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| Title: | In-situ cosmogenic exposure dating in the Meirs and Garwood valleys, Denton Hills, Antarctica |
| Authors: | Joy, K Carson, N Fink, D Storey, B |
| Keywords: | Valleys Age estimation Geomorphology Hydrology Beryllium 10 Aluminium 26 |
| Issue Date: | 23-Mar-2011 |
| Publisher: | 12th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS-12) |
| Citation: | Joy, K., Carson, N., Fink, D., Storey, B. (2011). In-situ cosmogenic exposure dating in the Meirs and Garwood valleys, Denton Hills, Antarctica, 12th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS 12), 20th - 25th March 2011. Museum of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand. |
| Abstract: | It has been hypothesised that during interglacials, thinning of the Ross Ice Shelf allowed a more
open water environment with increased local precipitation. This resulted in adjacent glaciers within
the Transantarctic Mountains to advance during moist warmer periods, apparently out of phase
with colder arid dry periods.
The geomorphology of the Denton Hills in the Royal Society Range, West Antarctica, is a result of
Miocene fluvial incision reworked by subsequent warm and cold-based glacial advances throughout
the Quaternary. Outlet glacials, which drain ice into the Shelf, should thus show maximum extent
during interstadials. To understand the chronology of late Quaternary glaciations, 15 granitic
boulders from terminal moraines in the Garwood and Miers Valleys were sampled for 10Be and 26Al
cosmogenic dating.
Obtaining reliable exposure ages of erratics within moraines that represent timing of deposition
(i.e. glacial advances) is problematic in polar regions, where glacial activity is principally controlled
by ice sheet dynamics. Recycling of previously exposed debris, uncertainty in provenance of
glacially transported boulders and a lack of a post-depositional hydrologic process to remove
previously exposed material from a valley system, leads to ambiguities in multiple exposure ages
from a single coeval glacial landform. More importantly, cold-based ice advance can leave a
landform unmodified resulting in young erratics deposited on bedrock that shows weathering
and/or inconsistent age-altitude relationships. Primarily, inheritance becomes a difficulty in
qualifying exposure ages from polar regions.
Preliminary results based on average ages indicate that glaciers in the Denton Hills advanced to
their maximum position between 30-35 ka, earlier than the Antarctic LGM (18-22 ka), then
retreated leaving little evidence of late interglacial or Holocene advances. However, accounting for
inheritance and taking the youngest 10Be ages, advance occurs at 20-22ka during the LGM. Hence
support for the out-of-phase hypothesis depends largely on the exposure age model adopted. Copyright (c) 2011 AMS12. |
| URI: | http://www.gns.cri.nz/ams12/AMS-12_Abstracts_Book_Final.pdf http://apo.ansto.gov.au/dspace/handle/10238/3834 |
| Appears in Collections: | Conference Publications
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