the deglaciation of the sierra nevada southern spain abstract cosmogenic 36 cl surface exposure dating was carried out on 19 samples from glacially polished bedrock rock glaciers and moraines of four glaciated valleys with different orientations in the sierra nevada spain around pico del veleta 37 3 n 3 21 w 3398 m asl remains of moraines older than the global last glacial maximum exist but their poor preservation makes them an unreliable subject for surface exposure dating results show that the last local glacial maximum advance took place earlier than the global last glacial maximum but within the mis 2 although additional dating is needed to confirm this exposure ages from bedrock steps show a general glacier retreat in progress by 15 14 ka shortly afterwards an extensive system of rock glaciers formed at the base of the valley headwalls with the most recent rock glacier lasting until 7 ka ago from their location morphology and analysis of other proxies we interpret their origin as related to the deglaciation process and marked instability of cirque headwalls rather than to extreme periglacial conditions a recent similar occurrence was the transformation of the little ice age glacier on the north face of the pico del veleta into a rock glacier under temperate high mountain climatic conditions

cosmic ray labeling of erosion surfaces in situ nuclide production rates and erosion models a number of in situ cosmogenic radionuclides and stable nuclides have been measured in natural exposed rock surfaces with a view to study their in situ production and rock erosion rates 1 the in situ radionuclides can be used for a high resolution tomography of the erosional history of an exposed surface two stable nuclides 3he 21ne and five radionuclides 10be 26al 36cl 14c 39ar having half lives in the range of 300 1 5 106 yr half life are measurable in many rock types a prerequisite for the application of the in situ nuclides for the study of erosional histories of surfaces is a knowledge of their production rates under different irradiation conditions altitude latitude irradiation geometry and shielding relative nuclide production rates can be determined fairly accurately using the extensive available data on cosmic ray neutrons 2 absolute nuclide production rates cannot generally be predicted with any accuracy because of lack of data on excitation functions of nuclides unless some normalization is possible as was done in the case of several cosmic ray produced isotopes in the atmosphere 3 based on a recent natural calibration experiment in which erosion free surfaces exposed to cosmic radiation for 11 000 yrs were sampled the absolute production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz have been accurately estimated for mountain altitudes in sierra nevada 4 the absolute production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz can therefore be estimated fairly accurately for any given latitude and altitude some measurements of 14c in rocks of low erosion rate 5 similarly allow an estimate of its production rate attempts made to measure the in situ production rates of 3he in rocks have not yet led to a convergent production rate in view of the importance of knowing the production rates of isotopes of he ne and ar i present here theoretical estimates of their production rates based on available cross section data i discuss the information that can be extracted from the study of the in situ nuclides in rocks useful parameters characterizing the exposure history of a rock surface are 1 the effective surface exposure age and 2 the time averaged erosion rate the implications of these parameters for single and multiple nuclide studies are discussed in terms of the erosion models considered

a case for a downwasting mountain glacier during termination i vercenik valley northeastern turkey field evidence of palaeoglacial records in the vercenik valley in the eastern black sea mountains was examined and 19 samples for surface exposure dating with cosmogenic 10 be were collected with the aim of increasing knowledge on the amplitude and frequency of palaeoglacier advances in anatolia glacial erosional features were mapped and the flow directions of the palaeoglaciers were determined the vercenik palaeoglacier advanced before 26 1 k 1 2 k yr the last glacial maximum lgm advance continued until 18 8 k 1 0 k yr the vercenik palaeo glacier collapsed during termination i after 17 7 k 0 8 k yr there was no more ice in the main valley the vercenik palaeoglacier most probably then separated into five small glaciers that were restricted to the tributary valleys among these the hemsin palaeoglacier completed its recession around 15 7 k 0 8 k yr on the basis of glacial erosion features a lateglacial glacier advance can be identified evidence of the little ice age advance appears to be absent the results from this valley system seem to be consistent with the first results from the adjacent kavron valley and with the anatolian lgm palaeoclimate the sea surface temperature minima in the western mediterranean the deposition of red clay layers in the black sea and deposition of the heinrich 1 layer in the north atlantic copyright 2007 john wiley sons ltd

preferential flow of a nonaqueous phase liquid in dry sand geotechnical centrifuge testing is used to examine the preferential fingered flow of a nonaqueous phase liquid napl in a uniform dry sand the results of nine experiments containing a total of 87 observations of napl finger behavior are analyzed the observed finger tip velocities range from 0 01 to 0 3 cm s while the observed finger widths range from 0 3 to 3 6 cm from the experimental data it is concluded that asymptotically the napl fingers are not fully saturated for comparison the behavior of water fingers is examined using the same experimental setup in contrast to the napl fingers and in agreement with other work reported in the literature the water fingers are found to be fully saturated in addition it is confirmed that the water finger properties can be well predicted from known porous medium and fluid properties a scaling analysis is presented that allows the napl finger properties to be inferred from models developed to describe water finger properties the analysis predicts napl finger velocities to within 15 and napl finger widths to within 50 if both finger types are assumed saturated by adjusting the analysis to account for the fact that the napl fingers are not fully saturated napl finger widths can be predicted within to 10 and napl finger velocities to within 30

insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years new values for the astronomical parameters of the earth s orbit and rotation eccentricity obliquity and precession are proposed for paleoclimatic research related to the late miocene the pliocene and the quaternary they have been obtained from a numerical solution of the lagrangian system of the planetary point masses and from an analytical solution of the poisson equations of the earth moon system the analytical expansion allows the direct determination of the main frequencies with their phase and amplitude numerical and analytical comparisons with the former astronomical solution ber78 are performed so that the accuracy and the interval of time over which the new solution is valid can be estimated the corresponding insolation values have also been computed this analysis leads to the conclusion that the new values are expected to be reliable over the last 5 ma in the time domain and at least over the last 10 ma in the frequency domain

cold and wet last glacial maximum on mount sandiras sw turkey inferred from cosmogenic dating and glacier modeling abstract in situ cosmogenic 36 cl was measured in boulders from moraines on mount sandiras 37 1 n 28 8 e 2295 m the southwestern most previously glaciated mountain in turkey valleys on the north side of the mountain were filled with 1 5 km long glaciers that terminated at an altitude of 1900 m the glacial activity on mount sandiras correlates with the broadly defined last glacial maximum lgm the maximum glaciation occurred approximately 20 4 1 3 ka 1 1 ka 1000 calendar years ago when glaciers started retreating and the most extensive moraines were deposited the glaciers readvanced and retreated by 19 6 1 6 ka ago and then again by 16 2 0 5 ka using the glacier modeling and the paleoclimate proxies from the eastern mediterranean we estimated that if temperatures during lgm were 8 5 11 5 c lower than modern precipitation was up to 1 9 times more than that of today thus the local lgm climate was cold and wet which is at odds with the conventional view of the lgm as being cold and dry in the region

paleoglacial records from kavron valley ne turkey field and cosmogenic exposure dating evidence abstract kavron valley lies in the kackar mountain range of northeastern anatolia and is a north south oriented typically u shaped glacial valley consisting of a main and three tributary valleys the quaternary units that outcrop in this valley have been mapped and 22 samples have been processed for surface exposure dating using cosmogenic 10 be according to the 10 be ages the advance of the kavron paleoglacier began at least 26 0 1 2 kyr ago with the last glacial maximum lgm advance continuing until 18 3 0 9 kyr after this time the kavron paleoglacier receded although the magnitude of this recession is still unknown subsequent to this retreat the glacier most probably separated into three smaller glaciers that were restricted to the tributary valleys ifrit derebasi and mezovit paleoglaciers the main valley was definitely ice free by 15 5 0 7 kyr ago with the mezovit paleoglacier completing its recession around 15 5 0 6 kyr a late glacial advance took place around 13 0 0 8 to 11 5 0 8 kyr and little ice age moraines appear to be absent our results from the kavron valley system seem to be consistent with the lgm paleoclimate record of anatolia which has been delineated by data gathered from lowlands and lakes the deposition of red clay layers in the northwestern black sea and the deposition of heinrich 1 layers in the north atlantic

geochronology of quaternary glaciations from the tropical cordillera huayhuash peru abstract the cordillera huayhuash in the central peruvian andes 10 3 s 76 9 w is an ideal mountain range in which to study regional climate through variations in paleoglacier extents the range trends nearly north south with modern glaciers confined to peaks 4800 m a s l geomorphology and geochronology in the nearby cordillera blanca and junin plain reveal that the peruvian andes preserve a detailed record of tropical glaciation here we use aster imagery aerial photographs and gps to map and date glacial features in both the western and eastern drainages of the cordillera huayhuash we have used in situ produced cosmogenic 10be concentrations in quartz bearing erratics on moraine crests and ice polished bedrock surfaces to develop an exposure age chronology for pleistocene glaciation within the range we have also collected sediment cores from moraine dammed lakes and bogs to provide limiting 14c ages for glacial deposits in contrast to the ranges to the north and south most glacial features within the cordillera huayhuash are lateglacial in age however we have identified features with ages that span 0 2 to 38 ka with moraine sets marking the onset of glacier retreat at 0 3 ka 9 10 ka 13 14 ka 20 22 ka and 26 ka the range displays a pronounced east west variation in maximum down valley distance from the headwall of moraine crests with considerably longer paleoglaciers in the eastern drainages importantly lateglacial paleoglaciers reached a terminal elevation of 4000 m a s l on both sides of the cordillera huayhuash suggesting that temperature may have been a dominant factor in controlling the maximum glacier extent we suggest that valley morphology specifically valley slope strongly influences down valley distance to the maximum glacier extent and potential for moraine preservation while regionally there is an extensive record of older 50 ka advances to the north cordillera blanca and to the south junin region the apparent lack of old moraines in this locality may be explained by the confined morphology of the cordillera huayhuash valleys that has inhibited the preservation of older glacial geomorphic features

reconstruction of a complex late quaternary glacial landscape in the cordillera de cochabamba bolivia based on a morphostratigraphic and multiple dating approach abstract although glacial landscapes have previously been used for the reconstruction of late quaternary glaciations in the central andes only few data exist for the eastern cordillera in bolivia here we present results from detailed morphostratigraphic mapping and new data of surface exposure dating sed optically stimulated luminescence osl and radiocarbon dating 14 c from the huara loma valley cordillera de cochabamba bolivia discrepancies between individual dating methods could be addressed within the context of a solid geomorphic framework we identified two major glaciations the older is not well constrained by the available data whereas the younger glaciation is subdivided into at least four major glacial stages regarding the latter a first advance dated to 29 25 ka occurred roughly contemporaneous with the onset of the global last glacial maximum lgm and was followed by a less extensive re advance around 20 18 ka the local last glacial maximum llgm in the huara loma valley took place during the humid lateglacial 17 16 ka followed by several smaller readvances until 10 11 ka and complete deglaciation at the end of the early holocene

a cosmic trip 25 years of cosmogenic nuclides in geology terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides produced by secondary cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere and in situ within minerals in the shallow lithosphere are widely used to date surface exposure of rocks and sediments to estimate erosion and weathering rates and to date sediment deposition or burial their use has transformed geomorphology and quaternary geology for the first time allowing landforms to be dated and denudation rates to be measured over soil forming time scales the application of cosmogenic nuclides to geology began soon after the invention of accelerator mass spectrometry ams in 1977 and increased dramatically with the measurement of in situ produced nuclides in mineral grains near earth s surface in the 1980s the past 25 yr have witnessed the development of cosmogenic nuclides from their initial detection to their prevalence today as a standard geochronological and geochemical tool this review covers the major developments of the past 25 yr by comparing the state of the field in 1988 with that of today and by identifying key advances in that period that moved the field forward we emphasize the most commonly used in situ produced nuclides measured by ams for geological applications but we also discuss other nuclides where their applications overlap our review covers ams instrumentation cosmogenic nuclide production rates the methods of surface exposure dating measurement of erosion and weathering and burial dating and meteoric 10 be in memoriam devendra lal 1929 2012 whose vision inspired the field

surface exposure dating of the flims landslide graubunden switzerland abstract sixteen boulder and bedrock surfaces related to the flims landslide volume 8 12 km3 were dated with 36cl and 10be exposure ages range from 4900 250 yr to 15 440 1480 yr including corrections made due to snow cover and karst erosion ages of 11 410 590 yr and 13 340 1090 yr were obtained on bedrock surfaces outside of the landslide zone these are minima for deglaciation of segnes valley and provide constraints on possible amounts of inherited nuclides based on seven boulder ages which range from 8200 260 to 9520 990 yr a mean of 8900 700 years is calculated for the flims landslide we exclude three outliers one significantly older and two significantly younger than the others and the ages from the cassons bedrock site from the mean calculation the latter is excluded as shielding due to snow and vegetation cover is difficult to constrain there the oldest boulder on the landslide yielded an age 15440 1480 yr more than 5000 years older than any other boulder age suggesting that it included the surface of the pre slide bedrock the exposure ages are consistent with a single failure event the erratics and patches of till lying on the landslide debris must have been carried piggy back on top of the landslide rather than having been deposited by the late pleistocene vorderrhein glacier the flims rockslide is about the same age as the kofels 9800 yr and kandertal 9600 yr rockslides all three occurred during the marked transition to warmer wetter conditions during the early holocene

calibration of cosmogenic 36cl production rates from ca and k spallation in lava flows from mt etna 38 n italy and payun matru 36 s argentina abstract published cosmogenic 36cl production rates from ca and k spallation differ by almost a factor of 2 in this paper we determine production rates of 36cl from ca and k in samples of known age containing little cl ca rich plagioclases and k feldspars were separated from a total of 13 samples collected on the surfaces of four basaltic lava flows at mt etna 38 n italy and from a trachyte lava flow at payun matru volcano 36 s argentina eruption ages determined by independent methods range between 0 4 and 32 ka sample site elevations range between 500 and 2500 m corresponding scaling factors were calculated using five different published scaling models four of which consider paleo geomagnetic field variations integrated over the exposure durations the resulting five data sets were then analyzed using a bayesian statistical model that incorporates the major inherent uncertainties in a consistent way spallation production rates from ca and k considering all major uncertainties are 42 2 4 8 atoms 36cl g ca 1 a 1 and 124 9 8 1 atoms 36cl g k 1 a 1 normalized to sea level and high latitude using the scaling method of stone 2000 scaling models that account for paleo geomagnetic intensity changes yield very similar mean values at most 4 if the uncertainties in the independent ages are neglected in the bayesian model the calculated element specific production rates would be about 12 higher our results are in agreement with previous production rate estimations both for ca and k if only low cl i e 20 ppm samples are considered

glacier advances in northeastern turkey before and during the global last glacial maximum abstract our study in the basyayla valley in northeastern anatolia showed evidence of four glacier advances that built terminal and lateral moraines surface exposure dating of boulders on these moraines showed that the maximum ice extent mie was asynchronous with the global last glacial maximum lgm 22 1 4 3 thousand years ka the local mie took place at least 57 0 3 5 ka ago the extent of the basyayla glacier during this advance is not known exactly because the boulders are only preserved on a lateral moraine the next advance was prior to 41 5 2 5 ka and it descended down the valley to approximately 2320 m above sea level m a s l with a glacier length of 5 3 km during the early global lgm the basyayla glacier extended for a distance of 4 9 km down to approx 2430 m a s l the last recorded advance occurred during the global lgm this extension was 0 7 km smaller than the local mie and its terminus reached 2490 m a s l only the exposure ages of boulders in a retreat position at an altitude of approx 3045 m a s l indicate that the valley has remained ice free since the lateglacial period therefore the lateglacial extent was limited to the cirque system in the uppermost part of the catchment furthermore holocene glacier oscillations seem to be either absent or restricted to solifluction in the whole catchment and to rock glacier movements in the southern tributary of the basyayla valley system

improved moraine age interpretations through explicit matching of geomorphic process models to cosmogenic nuclide measurements from single landforms abstract the statistical distributions of cosmogenic nuclide measurements from moraine boulders contain previously unused information on moraine ages and they help determine whether moraine degradation or inheritance is more important on individual moraines here we present a method for extracting this information by fitting geomorphic process models to observed exposure ages from single moraines we also apply this method to 94 10 be apparent exposure ages from 11 moraines reported in four published studies our models represent 10 be accumulation in boulders that are exhumed over time by slope processes moraine degradation and the delivery of boulders with preexisting 10 be inventories to moraines inheritance for now we neglect boulder erosion and snow cover which are likely second order processes given a highly scattered data set we establish which model yields the better fit to the data and estimate the age of the moraine from the better model fit the process represented by the better fitting model is probably responsible for most of the scatter among the apparent ages our methods should help resolve controversies in exposure dating we reexamine the conclusions from two published studies based on our model fits

an early advance of glaciers on mount akdag sw turkey before the global last glacial maximum insights from cosmogenic nuclides and glacier modeling abstract for the first time in turkey we report an early advance of glaciers before the broadly defined global last glacial maximum lgm forty one moraine boulders from three glacial valleys on mount akdag 36 54 n 29 57 e 3016 m southwest coast of turkey were dated with cosmogenic 36 cl valleys on the north side of the mountain were filled with few km long glaciers that terminated at elevations of about 2000 m above sea level a s l the pre lgm glaciations reached their maximum positions 2150 m a s l by 35 1 2 5 ka ago 1 ka 1000 calendar years the glaciers readvanced during the global lgm and reached their farthest locations 2050 m a s l by around 21 7 1 2 ka ago later glaciers retreated and shortly stabilized during the lateglacial at around 15 1 0 9 ka ago using the glacier modeling and paleoclimate proxies from the eastern mediterranean we estimated that if temperatures during the lgm were 8 11 c colder than modern which is suggested by paleotemperature proxies from the region precipitation was up to two times more than that of today previous estimates on southwest coast of turkey indicate a similar precipitation value while central turkey requires drier conditions implying regional heterogeneity on lgm climates in turkey

accuracy of cosmogenic ages for moraines analyses of all published cosmogenic exposure ages for moraine boulders show an average age range of 38 between the oldest and youngest boulders from each moraine this range conflicts with the common assumption that ages of surface boulders are the same as the age of the landform the wide spread in boulder ages is caused by erosion of the moraine surface and consequent exhumation of fresh boulders a diffusion model of surface degradation explains the age range and shows that a randomly sampled small set of boulders n 3 7 will always yield a lower age limit for the moraine the model indicates that for identical dating accuracy six to seven boulders are needed from old and tall moraines 40 000 100 000 yr 50 100 m initial height but only one to four boulders from small moraines 20 000 100 000 yr 10 20 m by following these guidelines the oldest obtained boulder age will be 90 of the moraine age 95 probability this result is only weakly sensitive to a broad range of soil erosion rates our analysis of published boulder ages indicates that 3 of all moraine boulders have prior exposure and 85 of these boulders predate the dated moraine

the lateglacial and holocene environmental history of the ioannina basin north west greece this study centres on palaeoenvironmental analysis of the upper part of a long core from the partially drained tectonic ioannina basin north west greece the data span the lateglacial and holocene and comprise pollen mollusc magnetic susceptibility loss on ignition and particle size analyses these augment previously published ostracod and stable isotope data from the same sediment sequence the age model for the sequence is based on 19 ams dates five of which were obtained using a novel procedure for the separation of microcharcoal from sediment the pollen data suggest that although temperate woodland expanded at the beginning of the lateglacial only limited woodland contraction occurred during the younger dryas chronozone despite strong evidence for a sharp drop in sea surface temperature in the neighbouring adriatic at this time in contrast large scale vegetational and sedimentological changes occur in concert during the holocene some of which may be ascribed to human impact comparison with other records from the ioannina basin suggests that previous more littoral pollen sequences did not constitute a wholly representative record of lateglacial and holocene vegetational change

glacial activity and catchment dynamics in northwest greece long term river behaviour and the slackwater sediment record for the last glacial to interglacial transition woodward j c hamlin r h b macklin m g hughes p d lewin j 2008 glacial activity and catchment dynamics in northwest greece long term river behaviour and the slackwater sediment record for the last glacial to interglacial transition geomorphology 101 1 2 44 67 sponsorship uk science and engineering research council woodward the school of geography at the university of leeds hamlin and the university of cambridge hughes the uk natural environment research council gr9 2916 and ip 754 0302 funded the bulk of the analyses reported here specialissue sp iss si

trichloroethene dnapl flow and mass distribution in naturally fractured clay evidence of aperture variability a cylindrical sample 0 5 m in diameter and length was obtained by excavation from 3 7 4 2 m depth below ground surface in a surficial deposit of fractured glaciolacustrine clay the sample was enclosed in a triaxial cell in a cold room to impose conditions close to field temperature and stress hydraulic testing using a hydraulic gradient of 2 provided a saturated hydraulic conductivity of 7 10 10 m s which is only slightly larger than the matrix hydraulic conductivity the cubic law provided a mean hydraulic aperture of 5 6 m for the four continuous vertical fractures in the sample a column of immiscible phase trichloroethene tce imposed incrementally at the top of the sample provided an entry pressure derived aperture equal to 17 m for a parallel plate fracture tce dense nonaqueous phase liquid dnapl that flowed through the sample produced dissolved phase diffusion haloes in the matrix that indicated the preferential fracture pathways these haloes indicated that dnapl flowed through only 5 15 of the visible oxidation stained fractures hence natural fractures had variable apertures along their length and the larger aperture regions provided channels for fluid flow using the hydraulic test results and applying the cubic law only to the aperture segments of confirmed dnapl flow an equivalent hydraulic aperture of 8 11 m was obtained which is greater than the conventional mean hydraulic aperture and smaller than the local aperture determined from the dnapl entry pressure these differences are large in the context of fluid flux which is proportional to the aperture cubed

defining modern day area altitude balance ratios aabrs and their use in glacier climate reconstructions abstract with the increasing use of digital elevation models in palaeo glacier reconstructions and the availability of freeware spreadsheets the area altitude balance ratio aabr and balance ratio br methods are becoming increasingly used in palaeo glacier reconstruction for estimating equilibrium line altitudes ela and subsequently deriving quantitative estimates of palaeo climate while there are many data detailing contemporary accumulation area ratios there are still only a few studies that have established from contemporary environments aabr br ratios publicly available glacier mass balance world glacier monitoring service us geological survey and norwegian water directorate and spatial extent datasets provided the basis for this research from a time series of mass balance regressing specific net balance against ela allows the zero net balance ela to be identified once the zero balance ela is established the glacier hypsometry above and below the ela is defined the aabr br is calculated by using the right hand side the following aabr b n a b b n a c z a c a a c z a b a a b where b nab and b nac are the net mass balance gradients in the ablation and accumulation zones respectively z a c and z a b are the area weighted mean altitudes of the accumulation and ablation areas respectively and a ac and a ab are the areas of the accumulation and ablation areas respectively aabrs are calculated for a suite of glaciers located across a range of climatic zones and glacier types with antarctica being excluded the following representative aabrs are found a global aabr 1 75 0 71 mid latitude maritime 1 9 0 81 high latitude 2 24 0 85 north america west coast 2 09 0 93 north america eastern rockies 1 11 0 1 canadian arctic 2 91 0 35 svalbard 2 13 0 52 western norway 1 5 0 4 european alps 1 59 0 6 central asia 1 75 0 56 kamchatka 3 18 0 16 this study provides an empirically derived dataset characterising aabr ratios which may be used for ela estimation in palaeo glacier reconstructions and for palaeo climate quantification

ecological thresholds and patterns of millennial scale climate variability the response of vegetation in greece during the last glacial period the regional expression of millennial scale climate variability during the last glacial is examined with particular reference to the vegetation response in greece inspection of three pollen records from contrasting bioclimatic areas suggests that differences in the magnitude of cold events as recognized in the north atlantic and western mediterranean are expressed in terms of tree population changes only in areas with a range of favorable habitats by contrast records from sites where populations approach their tolerance threshold do not appear to resolve differences in the amplitude of the climate oscillations understanding the importance of local factors in modulating the biological response to climate change is critical when attempting to establish the spatial pattern of millennial variability

relict rock glaciers as indicators of mediterranean palaeoclimate during the last glacial maximum late wurmian in northwest greece relict rock glaciers have been identified and mapped in the high cirques of mount tymphi in the pindus mountains of northwest greece they are periglacial forms and represent the most recent cold stage landforms in an area that displays widespread evidence of pleistocene glaciation it is likely that these features formed during the last glacial maximum late wurmian as talus rock glaciers and beneath small cirque glaciers as debris rock glaciers comparisons with modern rock glacier climate relationships suggests mean annual temperatures of ca 8 9 c lower than present at their time of formation this temperature reconstruction is in good agreement with recent palaeoclimatic reconstructions for the northern mediterranean based on a general circulation model moreover as rock glaciers are typical of cold and relatively dry mountain regions their presence is consistent with palaeobotanical and lake level data suggesting a cold and relatively dry climate for the last glacial maximum in greece however the presence of small cirque glaciers above some rock glaciers suggests that although precipitation must have been low enough to preclude glacier extension down to lower altitudes it was not so low as to inhibit glacier formation entirely copyright 2003 john wiley sons ltd

importance of sampling across an assemblage of glacial landforms for interpreting cosmogenic ages of deglaciation deglaciation chronologies for some sectors of former ice sheets are relatively poorly constrained because of the paucity of features or materials traditionally used to constrain the timing of deglaciation in areas without good deglaciation varve chronologies and or without widespread occurrence of material that indicates the start of earliest organic radiocarbon accumulations suitable for radiocarbon dating typically only general patterns and chronologies of deglaciation have been deduced however mid latitude ice sheets that had warm based conditions close to their margins often produced distinctive deglaciation landform assemblages including eskers deltas meltwater channels and aligned lineation systems because these features were formed or significantly altered during the last glaciation boulder or bedrock samples from them have the potential to yield reliable deglaciation ages using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides tcn for exposure age dating here we present the results of a methodological study designed to examine the consistency of tcn based deglaciation ages from a range of deglaciation landforms at a site in northern norway the strong coherence between exposure ages across several landforms indicates great potential for using tcn techniques on features such as eskers deltas and meltwater channels to enhance the temporal resolution of ice sheet deglaciation chronologies over a range of spatial scales

enhanced rock slope failure following ice sheet deglaciation timing and causes this research was supported by nerc cosmogenic isotope analysis facility grant number 9046 0308

attenuation length for fast nucleon production of 10be derived from near surface production profiles abstract we have measured the fast nucleon production of 10 be to depths of 2 37 m 659 g cm 2 in a granodiorite core of uniform density and composition from the mt givens pluton on the western side of the sierra nevada california at 37 14 7 n 118 53 7 w and 2286 m the data are well fit with a simple exponential decrease yielding an apparent attenuation length of 10 be production of 177 4 2 g cm 2 the shallowest data point is from a depth of 1 24 cm 3 45 g cm 2 and shows no indication of a near surface flattening of the radionuclide inventory and hence the 10 be production rate

styles and rates of long term denudation in carbonate terrains under a mediterranean to hyper arid climatic gradient abstract carbonate minerals unlike silicates have the potential to dissolve almost completely and with high efficiency thus in carbonate terrains denudation rate and style the governing process of denudation mechanical or chemical should be more sensitive to climatic forcing using 36 cl measurements in 39 carbonate bedrock and sediment samples we calculate long term denudation rates across a sharp climatic gradient from mediterranean to hyper arid conditions our samples were collected along the arugot watershed which drains the eastern flank of the judea range central israel to the dead sea and is characterized by a pronounced rain shadow denudation rates of flat lying bedrock outcrops sampled along interfluves differ by an order of magnitude from 20 mm ka 1 in the mediterranean zone to 1 3 mm ka 1 in the hyper arid zone these rates are strongly correlated with precipitation and thus reflect the importance of carbonate mineral dissolution in the overall denudation process in contrast denudation rates of steep bedrock surfaces depend on the hillslope gradient but only in the hyper arid climate zone indicating that mechanical processes dominate the overall hillslope denudation within this zone the dominance of slope dependent mechanical erosion in the hyper arid zone is also reflected by an increase in spatially average denudation rates from 17 19 mm ka 1 in the mediterranean semi arid zones to 21 25 mm ka 1 in the hyper arid zone these higher rates are attributed to clast contribution from steep slopes under arid climate this suggests an increased importance of mechanical processes to the overall denudation in the hyper arid zone we demonstrate that the transition between chemically dominated denudation to mechanically dominated denudation occurs between 100 and 200 mm of mean annual precipitation long term denudation rates across the judea range indicate that between mediterranean and hyper arid climates chemical weathering rates are limited by precipitation nevertheless in more humid climates chemical weathering rates are apparently limited by the rates of carbonate mineral dissolution this study demonstrates that carbonate terrains have the capacity to shift between mechanically and chemically dominated denudation in response to changes in precipitation similar transitions in response to changes in temperature or the level of tectonic activity have been previously reported we suggest that the abrupt nature of such transitions can be primarily attributed to the efficiency of carbonate dissolution processes and the competition between surface and subsurface drainage systems in carbonate terrains

leakage of dense nonaqueous phase liquids from waste impoundments constructed in fractured rock and clay theory and case history this paper examines the behaviour of dense nonaqueous phase liquids dnapls in fractured media with an emphasis on waste disposal ponds constructed in fractured clay and rock calculations are presented to estimate the height of dnapl that may accumulate at the base of a disposal pond prior to initial entry into a water saturated fracture this height is found to be a function of the fluid densities the dnapl water interfacial tension the fracture aperture and the position of the water table a numerical model is applied to estimate the steady state rate of dnapl leakage from a disposal pond underlain by vertical fractures this rate of leakage is found to be a function of the spacing of fractures the fracture aperture the dnapl density and the height of the water table in the formation outside of the impoundment it is demonstrated that a wide range of leakage rates can occur over a relatively narrow range of parameters a conceptual analysis of two phase flow examines the conditions that lead t

too young or too old evaluating cosmogenic exposure dating based on an analysis of compiled boulder exposure ages cosmogenic exposure dating has greatly enhanced our ability to define glacial chronologies spanning several global cold periods and glacial boulder exposure ages are now routinely used to constrai

comparison between coastal and inland karst limestone lowering rates in the northeastern adriatic region italy and croatia a comparison among lowering rates collected in the limestones of the northeastern adriatic region italy and croatia gives a picture of the erosion patterns in the inland and coastal classical karst and istrian karst erosion rates were measured using either a micro erosion meter or a traversing micro erosion meter beginning from a large dataset spread over a maximum of 26 years significant differences in limestone lowering rates have been recognized in the surveyed area the mean lowering rate for the inland classical karst area is 0 018 mm yr whereas in the inland istrian karst it is 0 009 mm yr in the coastal sectors the mean erosion rate varies between 0 14 mm yr in the gulf of trieste and 0 04 mm yr in the sites located along the istrian shoreline these differences are probably due to the climatic setting of the classical karst area mediterranean continental to sub alpine climate and istrian peninsula mediterranean climate moreover along the coasts of the gulf of trieste there are many submarine springs which are absent along the istrian coast it is hypothesized that these underwater springs stress the effect of rainfall along the coast which is both direct rain on the measurement site and mainly indirect freshwater outflow from submarine springs higher lowering rates were surveyed during autumn rainfall therefore also freshwater outflow from submarine springs is particularly high at the end of the summer and in autumn

controls on denudation rates in tectonically stable mediterranean carbonate terrain using cosmogenic isotopes and solute load analysis we quantify chemical weathering solutional erosion and denudation rates over variable time scales in a tectonically stable moderate relief carbonate terrain soreq drainage judea hills israel located in a semihumid mediterranean climate long term 10 4 yr denudation rates were calculated from 36 cl concentrations in 51 bedrock and sediment samples bedrock samples range in elevation 340 850 m hillslope gradient 0 30 and mean annual precipitation map 500 630 mm and vary in soil cover thickness 0 75 cm mg ca ratio 0 0 1 0 mol clay mineral contents 0 6 wt and mechanical strength 41 58 schmidt hammer rebound units soil pco2 values at a single location during the course of 1 yr range between 0 4 and 9 0 mmol mol 1 average long term denudation rate of exposed bedrock samples is 21 7 mm k y 1 field observations and 36 cl measurements indicate that soil pockets undergo cycles in the rate of deepening and that over 10 5 yr time scale average denudation rates beneath soil pockets are similar to those of exposed bedrock sediment samples yield even higher denudation rates which are probably anthropogenically induced but could also indicate that the sediment source is soil pockets long term denudation rates are decoupled from hillslope gradient elevation and rock strength denudation rates show a positive correlation with present day map values exhibit a complex relation with rock mg content and show a weak correlation with clay content annual chemical weathering rates were calculated from modern day solute load measured in waters of perched springs and the regional carbonate aquifer our results indicate that on annual decadal and 10 4 yr time scales chemical weathering and denudation are controlled by carbonate dissolution while mechanical processes are far less signifi cant overlap between the distributions of hco3 concentrations measured in runoff springs and the regional aquifer water suggests that chemical weathering focuses at the bedrock surface and therefore is comparable with solutional denudation this result is in contrast to the features of ancient fl uvial and colluvial activity steep nonconcave hillslopes and stream profi les and knickzones in the streams preserved in the present landscape such features were formed in response to mid pleistocene uplift and could have been preserved due to a decrease in stream power following the formation of subsurface drainage and the lowering in abrasive clast supply that followed the stabilization of hillslopes in the drainage long term denudation rates calculated from exposed bedrock samples are higher by factor of 1 4 relative to annual contemporary chemical weathering rates increased precipitation by a similar factor averaged over the last glacial and present interglacial can explain this difference

the campo felice late pleistocene glaciation apennines central italy study of the glacial deposits and lacustrine sediments of campo felice apennines central italy has enabled the glacial phases of the last 40 ka to be dated more precisely and has demonstrated that the maximum glacial advance did not occur in correspondence with the last global glacial maximum and with the coldest and most arid phase suggested by the pollen but in a period dated between about 33 and 27 ka characterized by a less extreme climate furthermore a glacial expansion took place also in the period prior to 35 ka correlation with the alpine glacial variations has shown that the apennine last glacial maximum occurred before that of the southern slope of the alps copyright 2012 john wiley sons ltd

cosmogenic 36cl accumulation in unstable landforms 2 simulations and measurements on eroding moraines cosmogenic 36cl surface exposure ages obtained for multiple boulders from single landforms are usually characterized by a variance larger than that of the analytical methods employed this excessive boulder to boulder variability progressively more profound with increasing age of landforms is due to removal of soil and gradual exposure of boulders at the surface in our gradual exposure model boulders are initially buried in moraine matrix with time erosion lowers the moraine surface and the boulders are gradually exposed to cosmic rays because the cosmic ray intensity changes with depth the boulders are subjected to variable production rates of the cosmogenic 36cl initial depth of boulders and their chemical composition are variable which results in different amounts of the accumulated cosmogenic 36cl and thus different apparent ages of boulders the shape of the resulting distribution of the apparent ages and the coefficient of variation depend on the erosion depth while the first moment is a function of the true surface age and the erosion depth these properties of the apparent age distributions permit calculation of the surface age the erosion depth and also the average erosion rate we tested the model calculations using 26 boulders from a late pleistocene moraine at bishop creek sierra nevada california the set exhibited a bimodal distribution of the 36cl surface exposure ages we interpreted the older mode as the result of gradual exposure and the younger one as the result of surficial processes other than soil removal the 10 samples that constitute the older mode produced a distribution which closely matches the modeled distribution calculated using an age of 85 kyr and erosion depth of 570 g cm 2 this age is the same as an independent estimate obtained from cation ratio studies and the calculated erosion depth is very close to the erosion depth of 600 g cm 2 based on a simple analytical model of soil erosion these results indicate that our statistical model adequately describes effects of soil erosion on accumulation of cosmogenic 36cl the approach can be used to simultaneously obtain the true landform age and the erosion rate from apparent 36cl ages and thereifore may help in evaluation of surface exposure ages of eroding landforms

cosmogenic exposure dating of late pleistocene moraine stabilization in alaska seventy three new 1 0 be 2 6 al ages from 57 moraine boulders and 2 tors together with 43 previously published cosmogenic exposure ages from 41 moraine boulders allow us to critique the use of cosmogenic exposure ce dating of moraine boulders in alaska boulder exhumation during moraine degradation likely gives rise to the largest uncertainty in constraining the timing of initial moraine stabilization following ice retreat isotopic inheritance appears to be most important for moraines deposited close to their cirque headwalls boulder surface bedrock erosion rate can be roughly constrained and leads to a range in moraine stabilization ages snow cover history is difficult to constrain but its effect is thought to be minor for the tall boulders sampled despite these complications the ce ages provide important new information regarding the timing of the last and penultimate glaciations in alaska three penultimate moraines yielded ce ages that overlap with marine isotope stage mis 4 early mis 3 45 65 ka rather than mis 6 ca 140 ka based on a combination of our new ce chronologies and existing 1 4 c ages from six study areas glaciers retreated from their local late wisconsin maxima ca 24 27 ka kokrines hills west interior alaska ca 24 26 ka northeastern brooks range ne alaska ca 21 23 ka yukon tanana upland east interior alaska ca 22 ka ahklun mountains sw alaska ca 20 ka western alaska range central alaska ca 16 18 ka chuilnuk mountains sw alaska overall glacier retreat was concurrent with the peak of the last global glacial maximum probably in response to limited moisture availability

late pleistocene glaciers in greece a new 36cl chronology abstract glaciers formed in the highest mountains of greece during the late pleistocene but the timing of glacier maxima is poorly understood this paper presents 27 36cl terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages from glacial boulders on mount tymphi 2497 m a s l 40on in epirus northwest greece these ages address both a significant geographical gap in mediterranean glacial chronologies and a temporal gap in the glacial history of this region by targeting the previously undated late pleistocene record late pleistocene glaciers were restricted to the cirques and upper valleys of mount tymphi terminal and lateral moraines between 1700 m and 2050 m a s l mark the extent of late pleistocene glaciers on the southern side of mount tymphi moraines marking the maximum extent of late pleistocene glaciation date to 29 0 3 0 ka and 25 7 2 6 ka taking the oldest ages as most representative of moraine emplacement glaciers had retreated to the high cirques by 24 5 2 4 ka during heinrich stadial 2 rock glaciers formed under cold and drier conditions during this period of glacier retreat this 36cl dataset complements published u series ages from secondary calcites in glacial sediments below 1700 m elevation which demonstrate more extensive middle pleistocene glaciations in mis 6 and mis 12 a late pleistocene glacier maxima on mount tymphi at 25 7 29 ka is in good agreement with well preserved outwash sediments dating to 24 28 ka in the voidomatis river record downstream and is consistent with the ioaninna basin pollen record indicating cool and wet conditions most favourable for glacier growth at 25 30 ka

correlation of late quaternary moraines impact of climate variability glacier response and chronological resolution abstract the last decade has seen a global surge in the number and resolution of well dated geomorphological reconstructions of mountain glacier fluctuations and former ice sheet extents this has been facilitated by the widespread deployment of large samples of terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating tcnd allowing more sophisticated probability analyses for reducing the statistical uncertainty of moraine ages and testing of correlations at local regional and hemispheric scales geochronological advances in the field laboratory and on model calibration have taken place in parallel with modelling of palaeoclimate based on glacier reconstructions and of glacier sensitivity to temperature and precipitation forcing in spite of these advances basic conceptual issues remain this review questions whether the technical leap forward in dating has encouraged us to over reach our interpretive limits particularly in terms of the concept and practice of correlation we propose that to enable reliable correlation glacier chronologies should first be examined for their climatic integrity spatial coherence and chronological robustness even with excellent dating interpretive complexity remains due to complex climate signals and glacier response characteristics and to erosion censoring of the landform record all are issues which must be addressed to avoid either spurious lumping correlation or splitting differentiation of glacier chronologies and thus misinterpretation of the climatic significance of reconstructed glacier advances we suggest that the reliability of correlation is no better than the weakest link in the chain of reasoning which connects climatic fluctuations with dated landforms and sediments improved dating means that poor chronological resolution is less likely to be the limiting factor for correlation but shifts the focus onto other less quantifiable sources of uncertainty these conceptual statements are exemplified with reference to holocene glacial chronologies of contrasting mid latitude environments in southern norway iceland and new zealand

the older fill of the voidomatis valley north west greece and its relationship to the palaeolithic archaeology and glacial history of the region abstract late quaternary alluvial deposits in mediterranean valleys have been divided into older and younger fills the older fills are generally coarse are commonly calcreted and may be associated with isolated palaeolithic artefacts of uncertain provenance in broad terms the older fills were clearly deposited during cold stages of the pleistocene however it has rarely proved possible to establish a more precise dating and correlation with specific pleistocene stages or a more precise identification of depositional environments and their relationship with and impact on human activity and land use the voidomatis river of north west greece contains four main alluvial terraces which can be distinguished by lithological and mineralogical techniques one of these the aristi unit can be directly linked with glacial deposits in the headwaters comparison of dates for the aristi unit with dated evidence of late upper palaeolithic sites in the lower reaches of the river gives a basis for assessing the impact of alluvial history on the palaeolithic occupation of the area

contributions and unrealized potential contributions of cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating to glacier chronology 1990 2010 abstract this paper reviews the application of cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating to glacier chronology exposure dating of glacial landforms has made an outsize impact on this field because the technique filled an obvious need that had already been recognized by glacial geologists by now hundreds of studies have used cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating to date glacial deposits and in fact it is rare to find a study of glacial geology or glacier chronology or any paleoclimate synthesis that makes use of such studies that does not involve exposure dating these developments have resulted in major contributions to glacier chronology and paleoclimate in particular i reconstructing antarctic ice sheet change ii establishing the chronology of late pleistocene and holocene glacier change in mountain regions where it was previously unknown iii establishing the broad chronological outlines of mountain glaciations prior to the last glacial maximum and iv gaining insight into subglacial erosional processes through the observation that many glaciated surfaces preserve cosmogenic nuclide inventories from long past ice free periods as well as the present one an important potential future contribution will be the application of the large data set of exposure dated glacier chronologies to better understand global and regional climate dynamics during lateglacial and holocene millennial scale climate changes however this contribution cannot be realized without significant progress in two areas i understanding and accounting for geologic processes that cause apparent exposure ages on glacial landforms to differ from the true age of the landform and ii minimizing systematic uncertainties in exposure ages that stem from cosmogenic nuclide production rate estimates and scaling schemes at present there exists an enormous data set of exposure ages on glacial deposits but these data cannot be used to their full potential in paleoclimate syntheses due to an inadequate understanding of geologic scatter and production rate uncertainties the intent of this paper is to highlight this situation and suggest some strategies for realizing this potential

numerical simulation of selforganized stone stripes geometrically regular stripes of stones are found on many unvegetated alpine and polar hillslopes known as sorted stripes because of the characteristic textural sorting between surface stones and fine grained soil they contrast markedly with the lack of order typical of natural landscapes the spacing of the stripes can range from centimetres to metres about 10 20 times the average stone diameter1 2 with individual stripes extending down slope for many tens of metres fig 1 a variety of formative mechanisms have been proposed3 but it is still unclear how such orderly stripes can arise spontaneously and what dictates the spacing here we present two dimensional computer simulations in which the displacement of surface stones is governed by the preferential growth of needle ice in stone free regions of soil during each freezing cycle regular patterns of stones and soil that closely resemble natural stripes are found to emerge spontaneously from the model as a result of identifiable feedbacks between soil texture ice growth and local slope

maximum extent of late pleistocene glaciers and last deglaciation of la cerdanya mountains southeastern pyrenees abstract this paper examines glacial evolution in the la pera and malniu cirques and aranser la llosa and duran valleys in the cerdanya massifs on the south facing slopes of the eastern pyrenees a geomorphologic analysis and dating of moraine boulders glacially polished bedrock and rock glacier blocks were carried out by means of cosmogenic 36cl surface exposure dating the maximum ice advance was contemporary with the last glacial maximum at 23 ka ago and it was of greater or only slightly lesser magnitude than for previous quaternary advances the termini of glaciers remained close to maximum positions with minor advances and retreats until 18 17 ka when the glacial tongues disappeared from the valleys depending on the previous topography these glaciers left behind a single polygenic moraine in the case of confined valleys or multiple moraines next to each other in the case of flat more open areas a final glacial advance is detected during the oldest dryas close to the cirque headwalls and the glaciers finally disappeared during the bolling interstadial the glaciers were then replaced by rock glaciers whose front immediately became inactive although their activity continued near their source area until the early holocene

regional synthesis of mediterranean atmospheric circulation during the last glacial maximum atmospheric circulation leaves few direct traces in the geological record making reconstructions of this crucial element of the climate system inherently difficult we produced a regional mediterranean synthesis of paleo proxy data from the sea surface to alpine altitudes this provides a detailed observational context for change in the three dimensional structure of atmospheric circulation between the last glacial maximum lgm 23 000 to 19 000 years ago and the present the synthesis reveals evidence for frequent cold polar air incursions topographically channeled into the northwestern mediterranean anomalously steep vertical temperature gradients in the central mediterranean imply local convective precipitation we find the lgm patterns to be analogous though amplified to previously reconstructed phases of enhanced meridional winter circulation during the maunder minimum the little ice age

timing of glaciation in the mediterranean mountains during the last cold stage recent research in the mountains of the mediterranean has attempted to establish the timing of the maximum extent of glaciers during the last cold stage several dating methods have been utilised and new dating frameworks have emerged in key areas in several places multiple dating techniques radiocarbon optically stimulated luminescence u series applied to glacial and associ ated sediments suggest that local glacier maxima preceded the global last glacial maximum lgm ca 18 14 c ka bp 21 cal ka bp by at least several thousand years studies in spain the pyrenees the maritime alps and turkey utilising cosmogenic isotope analyses 10 be and 36 cl have yielded glacial geochronologies with maxima that correlate closely with the marine isotope record of ice volume and the global lgm in some cases the use of different geochronological techniques has led to conflicting evidence for the timing of the local last glacier maxima in the same area from a palaeoclimate perspective glacier climate reconstructions for the local last glacier maxima in the mountains of central italy northern greece and western turkey indicate that climate was wet and cold in italy and greece the local glacier maxima preceded the driest part of the last cold stage as indicated by palaeoecological records by several thousand years for western turkey however recent cosmo genic exposure ages combined with glacier modelling suggest a local last glacier maximum charac terised by cold and wet conditions coinciding with the global lgm the available evidence indicates that a dichotomy is emerging not only in our understanding of the timing of glaciation across the mediterranean but also in the palaeoclimatic interpretations derived from glacial and palaeoecolo gical records copyright 2008 john wiley sons ltd

factors controlling carbonate dissolution rates quantified in a field test in the austrian alps carbonate dissolution rates were investigated by measuring the mass difference of carbonate tablets exposed to natural dissolution for 1 year 70 tablets were distributed over 13 test sites on the north slope of the hochschwab massif in the austrian alps the influences of altitude subsoil vs sub aerial exposure vegetation karst morphology soil humidity sample lithology and sample surface morphology were investigated the observed dissolution rates varied between 13 and 40 m a for subcutaneous samples and about 11 m a for sub aerial exposure outstandingly high rates of 48 m a were observed in a doline and nearly zero rates were measured at a site influenced by seeping spring water a mass balance using high resolution hydrological data was calculated for the klaffer spring which has an average outflow of 4 8 m3 s it indicated a loss of 21 106 kg of carbonate rock per year which gives an average dissolution rate of 95 m a for the catchment area of 83 km2 the dissolution rates of 10 m a from the sub aerially exposed samples are comparable to values from limestone pedestals which were protected from dissolution by glacial erratics for the past 15 ka

quaternary glacial history of mount olympus greece erosional and depositional evidence on mount olympus greece and across the adjacent piedmont provides clear indication that the mountain was more extensively glaciated over a longer period of time than has been previously reported the stratigraphic record of pleistocene holocene events on mount olympus is most clearly documented on the eastern piedmont where three discrete sedimentary packages units 1 3 each capped by a distinctive soil reflect glacial and nonglacial activity in the mount olympus region a working stratigraphic framework for sediments and soils is proposed and is tentatively correlated with a dated alluvial succession south of mount olympus we suggest that the oldest sedimentary package unit 1 predates 200 ka isotope stage 8 lithologic and pedologic equivalents of the piedmont stratigraphy are found within major valleys draining mount olympus as well as within cirque basins and on the summit plateau surface these deposits can be clearly tied to three stages of cirque development on the upland and at valley heads taken together upland and piedmont glacial features and deposits indicate the following general scenario 1 earliest glaciation isotope stage 8 produced upland ice and valley glaciers that extended as piedmont lobes east north and west of mount olympus 2 nonglacial interglacial conditions isotope stage 7 were accompanied by extensive erosion and subsequent pedogenesis 3 a second glaciation isotope stage 6 involved production of upland ice and valley glaciers that did not reach the piedmont 4 interglacial interstadial conditions isotope stage 5 provided time for stream erosion and substantial pedogenesis 5 final glaciation isotope stages 4 2 was restricted to valley heads no upland ice and glaciers that extended to mid valley positions 6 nonglacial conditions isotope stage 1 were associated with additional pedogenesis and stream incision the largest cirque on the mountain megali kazania may contain depositional evidence for neoglaciation study of the neotectonic history of the mount olympus region indicates that uplift has persisted throughout the mid pleistocene and holocene at a rate of about 1 6 m k y the total uplift since deposition of unit 2 is approximately 200 m

use of the geotechnical centrifuge as a tool to model dense nonaqueous phase liquid migration in fractures 1 we describe a study undertaken to investigate the potential of the geotechnical centrifuge as an experimental tool to study dense nonaqueous phase liquid dnapl behavior in fracture systems scaling laws are developed that link observations made in a centrifuge model of a fracture system to the full scale problem prototype centrifuge experiments carried out in synthetic fractures described by smooth walled vertical capillary tubes demonstrate for the first time that the geotechnical centrifuge can be used to model dnapl transport in a simplified system provided that inertial forces are negligible in both the model and the prototype experiments also confirm as predicted by kueper and mcwhorter 1991 that dnapl invades a smooth walled vertical fracture when the dnapl pool height at its entrance reaches its entry pressure a simple mathematical model describing the displacement of the dnapl water interface is also presented the predictions of this model and the experimental data are in good agreement with each other in the lower half of an invaded fracture however at the early stages of dnapl invasion into the fracture our observed dnapl water interface velocities are slower than predicted by the model we attribute this to an apparent dependence of the local capillary pressure on the interface displacement velocity

alpine evidence for atmospheric circulation patterns in europe during the last glacial maximum the configuration of alpine accumulation areas during the last glacial maximum lgm has been reconstructed using glacial geological mapping the results indicate that the lgm ice surface consisted of at least three major ice domes all located south of the principal weather divide of the alps this implies that the buildup of the main alpine ice cover during oxygen isotope stage ois 2 was related to precipitation by dominant southerly atmospheric circulation in contrast to today s prevalent westerly airflow such a reorganization of the atmospheric circulation is consistent with a southward displacement of the oceanic polar front in the north atlantic and of the associated storm track to the south of the alps these results combined with additional paleoclimate records from western and southern europe allow an interpretation of the asynchronous evolution of the different european ice caps during the last glaciation 18o stages ois 4 and 3 were characterized by location of the polar front north of 46 n gulf of biscay this affected prevailing westerly circulation and thus ice buildup in western scandinavia the pyrenees vosges and northern alps at the lgm however the polar front lay at 44 n causing dominating southerly circulation and reduced precipitation in central and northern europe

middle pleistocene cold stage climates in the mediterranean new evidence from the glacial record abstract a major reduction in summer temperatures during a middle pleistocene glacial cycle caused the most extensive glaciation recorded in the mediterranean region glaciers in the mountains of greece formed during marine isotope stage mis 12 474 000 427 000 years bp under climatic conditions characterised by mean summer temperatures at least 11 c cooler than today and annual precipitation of 2300 mm at the equilibrium line altitude 1741 m a s l this represents the coldest mean summer temperatures recorded in greece during at least the last 430 000 years later pleistocene glaciations mis 6 and 5d 2 were characterised by warmer summer temperatures and higher annual precipitation

nonwetting phase retention and mobilization in rock fractures perchloroethylene pce was injected into fractured limestone samples approximately 0 3 m 0 3 m square under controlled conditions to assess nonwetting phase fracture retention capacity testing was performed using two rock samples containing a single fracture in each one fractured along a bedding plane and the other fractured along a prominent stylolitic joint residual pce saturation decreased from 21 of the fracture volume at horizontal to 3 at completely vertical in the bedding plane fracture and decreased from 27 to 10 of the fracture volume under the same conditions in the stylolitic fracture a portion of the retained residual was removed by waterflooding the fractures the pce retention capacity of both fractures exhibited a strong correlation with combined capillary and bond number nc krwnb provided that initial residual saturation was defined in the absence of both buoyant and viscous forces residual pce saturation decreased as the magnitude of nc krwnb increased however even at nc krwnb values approaching 10 2 all residual pce was not completely removed from the fractures

climate at the equilibrium line of glaciers the relationships between temperature precipitation and radiation on glacier equilibrium lines are investigated using 70 glaciers for which the mass balance and meteorological observations have been carried out for sufficiently long periods it is found that the characteristic climate at glacier equilibrium lines can be described using the summer 3 months temperature in a free atmosphere annual total precipitation and the sum of global and long wave net radiation all of these are measured at or very near the equilibrium line altitudes then it is shown how the shift of the equilibriumline will occur as a result of a climatic change finally the effect of the shift of the equilibrium line on the annualmean specific mass balance is analytically derived and compared with observations the present results make it possible to identify the altitudes in climate models where glacierization should begin and to evaluate the mass balance changes as a result of possible future changes in the climate

tectono stratigraphy and evolution of the mesozoic pindos ophiolite and related units northwestern greece the northwest pindos mountains expose mesozoic and tertiary thrust sheets which include the jurassic pindos ophiolite composed of ultramafic and mafic oceanic crustal rocks the tectono stratigraphy of these units is i mainly ultramafic ophiolitic thrust sheet and basal metamorphic sole dramala complex and loumnitsa unit ii late cretaceous platformal limestones orliakas group iii dismembered intrusive and extrusive ophiolitic rocks aspropotamos complex iv tectonic melange and olistostromes dominated by triassic jurassic volcanic and sedimtntary rocks avdella melange v coherent thrust sheets of late jurassic late cretaceous deep water sediments dio dendra group vi early tertiary flysch pindos flysch immobile trace element studies indicate that triassic and jurassic extrusives of the volcanic sedimentary melange formed mainly at within plate and or mid ocean ridge settings by contrast structurally overlying ophiolitic extrusives include boninitic volcanics and island arc tholeiites of supra subduction zone origin initial ophiolite displacement c 165 ma is recorded in metamorphic sole formation including basal peridotite mylonite amphibolites and greenschists the sole rocks have morb and wpb chemical affinities in our favoured model the pindos ophiolite formed above a mid jurassic westerly dipping intra oceanic subduction zone accompanied by accretion to form melange followed by collision and emplacement with the pelagonian margin final suturing of the pindos ocean however did not take place until early tertiary times

glaciations and paleoclimate of mount erciyes central turkey since the last glacial maximum inferred from 36cl cosmogenic dating and glacier modeling abstract forty four boulders from moraines in two glacial valleys of mount erciyes 38 53 n 35 45 e 3917 m central turkey dated with cosmogenic chlorine 36 36cl indicate four periods of glacial activity in the past 22 ka 1 ka 1000 calendar years last glacial maximum lgm glaciers were the most extensive reaching 6 km in length and descending to an altitude of 2150 m above sea level these glaciers started retreating 21 3 0 9 ka 1 ago they readvanced and retreated by 14 6 1 2 ka ago lateglacial and again by 9 3 0 5 ka ago early holocene the latest advance took place 3 8 0 4 ka ago late holocene using glacier modeling together with paleoclimate proxy data from the region we reconstructed the paleoclimate at these four discrete times the results show that lgm climate was 8 11 c colder than today and moisture levels were somewhat similar to modern values with a range between 20 more and 25 less than today the analysis of lateglacial advance suggests that the climate was colder by 4 5 6 4 c based on up to 1 5 times wetter conditions the early holocene was 2 1 4 9 c colder and up to twice as wet as today while the late holocene was 2 4 3 c colder and its precipitation amounts approached to similar conditions as today our paleoclimate reconstructions show a general trend of warming for the last 22 ka and an increase of moisture until early holocene and a decrease after that time the recent glacier terminates at 3450 m on the northwest side of the mountain it is a remnant from the last advance possibly during the little ice age repeated measurements of glacier length between 1902 and 2008 reveal a retreat rate of 4 2 m per year which corresponds to a warming rate of 0 9 1 2 c per century

the accumulation of cosmogenic chlorine 36 in rocks a method for surface exposure dating because of the reaction of cosmic rays with elements in minerals chlorine 36 accumulates in rocks exposed at the earth s surface this suggests that the ratio of chlorine 36 to stable chloride can be used as a geochronometer reasonable agreement has been obtained between measurements of chlorine 36 in volcanic rocks of known age and calculations of chlorine 36 production based on rock composition and cosmicray flux the buildup of chlorine 36 should be a useful means for measuring the surface exposure time of young volcanic rocks and geomorphic features in the age range of 10 3 to 10 6 years

the glacial history of the pindus mountains greece abstract geomorphological evidence for pleistocene glaciation has been mapped in the pindus mountains of northwest greece and the chronology of glaciation in this area has been established through soil profile analysis and u series dating of secondary carbonates calcite formed within glacial deposits three glacial stages are evident in the sedimentological and geomorphological records the earliest and most extensive recorded glaciation predates 350 000 yr b p and was characterized by extensive valley glaciers and ice fields a more recent glaciation occurred before the last interglacial and was characterized by glaciers that reached midvalley positions the last phase of glaciation in greece is recorded by small cirque glacier moraines and relict periglacial rock glaciers the glacial and periglacial sequence on mount tymphi has been used in conjunction with a reference parastratotype the long lacustrine sequence at ioannina to provide a chronostratigraphical framework for cold stage deposits in g

late pleistocene and holocene sea level change in greece and south western turkey a separation of eustatic isostatic and tectonic contributions summary sea level change during late pleistocene and holocene times is a combination of eustatic isostatic and tectonic contributions in the central mediterranean sea region of greece and western turkey the isostatic components are important due to the changing gravitational potential of the earth the readjustment of the crust upon the removal of the large ice sheets and the addition of the meltwater into the oceans including the mediterranean changes in relative sea level due to these glacio hydro isostatic adjustments have reached amplitudes of 1 mm yr 1 during the last few thousand years a model for the isostatic contribution to sea level change including the movement of shorelines due to the combined eustatic isostatic changes is developed based on earth model and ice sheet parameters estimated from sea level observations from other areas comparisons of this model with observations of sea level change permit rates of vertical movement to be estimated for late holocene time allowance for the isostatic factors makes a significant difference to these rates the plains of argolis lakonia messinia and navarine in the southern peloponnese for example appear to be tectonically stable on time scales of a few thousand years and longer consistent with the position of the last interglacial shoreline close to the present day sea level the observations here of a rising sea level are largely the consequence of the glacio hydro isostasy and not of a long term tectonic process crete as a whole is subject to tectonic uplift but at variable rates and forms part of an arcuate zone of uplift extending from rhodes and karpathos in the east to kithera in the west at rates that locally exceed 4 mm yr 1 the southern shore of the gulf of corinthos is also subject to uplift at rates approaching 1 5 mm yr 1 these isostatically corrected estimates for the past few thousand years are in agreement with longer term estimates based on the position of the last interglacial shoreline only on the perachora peninsula do the tectonic rates over these two time intervals appear to be in disagreement with the late holocene rates being much higher than the long term rates

research history on glacial geomorphology and geochronology of the cantabrian mountains north iberia 43 42 n 7 2 w abstract the study of glacial geomorphology in the cantabrian mountains a mountain range that extends 460 km along the northern coast of the iberian peninsula sw europe started late in the 19th century and continues nowadays with a growing number of research papers however the number and timing of glaciations remains poorly understood partially due to the still limited number of numerical ages its southerly location and proximity to the atlantic ocean make this mountain range potentially sensitive to past climate fluctuations this work updates the glacial knowledge evolution for the whole range from the queixa invernadoiro massif to the basque mountains reviewing i the history of glacial research since the late 19th century ii the methodological approaches applied to reconstruct both the spatial extent and timing of past glacial stages and iii the main geomorphological and geochronological evidence reported until date including glacial features attributed to the last glacial cycle last 120 ka and previous glaciations according to current knowledge glaciers extended over the cantabrian mountains covering a total area of 3150 km2 showing asymmetric development conditioned by variations of the topographic configuration and moisture supply along the range available geochronology based on radiocarbon optically stimulated luminescence and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides suggests the occurrence of at least 2 glacial advances during the last glacial cycle i a glacial maximum stage that took place at a minimum age of 36 45 ka marine isotope stage 3 and ii a second glacial advance at 19 23 ka mis 2 in some areas the extent of the glacier tongues during the second glacial advance was comparable to previous glacial maximum and was followed by glacial retreat conditions with formation of recessional moraines asynchronous glacial maximum conditions have been reported only for the castro valnera mis 4 3 numerical ages and queixa invernadoiro mis 6 1 numerical age massifs until now finally geomorphological evidence reported in picos de europa has been attributed to prior glaciations and correlated to cold conditions recorded during mis 12 and mis 22 based on a very limited number of numerical ages

alluvial sediment sources in a glaciated catchment the voidomatis basin northwest greece x ray diffraction xrd of the fine matrix component of four alluvial units and modern channel sediments in the voidomatis river basin of northwest greece shows that fine sediment sources have changed considerably during the late quaternary the matrix fraction of the modern channel sediments is derived predominantly from erosion of local flysch rocks and soils during the last glaciation however the fine sediment load of the voidomatis river was dominated by glacially ground finely comminuted limestone materials limestone derived fine sediment is not produced in significant amounts under modern climatic conditions by combining this xrd work with a detailed programme of clast lithologic 1 analysis we have reconstructed former bedload and fine sediment load composition the lithological properties of both the coarse 8 256 mm and fine 63 m elements of the sediment load have varied markedly during the late quaternary a simple semiquantitative assessment of fine sediment mineralogy using diffractogram peak height data has provided a valuable complement to the information gathered from more traditional clast lithological techniques together in favourable geological settings fine fraction mineralogy and clast lithological analysis can provide a valuable tool for the reconstruction of late quaternary alluvial environments

pleistocene ice caps on the coastal mountains of the adriatic sea ice caps once covered large areas of mount orjen 1894 m on the adriatic coast of montenegro bosnia herzegovina croatia the largest ice cap covered an area of c 165 km2 and reached a maximum ice thickness of c 450 m in some areas reaching down to 500 m above modern sea level u series dating of secondary carbonates within moraines indicates that the most extensive glaciation occurred during the middle pleistocene correlating with a major phase of glaciation in greece to the south during mis 12 c 480 430 ka later less extensive glaciations are also recorded in the cirques and valleys and correlate with glaciations during mis 6 190 130 ka and mis 5d 2 110 11 7 ka each phase of glaciation would have required large amounts of snow accumulation under modern precipitation values which at c 5000 mm are some of the highest in europe mean annual temperatures would need to be only c 5 6 c lower in order to form similar sized glaciers today a mean annual temperature depression of 12 13 c would still require 1000 mm of snow accumulation water equivalent to balance ablation suggesting sustained moisture supply during pleistocene cold stages such sustained precipitation supply during pleistocene cold stages is likely to have been facilitated by major temperature contrasts between the european landmass and the mediterranean sea which are likely to have sustained lee side vortices to the south of the alps in the gulf of genoa and adriatic sea forming weak moisture bearing depressions which tracked across the eastern adriatic coastal mountains large ice caps on the dinaric alps would have blocked the inland penetration of these depressions resulting in much drier conditions in the balkan interior creating favourable conditions for the deposition of thick accumulations of loess the last glaciers on orjen formed during the younger dryas 12 9 11 7 ka and confirm the influence of north atlantic ocean circulation on pleistocene climate change in this part of the mediterranean

late pleistocene and holocene glaciation in the pyrenees a critical review and new evidence from 10be exposure ages south central pyrenees a compilation and a critical assessment of the 14c data set available show that the chronology of glacial events in the pyrenees is not well constrained after reviewing the literature on glacial reconstruction we suggest a simplified subdivision of the pyrenean last glacial cycle record into last pleniglacial deglaciation and neoglacial to improve the numerical glacial chronology we provide 10be surface exposure ages for 5 glacial erosion surfaces 9 moraines and 2 erratics in the upper noguera ribagorcana valley south central pyrenees published corrected 14c data and new 10be exposure ages indicate that the major phase of moraine building recorded in this valley during the last pleniglacial probably occurred after 25 ka bp this age calls in question the generally accepted hypothesis of a very early deglaciation of the pyrenees ca 70 40 ka bp and strongly suggests that the pyrenees could have been in pleniglacial conditions during the last glacial maximum lgm however we do not exclude the possibility that the maximum glacier extent during the last glacial cycle had taken place much earlier than the lgm as indicated by some published u th ams 14c and osl data we suggest that pleniglacial conditions could have taken place during a longer 30 20 ka period than generally assumed and that the last pleniglacial could include several glacier fluctuations recorded irregularly in different valleys with a last major glacier readvance taking place around the lgm in addition the deglaciation is represented by a series of moraines deposited between ca 13 7 0 9 and 10 1 0 6 ka this moraine series indicates a highly variable climatic pattern that is partly correlated with greenland stadial 1 the younger dryas and suggests that the deglaciation could have continued into the early holocene

late quaternary fluvial sedimentation in the voidomatis basin epirus northwest greece abstract detailed morpho and lithostratigraphic investigations allied with radiometric dating in the voidomatis basin epirus northwest greece have identified four quaternary terraced alluvial fills that range from middle pleistocene to historic in age major periods of alluviation during the late quaternary were associated with valley glaciation ca 26 000 20 000 yr b p and subsequent deglaciation ca 20 000 15 000 yr b p in the pindus mountains during late wurmian times and more recently linked to overgrazing sometime before the 11th century ad the late quaternary alluvial stratigraphy of the voidomatis river is more complex than the older fill and younger fill model outlined previously and it is suggested that these terms should no longer form the basis for defining alluvial stratigraphic units in the mediterranean basin

evidence for long lasting landform surface instability on hummocky moraines in the pamir mountains tajikistan from 10be surface exposure dating abstract surface exposure dating is a new but already widely used tool in geomorphological studies aiming e g at the establishment of glacial chronologies sometimes however results from samples taken from one and the same moraine scatter widely and thus interpretation turns out to be difficult here we assess sample specific effects topographic shielding sample geometry and erosion on 17 surface exposure ages obtained by analysis of in situ produced cosmogenic 10be in boulders from moraines in the pamir mountains tajikistan a wide scatter of exposure ages is observed only for hummocky moraines 45 to 10 ka bp but not for distinct lateral moraines 20 and 60 ka bp respectively it is hypothesized that inheritance prior exposure and moraine degradation may be responsible for the wide scatter of exposure ages on the hummocky moraines to proof this hypothesis a data set of 72 boulders from the pamir mountains is used we conclude that most likely hummocky moraines experienced long lasting landform surface instability probably due to buried glacier ice that is protected from melting several ten thousand years by a thick debris cover

the glacial history of the dinaric alps montenegro abstract large areas of montenegro were glaciated during the pleistocene this paper presents evidence from the massifs of central montenegro including durmitor and sinjajevina moracke planine maganik prekornica and vojnik glacial deposits have been subdivided on the basis of morphostratigraphy and soil weathering and 31 u series ages from cemented tills provided a geochronological framework the largest glaciation occurred before 350 ka when a series of conjoined ice caps over the massifs of central montenegro covered a total area of nearly 1500 km 2 these formed during mis 12 and correspond with the largest skamnellian stage glaciations in greece to the south later middle pleistocene glaciations occurred during the penultimate glacial cycle correlating with the vlasian stage in greece mis 6 when ice caps covered an area of 720 km 2 over central montenegro there is also geochronological evidence of glacial deposits dating from the interval between mis 12 and mis 6 before the interglacial complex of mis 7 this glaciation appears to have been very similar in extent to that which occurred during mis 6 the last glacial cycle in central montenegro was characterised by valley and cirque glaciers covering a total area of 49 km 2 it is very likely that glaciers have been present in the mountains of central montenegro during every glacial cycle since a small glacier still survives today the smaller glaciers of the last glacial cycle are likely to have been associated with summer temperatures that were warmer than those of earlier cold stages the striking contrast in the extent and thickness of ice cover during the cold stages of the pleistocene has an important bearing on the geomorphological and biological evolution of the balkans

glaciation in the rila mountains bulgaria during the last glacial maximum abstract relict glacial landform complexes have been studied in the mountains of the central balkan peninsula since the end of the 19th century since their existence was proved for the first time by cvijic various authors have debated the number of glacial phases as well as their age at present the problem of age determination is being solved by the application of the new methods for numerical dating this paper is a detailed study of the maximum glaciation in the rila massif which is the highest mountain in bulgaria and in the whole balkan peninsula the application of cosmogenic nuclide dating 10be on moraine samples confirmed that the largest extent of former glaciers that left moraine deposits was around the time of the last glacial maximum most probably the maximum extent occurred in two phases the first around the beginning and the second around the end of the lgm 24 23 ka bp and 18 16 ka bp respectively separated by a retreat phase during the coldest but also driest phase of the glacial stage the gis processed calculations on the basis of field evidence of the former glacier extent and the preliminary calculations of the equilibrium line altitude ela through the accumulation ablation ratio aar method show that the ela during the lgm had quite small differences throughout the rila massif from about 2150 to 2200 m a s l in the nw to about 2250 2290 m in the se despite the considerable differences in terminal moraine depositional altitudes from 1150 to 2000 m a s l this is due to both the complicated pattern in the directions of moisture supply and to the influences of local topography

surface dating of dynamic landforms young boulders on aging moraines the dating of landforms is crucial to understanding the evolution history and stability of landscapes cosmogenic isotope analysis has recently been used to determine quantitative exposure ages for previously undatable landform surfaces a pioneering application of this technique to date moraines illustrated its considerable potential but suggested a chronology partially inconsistent with existing geological data consideration of the dynamic nature of landforms and of the ever present processes of erosion deposition and weathering leads to a resolution of this inconsistency and more generally offers guidance for realistic interpretation of exposure ages

surface exposure dating of late pleistocene glaciations at the dedegol mountains lake beysehir sw turkey situated on the interior side of the western central taurus mountains of sw anatolia the muslu valley in the dedegol mountains mt dipoyraz 37 37 07 n 31 19 42 e 2992 m above sea level a s l represents the lower part of a formerly glaciated valley system of 7 5 km in length surface exposure ages with cosmogenic 10be and 26al date a glacier expansion out of the muslu valley 24 3 1 8 ka ago 1 confidence interval and give evidence for pronounced glacier advances prior to the global last glacial maximum lgm 21 2 ka deglaciation commenced no later than 17 7 1 4 ka ago superimposed climatic oscillations are indicated by glacier fluctuations dated around 19 8 1 6 ka and again 13 9 2 3 ka prior to the first major amelioration of climate the late pleistocene glacier chronology from the western central taurus mountains published lake level fluctuation data of palaeolake konya and lake beysehir and nearby pollen data on the central anatolian plateau reveal a conspicuous time correlation of palaeoenvironmental change copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

glaciers and rivers pleistocene uncoupling in a mediterranean mountain karst abstract large scale coupling between headwater catchments and downstream depocentres is a critical influence on long term fluvial system behaviour and on the creation of the fluvial sedimentary record however it is often difficult to examine this control over multiple quaternary glacial cycles and it has not been fully explored in karst basins by investigating the pleistocene glacial and fluvial records on and around mount orjen 1894 m in montenegro we show how the changing connectivity between glaciated mountain headwater source zones and downstream alluvial basins is a key feature of long term karst system behaviour especially in relation to the creation and preservation of the surface sedimentary record middle and late pleistocene glacial deposits are well preserved on mount orjen uranium series dating of 27 carbonate cements in fluvial sediments shows that many alluvial depocentres were completely filled with coarse glacial outwash before 350 ka during the largest recorded glaciation this major glaciation is correlated with the skamnellian stage in greece and marine isotope stage 12 mis 12 c 480 420 ka this was a period of profound landscape change in many glaciated catchments on the balkan peninsula later glaciations were much less extensive and sediment supply to fluvial systems was much diminished the extreme base level falls of the late miocene produced the world s deepest karst networks around the mediterranean after mis 12 the subterranean karst of mount orjen formed the dominant pathway for meltwater and sediment transfer so that the depositional basins below 1000 m became disconnected uncoupled from the glaciated headwaters there is little evidence of post mis 12 aggradation or incision in these basins this absence of later pleistocene and holocene fluvial activity means these basins contain some of the thickest and best preserved outwash deposits in the mediterranean

palaeogeography and 10be exposure age chronology of middle and late pleistocene glacier systems in the northern pyrenees implications for reconstructing regional palaeoclimates abstract we present constraints on the chronology palaeogeography and palaeoclimatic implications for western europe of middle and late pleistocene glaciation in the ariege catchment north eastern pyrenees based on 37 cosmogenic 10 be exposure ages obtained from moraines and glacially scoured bedrock exposures we have dated six regional glacial stades the chronology emphasises several conclusions that are new to the region i in the pyrenees the global lgm occurred several thousands of years after the maximum ice extent of the wurmian glaciation ii almost full glacier extent occurred again during the global lgm but only in the eastern pyrenees iii valley glaciers such as in the ariege trunk valley attained lengths of 25 km during the oldest dryas stadial the cosmogenic exposure ages additionally provide the first direct evidence of 10 km scale fluctuations of ice front positions during the late pleistocene glacial cycle probably at the time of marine isotope stage 3 as well as rare insights into middle pleistocene ice margin positions compared with existing evidence of glacial palaeogeography in other catchments of the pyrenan range the data also reveal a sharp contrast in relative ice extent between the glacierized catchments of the eastern pyrenees ariege carol malniu tet where wurmian mie and lgm ice fronts reached similar positions and the rest of the range where ice fronts at the time of the mis 2 and global lgm palaeotemperature minima lagged far behind the wurmian mie terminal moraines we ascribe this non uniform behaviour among catchments to non uniform palaeoclimatic conditions along the strike of the pyrenees a range of palaeoenvironmental proxies reviewed in the literature highlight a sharp difference in sea surface temperatures between the warmer western mediterranean and the cooler bay of biscay the consequences of such an e w temperature gradient on weather patterns during the global lgm are compatible with a strengthening of mediterranean low pressure systems particularly the semi permanent balearic low generating greater precipitation over the eastern pyrenees compared to atlantic weather systems further west

cosmogenic chlorine 36 from calcium spallation calcium is a major target element for cosmogenic 36cl production consequently 36cl rapidly reaches detectable levels in minerals such as calcite and calcium feldspar exposed at the earth s surface spallation of calcium isotopes typically accounts for 80 90 of 36cl production in these minerals with subsidiary contributions from negative muon capture by 40ca and thermal neutron capture by 35cl to provide a basis for surface exposure dating we have calibrated cosmogenic 36cl production in calcium feldspar from the 17 300 year old tabernacle hill basalt at an altitude of 1445 m and an effective geomagnetic latitude of 40 9 the calcium spallation rate is 152 11 atoms g ca 1 a 1 the corresponding rate at sea level and high latitude is estimated at 48 8 3 4 atoms g ca 1 a 1 the muon capture rate used to derive these values is 8 8 2 2 atoms g ca 1 a 1 at the tabernacle hill site scaled from a value of 4 8 1 2 atoms g ca 1 a 1 at sea level and high latitude the calcium spallation rate determined in this study is in excellent agreement with previous whole rock calibration measurements at tabernacle hill when these are recalculated with respect to the absolute timescale the calibration of 36c1 production from calcium underpins development of an exposure dating technique for calcite due to its high calcium content the 36cl production rate in calcite is higher than in any other common rock forming mineral measurement of 36cl in calcite with an accelerator mass spectrometric detection limit of 5 103 atoms per gram allows dating of limestone surfaces exposed for periods ranging from 102 106 years alternatively erosion rates from less than 1 to greater than 1000 m per year can be determined in the case of eroding karst surfaces though the 36cl production rate is lower in calcium feldspar than in calcite measurements on this mineral will provide a useful means of dating young basalt lavas