Late Holocene Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Chilean Patagonia: evidence from Valle Grande floodplain sediments (47 °S)

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dc.contributor.authorVandekerkhove, Een_AU
dc.contributor.authorBertrand, Sen_AU
dc.contributor.authorReid, Ben_AU
dc.contributor.authorMauquoy, Den_AU
dc.contributor.authorSaunders, KMen_AU
dc.contributor.authorMcWhethy, Den_AU
dc.contributor.authorStammen, Sen_AU
dc.contributor.authorTorrejón, Fen_AU
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-03T02:10:36Zen_AU
dc.date.available2024-05-03T02:10:36Zen_AU
dc.date.issued2019-07-30en_AU
dc.date.statistics2023-04-13en_AU
dc.description.abstractGlacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) constitute a major threat in glacierized regions. These catastrophic events occur when a lake dammed by a glacier or moraine empties, resulting in abrupt flooding. In Patagonia, this issue is particularly pronounced in the Baker region (47–48°S), where 21 GLOFs have been documented in the last decade. All recent GLOFs resulted from the emptying of Cachet 2 Lake into Colonia River, a tributary of the Baker River. During such events, Baker River, which is the largest in Chile draining most of the eastern side of the Northern Patagonian Icefield, triples in discharge. Due to backwater flooding, the water level in the Valle Grande floodplain, which is located along Baker river immediately upstream of Colonia River, rises by 4 to 6 meters, resulting in its complete inundation. Although GLOF frequency seems to have increased worldwide in the last decades, there is currently no reliable scientific evidence supporting this claim, largely due to a lack of flood records on timescales that extend beyond gauged river-flow datasets. To examine changes in GLOF frequency in Patagonia, four sediment cores were collected in the Valle Grande floodplain. The cores were scanned on a Geotek MSCL at 2 mm resolution for magnetic susceptibility (MS), gamma density, and sediment color (spectrophotometry). Loss-on-ignition was measured continuously at 5 mm resolution and radiocarbon ages, 210Pb concentrations, and charcoal counts were obtained to establish a core chronology. All cores indicate the occurrence of fine-grained organic-poor material with high MS and density values, alternating with organic-rich deposits. It is hypothesized that the fine-grained material is deposited during floods, whereas the organic-rich soils represent periods of quiescence. The records seem to display three periods rich in floods during the last 2500 years. Once precise age depth models are constructed, the results will be compared to historical records of climate and glacier variability to assess the possible relationship between GLOFs and climate change.en_AU
dc.identifier.citationVandekerkhove, E., Bertrand, S., Reid, B., Mauquoy, D., Saunders, K. M., McWethy. D., Stammen, S., & Torrejón, F. (2019). Late Holocene Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Chilean Patagonia: evidence from Valle Grande floodplain sediments (47 °S). Poster presented to the 20th INQUA Congress, 25th - 31st July 2019, Dublin, Ireland. Retrieved from: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/public/574/submission/1678en_AU
dc.identifier.conferenceenddate2019-07-31en_AU
dc.identifier.conferencename20th INQUA Congress 2019en_AU
dc.identifier.conferenceplaceDublin, Irelanden_AU
dc.identifier.conferencestartdate2019-07-25en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/public/574/submission/1678en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttps://apo.ansto.gov.au/handle/10238/15579en_AU
dc.language.isoenen_AU
dc.publisherInternational Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA)en_AU
dc.relation.urihttps://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/public/574/submission/1678en_AU
dc.subjectQuaternary perioden_AU
dc.subjectGlaciersen_AU
dc.subjectFloodsen_AU
dc.subjectChileen_AU
dc.subjectRiversen_AU
dc.subjectDrill coresen_AU
dc.subjectDataen_AU
dc.titleLate Holocene Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Chilean Patagonia: evidence from Valle Grande floodplain sediments (47 °S)en_AU
dc.typeConference Abstracten_AU
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