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Luminescence dating of glacial advances at Lago Buenos Aires (~46 S), Patagonia

Luminescence dating of glacial advances at Lago Buenos Aires (~46 S), Patagonia Thumbnail


Abstract

Understanding the timing of past glacial advances in Patagonia is of global climatic importance because of the insight this can provide into the influence on glacier behaviour of changes in temperature and precipitation related to the Southern Westerlies. In this paper we present new luminescence ages determined using single grains of K-feldspar from proglacial outwash sediments that were deposited by the Patagonian Ice Sheet around Lago Buenos Aires (~46 °S), east of the contemporary Northern Patagonian Icefield. The new luminescence ages indicate that major outwash accumulations formed around ~110 ± 20 ka to 140 ± 20 ka and that these correspond to the Moreno I and II moraine ridges, which were previously dated using cosmogenic isotope dating to 150 ± 30 ka. Luminescence dating at Lago Buenos Aires has also identified outwash sediments that were deposited during glacial advances ~30.8 ± 5.7 ka and ~34.0 ± 6.1 ka (MIS 3) that are not recorded in the moraine record. Younger outwash accumulations were then deposited between ~14.7 ± 2.1 and 26.2 ± 1.6 ka which correspond to the Fenix I – V moraine ridges. The combined chronology suggests that glacial advances occurred ~110 ± 20 ka to 150 ± 30 ka (MIS 6), ~30.8 ± 5.7 ka to ~34.0 ± 6.1 ka (MIS 3), and ~14.7 ± 2.1 to 26.2 ± 1.6 ka (MIS 2) at Lago Buenos Aires. Overall luminescence dating using single grains of K-feldspar has excellent potential to contribute towards the ever-increasing geochronological dataset constraining the timings of glacial advances in Patagonia.

Acceptance Date Dec 15, 2015
Publication Date Feb 15, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Quaternary Science Reviews
Print ISSN 0277-3791
Publisher Elsevier
Pages 59 -73
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.12.010
Keywords Patagonia, Glacial, Geomorphology, Luminescence, Single grains, Feldspar
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.12.010

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