Developments in Quaternary Science 

About: Developments in Quaternary Science is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Glacial period & Pleistocene. It has an ISSN identifier of 1571-0866. Over the lifetime, 395 publications have been published receiving 11582 citations.

An outline of North American deglaciation with emphasis on central and northern Canada

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter reviews that the Late Wisconsinan North American ice sheet complex consisted of three major ice sheets: (1) the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which was centred on the Canadian Shield, but also expanded across the Interior Plains to the west and south, (2) the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which inundated the western mountain belt between the northernmost co-terminus United States and Beringia, and (3) the Innuitian Ice Sheet, which covered most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago north of about 7°N latitude. The ice cover over Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces of Canada is usually referred to as the Appalachian Ice Complex, because ice flowed out from local centres rather than from the Canadian Shield. All of the peripheral ice sheets were confluent at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) with the Laurentide Ice Sheet, and the Greenland Ice Sheet was confluent with the Innuitian Ice Sheet. The nucleus of this complex, the Laurentide, comprised three major sectors, the Labrador Sector, the Keewatin Sector, and the Baffin Sector, named for areas of inception mid probable areas of outflow at LGM and located respectively east, west and north of Hudson Bay. The chapter presents revised maps of North American deglaciation at 500-year and finer resolution. These maps represent an updating of a series prepared nearly two decades ago for the INQUA 1987 Congress.

Late Cenozoic Glaciations in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter overviews the Patagonian and Fuegian glaciations—starting in the Late Miocene, when the junction of global, cooler climatic conditions, and the final rise of the southern Andes enabled the formation of mountain glaciers in the area. The chapter presents the absolute chronology of the Patagonian terrestrial glacial sequences, basically dated by means of 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating techniques on volcanic rocks associated with glacial landforms and deposits, and cosmogenic isotope dating techniques on erratic boulders and glacial erosional surfaces. In some cases, the magnetostratigraphy of glacial deposits is available, thus allowing the correlation with the Pampean continental sequences and with the global ocean record. Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego are some of the regions of the world still largely covered by ice and snow. Three major mountain ice sheets can be observed along the Patagonian and Fuegian Andes. These three ice sheets are the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, and the Darwin Cordillera Ice Field. The chapter includes also the most significant information available on the glaciations of the Chilean side of the Andes, along the same latitudinal belt.

7. Eustatic sea level during past interglacials

Abstract: Eustatic sea-level variation is the primary index of global ice volume over glacial cycles. Here, we review recent studies of eustatic sea level during interglacial periods. This review includes in-depth discussion of the variability, magnitude and duration of the last five interglacial periods and a summary of evidence for the last nine interglacial periods. The last nine interglacial periods differ not only in height and variability of sea level, but also in timing relative to northern summer insolation peaks. Some interglacials have a single peak and others have several, while MIS 11 persisted with little variation for at least 30 kyr. Estimates of interglacial sea levels remain subject to uncertainties. There is an outstanding need for glacio-hydro-isostatic modelling for all glacial cycles of interest, as well as improvements in dating and dating-correction techniques.

The Cordilleran Ice Sheet

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the advances in both global and regional understanding of Quaternary history, deposits, and geomorphic processes that have brought new information and new techniques for characterizing the growth, decay, and products of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Pleistocene. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet, the smaller of two great continental ice sheets that covered North America during Quaternary glacial periods, extends from the mountains of coastal south and southeast Alaska, along the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and into northern Washington and northwestern Montana. Ice has advanced south into western Washington at least six times, but the marine-isotope record suggests that these are but a fraction of the total that entered the region in the past 2.5 million years. Reconstruction of the Puget lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum requires basal sliding at the rates of several hundred meters per year, with pore-water pressures nearly that of the ice overburden. Landforms produced during glaciation include an extensive low-gradient outwash plain in front of the advancing ice sheet, a prominent system of subparallel troughs deeply incised into that plain and carved mainly by subglacial meltwater, and widespread streamlined landforms.

The Greenland ice sheet during the past 300,000 years: a review

Abstract: The Greenland ice sheet‘s response to climate change is a major issue in the climate debate. This report reviews existing evidence on how the ice sheet margins reacted to climate change during the past 300,000 years—how it responded to the warm climate of the last interglacial and expanded on to the shelf during the last ice age. Compared to the other large ice sheets in the northern hemisphere, the Greenland ice sheet showed remarkable resilience to temperature change—a good omen for the future.