the primary means of dating boulders and terminal moraines in the Drangajokull area in Iceland 3 Ages of erratic boulders found near the Leirufjordur valley and moraine range from 7 12 thousand years old 3 The average ages for the groupings of boulders in the Leirufjordur area is 9 3 thousand years ago 3 Directly south of Leirufjordur in the Kaldalon Valley the average age of the boulders is 15 000 years old 3 The two different average ages are a result of different rates of glacial activity in Iceland 3 Modern glacial activity Antarctica is not pictured Another area that has experienced deglaciation during the Holocene is Spitsbergen island within the Svalbard archipelago in Norway 4 For the last 12 000 years exposed rockwalls have been eroding due to a mixture of biogenic flaking frost shattering and stress relaxation that results when glaciers retreat 4 One way the rate of rockwall retreat is measured is by examining the diameters of local lichen to establish an age of growth 4 North America Edit The retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in Canada led to the formation of moraines and up to 26 proglacial lakes scattered throughout central Canada The deglaciation occurred from the last glacial maximum 21 000 years ago until about 7000 years ago Some of the lakes in the southern Ungava Bay area were fully deglaciated c 6 000 years ago 5 Meltwater from the glacial prehistoric Lake Agassiz contributed to the neoglaciation during the Holocene which resulted in an uptick of glacial activity at least as far away as Iceland 3 The Nuup Kangerlua and Sermilik regions in southwestern and southeastern Greenland respectively are two localities that experienced deglaciation after the Holocene warming period started 6 Warming atmospheric temperatures as well as warming waters in the Labrador Sea accelerated the speed of deglaciation which started on the coasts of Greenland before heading inland 6 Moraines located in the interior of the Nuup Kangerlua area have been dated to 8 1 to 8 3 thousand years ago they mark a local cooling that caused glaciers to re advance and leave moraines behind 6 The modern Ohio River was formed when the river was temporarily dammed just southwest of Louisville Kentucky creating a large lake until the dam burst The Ohio River largely supplanted the former Teays River drainage system which was disrupted by the glaciers Ancient Lake Chicago on the southern margin of the Wisconsin Glacier found successive lower outlets as the glacier retreated until the Saint Lawrence River route was uncovered Corresponding to each level remnant lake shore features may be found in many areas One prehistoric shoreline is delineated by Bluff Avenue a north south street on the La Grange Illinois east side Changes in sea level during the Holocene Current river delta positioning and sediment composition in northern Michigan were created by a glacial lake The lake resulted from retreating glaciers 7 South America Edit The Northern Patagonian Icefield is one of the locations that experienced a surge in glacial activity during the neoglaciation period Terminal moraines formed 5 7 thousand years ago in the San Rafael Glacier and around 4 96 thousand years ago they formed in the nearby Colonia glacier 8 In the Southern Patagonian Icefield located in Argentina and Chile some glaciers have actually been advancing to their peak extents as recently as the 19th century as evidenced by moraines 9 Another remnant of glacial activity in the southern Patagonian icefield is the creation of meltwater channels within the El Canal spillway found near the Lago del Toro in Chile The different layers of stratification have been used to date different occurrences of glacial lakes in the region 10 New Zealand EditWithin the last 30 years while most locations have experienced continue glacial retreat glaciers located in the Southern Alps of New Zealand have advanced in position Glaciers located near coasts such as those in New Zealand are especially responsive to climate change and serve as an indicator of local climate change The anticipated warming waters near New Zealand in the Tasman Sea will lead to a reduction in glacial mass balance 11 Eight records of local temperature variability on multi centennial scales throughout the course of the Holocene and an average of these thick dark line See also EditDeglaciation transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages to warm interglacialsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback Postglacial vegetation Meltwater pulse 1B Period of either rapid or just accelerated post glacial sea level rise Early Holocene sea level rise Sea level rise between 12 000 and 7 000 years agoReferences Edit a b Roberts S J Hodgson D A Bentley M J Sanderson D C W Milne G Smith J A Verleyen E Balbo A 2009 11 01 Holocene relative sea level change and deglaciation on Alexander Island Antarctic Peninsula from elevated lake deltas Geomorphology 112 1 2 122 134 Bibcode 2009Geomo 112 122R doi 10 1016 j geomorph 2009 05 011 a b Curry Philip Pudsey Carol J 2007 New Quaternary sedimentary records from near the Larsen C and former Larsen B ice shelves evidence for Holocene stability Antarctic Science 19 3 355 364 Bibcode 2007AntSc 19 355C doi 10 1017 S0954102007000442 ISSN 1365 2079 S2CID 129610602 a b c d e f g Brynjolfsson Skafti Schomacker Anders Ingolfsson olafur Keiding Jakob K 2015 10 15 Cosmogenic 36Cl exposure ages reveal a 9 3 ka BP glacier advance and the Late Weichselian Early Holocene glacial history of the Drangajokull region northwest Iceland Quaternary Science Reviews 126 140 157 Bibcode 2015QSRv 126 140B doi 10 1016 j quascirev 2015 09 001 a b c Andre Marie Francoise 1997 05 01 Holocene Rockwall Retreat in Svalbard A Triple Rate Evolution Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 22 5 423 440 Bibcode 1997ESPL 22 423A doi 10 1002 SICI 1096 9837 199705 22 5 lt 423 AID ESP706 gt 3 3 CO 2 Y ISSN 1096 9837 Jansson Krister N 2003 05 01 Early Holocene glacial lakes and ice marginal retreat pattern in Labrador Ungava Canada Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 193 3 473 501 Bibcode 2003PPP 193 473J doi 10 1016 s0031 0182 03 00262 1 a b c Larsen Nicolaj K Funder Svend Kjaer Kurt H Kjeldsen Kristian K Knudsen Mads F Linge Henriette 2014 05 15 Rapid early Holocene ice retreat in West Greenland Quaternary Science Reviews APEX II Arctic Palaeoclimate and its Extremes 92 310 323 doi 10 1016 j quascirev 2013 05 027 Schaetzl Randall J Lepper Kenneth Thomas Sarah E Grove Leslie Treiber Emma Farmer Alison Fillmore Austin Lee Jordan Dickerson Bethany 2017 03 01 Kame deltas provide evidence for a new glacial lake and suggest early glacial retreat from central Lower Michigan USA Geomorphology 280 167 178 Bibcode 2017Geomo 280 167S doi 10 1016 j geomorph 2016 11 013 Nimick David A McGrath Daniel Mahan Shannon A Friesen Beverly A Leidich Jonathan 2016 08 01 Latest Pleistocene and Holocene glacial events in the Colonia valley Northern Patagonia Icefield southern Chile Journal of Quaternary Science 31 6 551 564 Bibcode 2016JQS 31 551N doi 10 1002 jqs 2847 ISSN 1099 1417 S2CID 132303469 Strelin Jorge A Kaplan Michael R Vandergoes Marcus J Denton George H Schaefer Joerg M 2014 10 01 Holocene glacier history of the Lago Argentino basin Southern Patagonian Icefield Quaternary Science Reviews 101 124 145 Bibcode 2014QSRv 101 124S doi 10 1016 j quascirev 2014 06 026 Garcia Juan Luis Strelin Jorge A Vega Rodrigo M Hall Brenda L Stern Charles R 2015 05 13 Deglacial ice marginal glaciolacustrine environments and structural moraine building in Torres del Paine Chilean southern Patagonia Andean Geology 42 2 190 212 doi 10 5027 andgeov42n2 a03 ISSN 0718 7106 Mackintosh Andrew N Anderson Brian M Lorrey Andrew M Renwick James A Frei Prisco Dean Sam M 2017 02 14 Regional cooling caused recent New Zealand glacier advances in a period of global warming Nature Communications 8 ncomms14202 Bibcode 2017NatCo 814202M doi 10 1038 ncomms14202 PMC 5316876 PMID 28195582 External links EditThe Post Glacial Period Holocene Epoch Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Holocene glacial retreat amp oldid 1131343038, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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