holocene coastal glaciation of alaska holocene uctuations of the three cirque glaciers on the seward peninsula and ve groups of tidewater and land terminating glaciers along the northernmost gulf of alaska provide a proxy record of late holocene climatic change furthermore the movements of the coastal glaciers were relevant to late holocene native american migration the earliest expansion was recorded about 6850 yr bp by hubbard glacier at the head of yakutat bay in the gulf of alaska however its down fjord advance to the bay mouth was delayed until 2700 bp similarly expansions of the icy bay bering and mccarty glaciers occurred near their present termini by 3600 3000 bp compatible with marked cooling and precipitation increases suggested by the alaskan pollen record decrease in glacier activity 2000 bp was succeeded by advances of gulf coastal glaciers between 1500 and 1300 bp correlative with early medieval expansions across the northern hemisphere a medieval optimum encompassing at least a few centuries prior to ad 1200 is recognized by general retreat of land terminating glaciers but not of all tidewater glaciers little ice age advances of land based glaciers many dated with the precision of tree ring cross dating were centered on the middle 13th or early 15th centuries the middle 17th and the last half of the 19th century a d strong synchrony of these events across coastal alaska is evident 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

little ice age glacial activity in peter lougheed and elk lakes provincial parks canadian rocky mountains dendrochronological lichenometric and i4c studies at 14 glacier sites in peter lougheed and elk lakes provincial parks were used to develop a chronology of little ice age glacial events the earliest indications of glacial activity are represented by moraines deposited prior to the 16th century a major glacial expansion in the 17th century is recorded at three sites where i4c dates show glaciers reached their maximum down valley positions lichenometric dates and tree growth suppression records show a phase of glacial activity early in the 18th century for which there is only sparse morainic evidence most moraines in the area date from a glacial advance culminating in the mid 19th century and moraine formation was complete everywhere by the late 1800 s recessional moraines are rare in the study area and indicate that ice front retreat has been relatively continuous since the 19th century the glacial chronology developed in this work is comparable to that reconstructed for both the main ranges of the canadian rockies and the coast ranges of the southern cordillera resum6 les ctudes dendrochronologique 1ichcnomctrique et radiomktrique au i4c de 14 sites rcalisces dans les parcs provinciaux de peter lougheed et de elk lakes ont servi a ctablir une chronologie des cvbnements glaciaires survenus durant le petit bge glaciaire les plus anciens indices de l activitk glaciaire sont reprcsentcs par les moraines dcposces anttrieurement au xvie sibcle une expansion glaciaire majeure durant le xviie sibcle est enregistrke sur trois sites ou les dates au 14c rcvklent la prksence de glaciers avec leurs positions de progression maximale vers le bas de la vallce les datations fondces sur la 1ichcnomctrie et sur les registres de cessation de la croissance des arbres montrent la prcsence d une phase d activitk glaciaire au debut du xviiie sibcle qui a iaissc peu de dcp8ts morainiques dtcelables la plupart des moraines qui apparaissent dans la rcgion datent d une avancce glaciaire qui avait atteint son apogce d extension au milieu du xixe sikcle et leur construction fut complctce vers la fin des annces 1800 les moraines de rkcession sont rares dans la rcgion ctudik cependant elles indiquent que depuis le xixe sibcle il y a eu un retrait relativement continu du front glaciaire la chronologie glaciaire ktablie dans la prcsente ctude est analogue i celle reconstruite pour les chaines principales des rocheuses du canada et pour le domaine c8tier de la cordillbre mkridionale traduit par la raaction

late holocene glacial activity of bridge glacier british columbia coast mountains bridge glacier is a prominent eastward flowing valley glacier located on the east side of the pacific ranges within the southern british columbia coast mountains the terminus of bridge glacier has retreated at rates up to 125 m year over the last 50 years and currently calves into proglacial bridge lake field investigations of the recently deglaciated terrain and moraines led to the discovery of detrital boles and glacially sheared stumps dendroglaciological analyses of this subfossil wood produced five radiocarbon controlled floating tree ring chronologies the relative age and stratigraphic location of these samples revealed that bridge glacier experienced at least four periods of significant advance during the late holocene a tiedemann aged advance ca 3000 14c years bp an unattributed advance ca 1900 14c years bp a first millennium advance ca 1500 14c years bp and a little ice age advance beginning ca 700 14c years bp lichenometric investigations at eight terminal and lateral moraine comple

late holocene high resolution glacial chronologies and climate kenai mountains alaska recent retreat of outlet glaciers from the harding and grewingk yalik icefields has revealed a vast array of deposits on the eastern and western flanks of the kenai mountains that records multiple glacier advances into coastal forests during late holocene time treering dating together with radiocarbon and lichenometric analyses allows for the reconstruction of these glacial fluctuations to decadal precision over the past two thousand years the records of fluctuations are derived from 16 land terminating and seven tidewater glaciers in three fjord systems as well as two cirque glaciers three major intervals of holocene glacier expansions are evident they occurred about 3600 yr b p 600 a d and during the little ice age from 1300 to 1850 a d the earliest expansion beyond present ice margins is known only from the mccarty tidewater glacier the 600 a d event involved the simultaneous advance of land terminating and tidewater glaciers during the little ice age however tidewater glaciers were advancing several centuries prior to their land terminating neighbors those land terminating glaciers on the western mountain flank retreated from their little ice age maxima as much as two centuries before those on the eastern mountain flank land terminating tongues on the eastern more maritime mountain flank have shown more sensitivity to variations in winter precipitation during the little ice age and within recent decades than the more continental glaciers on the western flank that are affected more by summer temperatures the glacial and climatic records suggest that advances of the ice tongues from about 1420 to 1460 a d between 1640 and 1670 a d at about 1750 a d and from 1880 to 1910 a d reflected times of increased winter precipitation advances between 1440 to 1460 a d from 1650 to 1710 a d and from 1830 to 1860 a d followed intervals of lower summer temperatures

stratigraphic evidence for multiple holocene advances of lillooet glacier southern coast mountains british columbia holocene lateral moraines in the coast mountains of british columbia are commonly composed of multiple drift units related to several glacier advances in this paper we document lateral moraine stratigraphy at lillooet glacier in the southern coast mountains five tills separated by laterally extensive paleosols and layers of large woody debris were found in three cross sectional exposures through the northeast lateral moraine and two shallow gullies incised into its steep proximal face eighteen new radiocarbon ages constrain the timing of five separate advances of lillooet glacier 1 prior to 3000 14 c years bp 2 3000 14 c years bp 3 2500 14 c years bp 4 1700 to 1400 14 c years bp and 5 during the little ice age lia after 470 14 c years bp the lillooet glacier chronology is broadly synchronous with other glacier records from the coast mountains these records collectively demonstrate climate variability at higher frequencies during the late holocene than is apparent from many paleoecological reconstructions reconstructions of glacier fluctuations are often hampered by poor preservation of landforms that predate the extensive lia advances of the latest holocene our results highlight the potential of lateral moraine stratigraphy for reconstructing these earlier events

latest pleistocene and holocene behaviour of franklin glacier mt waddington area british columbia coast mountains canada franklin glacier is an 18 km long valley glacier that originates in a broad icefield below the west face of mt waddington in the central british columbia coast mountains canada radiocarbon dated

glacier fluctuations during the past millennium in garibaldi provincial park southern coast mountains british columbia the little ice age glacier history in garibaldi provincial park southern coast mountains british columbia was reconstructed using geomorphic mapping radiocarbon ages on fossil wood in glacier forefields dendrochronology and lichenometry the little ice age began in the 11th century glaciers reached their first maximum of the past millennium in the 12th century they were only slightly more extensive than today in the 13th century but advanced at least twice in the 14th and 15th centuries to near their maximum little ice age positions glaciers probably fluctuated around these advanced positions from the 15th century to the beginning of the 18th century they achieved their greatest extent between a d 1690 and 1720 moraines were deposited at positions beyond present day ice limits throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries glacier fluctuations appear to be synchronous throughout garibaldi park this chronology agrees well with similar records from other mountain ranges and with reconstructed n

little ice age glacial activity in the mt waddington area british columbia coast mountains canada the establishment of fourteen little ice age lia glacier chronologies in the mt waddington area led to the development of an extended history of glacial activity in this portion of the southern british columbia coast mountains canada the glaciers were located within four different mountain ranges and were of varying size and aspect dendrochronological and lichenometric techniques were used to provide relative age estimates of moraines formed as glacier termini retreated from advanced positions evidence for pre lia glacial events is best preserved at tiedemann glacier where the oldest glacial advances date to a d 620 and 925 933 soil covered and well vegetated moraines built at cathedral pagoda and siva glaciers date to between a d 1203 and 1226 following this event moraines constructed at ragnarok siva and cathedral glaciers in the mid 14th century suggest glaciers in the region underwent a period of downwasting and retreat before readvancing the majority of moraines recorded in the mt waddington area describe late lia glacial events shown to have constructed moraines that date to a d 1443 1458 1506 1524 1562 1575 1597 1621 1657 1660 1767 1784 1821 1837 1871 1900 1915 1928 and 1942 1946 over the last 500 years these moraine building episodes were shown to occur on average every 65 years and suggest there has been prolonged synchronicity in the glaciological response to persistent climate forcing mechanisms nevertheless our analysis suggests that local factors such as aspect and size play an important role in individual glacial response notably ice termini of medium size glaciers facing eastwards showed a quicker response to climatically induced mass balance changes resume l historique de quatorze glaciers de vallee de la region du mont waddington sud de la chaine cotiere de colombie britannique canada durant le petit ge glaciaire pag fut evalue par l utilisation de techniques dendrochronologiques et lichenometriques procurant un ge minimum pour la formation des moraines laterales et frontales multiples les glaciers a l etude d aspect et de taille differents furent selectionnes a partir de quatre chaines de montagnes les evenements qui predatent le pag sont le mieux preserves sur le site du glacier tiedemann ou les plus vieilles avancees glaciaires date de a d 620 et 925 933 des moraines presentant une pedogenese avancee et recouvertes d une dense couverture vegetale furent datees entre a d 1203 et 1226 des moraines construites dans le milieu du 14 e siecle par les glaciers ragnarok siva et cathedral suggerent que les glaciers de la region se sont retires pour par la suite reavancer la majorite des moraines datees le furent vers la fin du pag soit en a d 1443 1458 1506 1524 1562 1575 1597 1621 1657 1660 1767 1784 1821 1837 1871 1900 1915 1928 et 1942 1946 au cours des 500 dernieres annees en moyenne 65 annees separent les differents episodes glaciaires ce qui suggerent un synchronisme des reponses glaciaires aux mecanismes climatiques des donnees preliminaires suggerent que l orientation et la taille des glaciers jouent un role important dans la reponse individualiste des glaciers en fait les terminus glaciaires des moyens glaciers d orientation est semblent repondre plus rapidement a un ajustement de volume interne glaciaire

late holocene glacial activity at bromley glacier cambria icefield northern british columbia coast mountains canada retreating and downwasting glaciers in the british columbia coast mountains are exposing the remains of forests buried during holocene age glacial advances despite recent progress in discerning th

a multi species dendroclimatic reconstruction of chilko river streamflow british columbia canada dendroclimatological data were used to reconstruct the discharge history of chilko river which drains a glacierized watershed in the coast mountains of british columbia we correlated ring width records from engelmann spruce es picea engelmanni and mountain hemlock mh tsuga mertensiana trees to historical hydroclimate data over the period of record spruce and hemlock radial growth correlates significantly with temperature and snow depth respectively we found that a multi species approach provided a better model fit and reconstructive power using these relationships we developed generalized linear models for mean june july and june july discharge the proxy records provide insights into streamflow variability of a typical coast mountains river over the past 240 years and confirm the long term influence of the pacific decadal oscillation pdo on hydroclimatic regimes in the region a relationship also exists between the reconstructed june july discharge record and the north pacific np index suggesting that winter atmospheric patterns over the north pacific influence the hydrology of coastal british columbia copyright 2010 john wiley sons ltd

late holocene vegetation and climate change at moraine bog tiedemann glacier southern coast mountains british columbia moraine bog lies just outside the outermost lateral moraine of tiedemann glacier in the southern coast mountains of british columbia a sediment core taken from the wetland was analyzed for pollen magnetic susceptibility and loss on ignition to reconstruct changes in vegetation and climate during the late holocene vegetation changed little between about 3500 and 2400 14 c years bp a period of local disturbance marked by deposition of a silty clay bed and increases in alnus pollen likely reflecting cooler moister conditions coincides with an extensive holocene advance of tiedemann glacier about 2400 14 c years bp warm dry conditions between about 1900 and 1500 14 c years bp are sug gested by peak values of pseudotsuga pollen and increasing nuphar sclereids the latter suggests lowered water levels this period coincides with a time of drought and increased fire frequency in the southernmost coast mountains about 1300 14 c years bp the forest became more coastal in composition with abundant tsuga heterophylla and abies a n increase in tsuga mertensiana pollen suggests the onset of cool and wet conditions by ca 500 14 c years bp coincident with the little ice age the record of inferred climate change at moraine bog is broadly synchronous with other paleoclimate records from the coast mountains and at the centennial scale with records elsewhere in the world

neoglaciation in the southern coast mountains of british columbia chronology prior to the late neoglacial maximum moraine stratigraphy and morphology radiocarbon dates from klinaklini franklin tiedemann gilbert and bridge glaciers and related information from elsewhere in the coast mountains are used to construct a chronology for glacier fluctuations the garibaldi phase of glacier expansion 6000 5000 14c years bp at the end of the early holocene xerothermic interval is indicated by overridden tree stumps the mid neoglacial tiedemann advance 3300 1900 14c years bp is represented by moraines till and meltwater sediments at three glaciers but only tiedemann glacier attained its greatest holocene extent at this time late neoglacial expansion commenced before 900 14c years bp and continued without notable interruption until glaciers achieved their maximum post pleistocene expansion during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries evidence for the garibaldi and tiedemann events is scarce within the coast mountains because of the more extensive late neoglacial advance however correlative advances have been

neoglacial fluctuations and sedimentation of an iceberg calving glacier resolved with tree rings kenai fjords national park alaska abstract the mccarty fjord iceberg calving glacier and its land terminating tributaries have fluctuated with some asynchroneity during the past two millennia during advance mccarty glacier shed outwash along the fjord and into ice dammed tributaries inundating forests a radioacarbon framework has revealed at least two major late holocene glacial advances that occurred following a poorly documented expansion about 3600 bp these two later advances are resolved within this fjord with tree ring dating of in situ and transported tree trunks the first event was an early medieval expansion of the mccarty trunk glacier beyond midfjord about 596 a d this followed an interval of tree growth of at least 206 years tributary glaciers probably also advanced at this time however continuous tree growth occurred in the distal southern tributary valleys during this advance while northern tributaries were being dammed by the advancing trunk glacier the down valley extent of this expansion is thus constrained to a position within 12 km of the present contracted ice margin the tree ring refined chronology shows that a second mccarty ice expansion began in the 9th century and reached midfjord by 900 a d and continued to advance through the little ice age in contrast expansions of land terminating glaciers here began after 1300 a d in concert with mountain glaciers worldwide a log from a diamict cross dated with a living tree ring chronology shows that mccarty glacier was advancing within a kilometer of its little ice age maximum at 1790 a d since about 1905 a d dramatic ice retreat has uncovered more than 20 km of mccarty fjord

multi proxy record of holocene glacial history of the spearhead and fitzsimmons ranges southern coast mountains british columbia abstract evidence from glacier forefields and lakes is used to reconstruct holocene glacier fluctuations in the spearhead and fitzsimmons ranges in southwest british columbia radiocarbon ages on detrital wood and trees killed by advancing ice and changes in sediment delivery to downstream proglacial lakes indicate that glaciers expanded from minimum extents in the early holocene to their maximum extents about two to three centuries ago during the little ice age the data indicate that glaciers advanced 8630 8020 6950 6750 3580 2990 and probably 4530 4090 cal yr bp and repeatedly during the past millennium little ice age moraines dated using dendrochronology and lichenometry date to early in the 18th century and in the 1830s and 1890s limitations inherent in lacustrine and terrestrial based methods of documenting holocene glacier fluctuations are minimized by using the two records together

tree ring based reconstructions of north american glacier mass balance through the little ice age contemporary warming transition abstract glacier mass balance reconstructions provide a means of placing relatively short observational records into a longer term context in western north america mass balance records span four to five decades and capture a relatively narrow window of glacial behavior over an interval that was dominated by warming and ablation we use temperature and moisture sensitive tree ring series to reconstruct annual mass balance for six glaciers in the pacific northwest and alaska mass balance models rely on the climatic sensitivity of tree ring chronologies and teleconnection patterns in the north pacific the reconstructions extend through the mid to latter portions of the little ice age lia and explore the role of climate variability in forcing mass balance across multiple environmental gradients synchronous positive mass balance intervals coincide with regional moraine building and solar minima whereas differences in lia glacier behavior are related to synoptic climate forcing secular warming in the late 19th century to present corresponds with the only multi decadal intervals of negative mass balance in all glacier reconstructions this suggests that contemporary retreat in western north america is unique with respect to the last several centuries and that regional patterns of glacier variability are now dominated by global climate forcing

dendroglaciological evidence for holocene glacial advances in the todd icefield area northern british columbia coast mountains accelerated glacial recession and downwasting in pacific north america is exposing land surfaces and fea tures buried by glacial advances that in many locations predate the recent little ice age lia dendrochronologic analyses of increment core samples from living trees abies lasiocarpa tsuga mertensiana and samples of subfossil wood collected in the todd icefield area boundary ranges british columbia coast mountains provide the basis for a dendroglaciological and radiocarbon based reconstruction of late holocene glacier activity five intervals of glacier ex pansion were recorded by trees killed or buried by advancing glaciers 1 an advance prior to 3000 14 c years bp 2 an advance at 3000 14 c years bp that coincides with the regional tiedemann advance 3 an unattributed advance at 2300 14 c years bp 4 a two phase advance at 1700 and 1450 14 c years bp that corresponds with the regional first millennium advance 5 an advance with three phases of expansion that began prior to 750 14 c bp and is con sistent with the regional early lia interval and a two phase interval of late lia expansion culminating after 240 and 100 years bp this chronology of late holocene glaciation matches that emerging from similar investigations in the coastal cordillera of pacific north america and provides additional support for the regional significance of both the tiedemann and the first millennium advances resume une recession et une fonte glaciaire accelerees dans l ocean pacifique en amerique du nord exposent des sur faces de terrain et des traits caracteristiques enfouis sous des avancees glaciaires lesquelles dans bien des cas datent d avant le recent petit ge glaciaire des analyses dendrochronologiques d echantillons proportionnels de carottes pris

dendroglaciological investigations of mid to late holocene glacial activity in the mt waddington area british columbia coast mountains canada dendroglaciological investigations near mt waddington in the central british columbia coast mountains provide an enhanced perspective of holocene glacial activity field investigations at confederation franklin and jambeau glaciers led to the discovery of subfossil wood mats encased in glacial deposits and glacially sheared stumps buried beneath till radiocarbon dated wood collected from valley bottom and lateral moraine sites at confederation glacier suggest that an early holocene advance occurred at c 5665 cal yr bp followed by succeeding intervals of glacier expansion at c 3700 and 3500 cal yr bp at jambeau glacier detrital wood mats buried close to the contemporary lateral moraine crests document glacier expansion at c 3000 cal yr bp detrital subfossil wood buried in lateral moraines at the confluence of confederation and franklin glaciers records distinct episodes of little ice age glacier expansion as early as c 1212 cal yr ad and suggests the glacier surface continued to thicken u

late holocene glacial history of scimitar glacier mt waddington area british columbia coast mountains canada scimitar glacier originates below the northeast face of mt waddington in the southern british columbia coast mountains and flows 18 km down valley to calve into a proglacial lake at several locations downwasting of the glacier surface has exposed stacked till units separated by wood bearing horizons in the proximal slopes of lateral moraines flanking the glacier historical moraine collapse and erosional breaching has also revealed the remains of standing trees buried in moraine dammed lake sediments radiocarbon and tree ring dating show that scimitar glacier expanded down valley at least three times in the late holocene the earliest evidence found for ice expansion indicates scimitar glacier was advancing in 3167 2737 cal years bp in association with the regional tiedemann advance following this advance the glacier downwasted prior to expanding in 1568 1412 cal years bp during the first millennial advance a final period phase of moraine construction was initiated during late little ice age glacia

neoglacial lake alsek lowell glacier a large valley glacier in the st elias mountains of southwestern yukon territory advanced across alsek valley and blocked south flowing alsek river many times during the neoglacial interval the resulting lake termed neoglacial lake alsek extended east of the front of the st elias mountains and inundated parts of dezadeash valley that presently are populated lake alsek at its maximum was about 200 m deep at the glacier dam and over 100 km long staircase flights of beaches wave cut benches layers of driftwood and thin lacustrine sediments provide evidence of the former lake giant dunes and flood terraces on the floor of alsek valley indicate that the lake emptied catastrophically when the lowell glacier dam failed several phases of lake alsek have been identified each was preceded and followed by intervals during which the lake was empty and the present southward drainage pattern in alsek valley prevailed historical records radiocarbon and tree ring dates on driftwood and r

neoglacial history of the stikine iskut area northern coast mountains british columbia information about neoglacial features was obtained from aerial photograph interpretation observations during low level flights ground checking and historical records terminal moraines at great flood and mud glaciers date from the late seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries and recessional moraines at these glaciers and terminal moraines at glaciers farther east date from the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries these late neoglacial terminal moraines appear in general to mark the greatest post pleistocene extent of the glaciers radiocarbon dates from overridden trees and soil indicate that 500 600 14c years bp glaciers were considerably more extensive than they are at present and were advancing preservation of a 3800 14c year old caribou antler in a snowbank that is now rapidly shrinking suggests that climate has been relatively cool and moist for the past four millennia

dendrogeomorphic reconstruction of little ice age paraglacial activity in the vicinity of the homathko icefield british columbia coast mountains canada article i nfo article history moraine and glacier dams bordering the homathko icefield in the southern british columbia coast mountains failed in the 1980s and 1990s causing catastrophic downstream floods the largest of the floods occurred in august 1997 and was caused by overtopping and rapid breaching of the moraine dam that impounds queen bess lake the floodwaters from queen bess lake eroded holocene age sedimentary deposits along the west fork of nostetuko river and caused a steep rise in the hydrograph of homathko river at the head of bute inlet 115 km downstream a field investigation of the eroded valley fill in 2008 revealed multiple paraglacial valley fill units many of which are capped by in situ stumps and woody detritus dendrogeomorphological field techniques were employed to develop a chronology for the buried forests a regional tree ring chronology spanning the interval ce 1572 2007 was constructed from living subalpine fi r abies lasiocarpa trees at seven sites in the southern coast mountains in cases where subfossil stumps and boles predated the regional chronology relative death dates constrained by radiocarbon ages were assigned to floating chronologies by combining these dendrogeomorphological dating methods we identified six floodplain aggradation episodes within the past 1200 years comparison to local and regional glacial histories suggests that these events reflect climate induced little ice age changes in local glacier cover

holocene glacier fluctuations in the canadian cordillera alberta and british columbia abstract although the record of holocene glacier fluctuations in british columbia and alberta is still very fragmentary much recent progress has been made in their study dating of end moraines has been supplemented by studies of lateral moraine stratigraphy and dating of glacially overridden organic matter upstream of end moraines dates from sites close to contemporary glaciers indicate that ice had retreated to about its present limits before 10 ka bp prior to deposition of mazama tephra a minor pre hypsithermal readvance the crowfoot advance left deposits in the rockies and the interior of british columbia the earliest known neoglacial advances occurred 5 6 ka bp in the coast mountains and shortly after 4 ka bp in the rockies an advance culminating ca 4 3 ka bp has been reported from bugaboo glacier while evidence of another advance culminating in the period ca 2 5 1 8 ka bp the tiedemann advance is reported from more than one site following a recession the little ice age expansion the cavell advance began shortly after 900 bp this advance culminated in most cases in the 18th or 19th centuries the crowfoot tiedemann and little ice age advances were apparently of roughly the same magnitude the latter was most extensive in most cases but at several sites crowfoot moraines lie slightly farther downvalley than little ice age moraines during the present century ice fronts have generally retreated particularly rapidly in the period 1920 1950 a d although rates of retreat have decreased in the last three decades and some glaciers have readvanced slightly

dendroglaciological reconstruction of late holocene glacier activity at white and south flat glaciers boundary range northern british columbia coast mountains canada holocene glacier activity in the northern british columbia coast mountains canada is described following investigations in the recently deglaciated forefields of white and south flat glaciers spilling from the cambria icefield glacially overridden stumps and detrital wood was radiocarbon and dendrochronologically dated to describe an advance between ad 250 and 650 expansion and thickening of white glacier by ad 765 resulted in creation of an ice dammed lake in south flat valley that persisted until ad 1080 following this the lake drained before refilling in the early little ice age prior to ad 1300 shortly thereafter white and south flat glaciers became confluent and flowed over the valley side toward white lake the characteristics of the site and the preservation of 1500 yr old deposits indicate that the two glaciers remained confluent throughout the remainder of the little ice age only separating following terminal retreat early in the 20th century the late holocene glacial history of whit

tree ring dated little ice age histories of maritime glaciers from western prince william sound alaska tree ring studies at 13 glacier forefields in western prince william sound show little ice age glacial fluctuations were strongly synchronous on decadal timescales cross dated glacially overrun trees at eight sites indicate ice margins advanced in the early late twelfth through thirteenth centuries and middle seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries little ice age tree ring dates of 22 moraines at 13 glaciers show two main periods of stabilization the earlier of these in the first decades of the eighteenth century overlaps with the second period of glaciers overrunning trees and marks culmination of this middle little ice age expansion stabilization of moraines on nine of the study forefields in the latter part of the nineteenth century delineates a third interval of little ice age glacial advance the detailed little ice age record from land terminating glaciers in western prince william sound is consistent on a timescale of decades with four other tree ring dated glacial histories from across the northern gulf of alaska this coastal northeastern pacific glacial record reveals the structure of the little ice age in the region and provides a strong basis for comparison with other proxy climate records spanning the past 1000 years

tonalite sill emplacement at an oblique plate boundary northeastern margin of the bohemian massif abstract a tonalitic sill has been examined at the variscan transpressive boundary of the lugian and silesian plates at the ne margin of the bohemian massif a structural petrological and geochronological study reveals that it was emplaced syn tectonically with major ductile shearing in lower crustal rocks magmatic and pre rheological critical melt percentage rcmp fabrics are concordant with the hanging wall structures but discordant with those of the footwall the ams study shows the predominance of flattening strain at the margins and plane strain fabrics in the core numerical modelling of ams fabrics is in good agreement with the hypothesis of magma flow and deformation in oblique transpression a tectonic model was developed explaining emplacement and syn tectonic deformation of progressively cooled tonalitic intrusion

on the probability of mistaking an earthquake for an explosion using the simplicity of p abstract the observation that p waves from an earthquake are generally more complex than those from an underground explosion was first noted in the 1960s this difference in p wave character may still be the only way of identifying small earthquakes close to the detection threshold of a given station network however there are certain earthquakes that produce simple seismograms the frequency at which such earthquakes are mistaken for explosions using the complexity criterion is known as the false alarm rate a simple seismogram can be defined as having only one large amplitude phase that can be caused by several mechanisms we examine the proportion of simple seismograms produced by a randomly oriented double couple source buried in three different crustal structures observed at a single station at a range of epicentral distances the model predicts that if the hypocenter of a small earthquake near the detection threshold is in a region with thick sediments then the false alarm rate at a single station can be as high as 50 in the teleseismic distance range 30 to 90 the results suggest that the false alarm rate is minimized if 1 array stations are used 2 the station is at a large epicentral distance 3 the source region structure has few layers or 4 the disturbance is recorded at more than one station

latest pleistocene and holocene glacier fluctuations in western canada we summarize evidence of the latest pleistocene and holocene glacier fluctuations in the canadian cordillera our review focuses primarily on studies completed after 1988 when the first comprehensive review of such evidence was published the cordilleran ice sheet reached its maximum extent about 16 ka and then rapidly decayed some lobes of the ice sheet valley glaciers and cirque glaciers advanced one or more times between 15 and 11 ka by 11 ka or soon thereafter glacier cover in the cordillera was no more extensive than at the end of the 20th century glaciers were least extensive between 11 and 7 ka a general expansion of glaciers began as early as 8 4 ka when glaciers overrode forests in the southern coast mountains it culminated with the climactic advances of the little ice age holocene glacier expansion was not continuous but rather was punctuated by advances and retreats on a variety of timescales radiocarbon ages of wood collected from glacier forefields reveal six major periods of glacier advance 8 59 8 18 7 36 6 45 4 40 3 97 3 54 2 77 1 71 1 30 ka and the past millennium tree ring and lichenometric dating shows that glaciers began their little ice age advances as early as the 11th century and reached their maximum holocene positions during the early 18th or mid 19th century our data confirm a previously suggested pattern of episodic but successively greater holocene glacier expansion from the early holocene to the climactic advances of the little ice age presumably driven by decreasing summer insolation throughout the holocene proxy climate records indicate that glaciers advanced during the little ice age in response to cold conditions that coincided with times of sunspot minima priority research required to further advance our understanding of late pleistocene and holocene glaciation in western canada includes constraining the age of late pleistocene moraines in northern british columbia and yukon territory expanding the use of cosmogenic surface exposure dating techniques using multi proxy paleoclimate approaches and directing more of the research effort to the northern canadian cordillera

tree ring derived little ice age temperature trends from the central british columbia coast mountains canada abstract most glaciers in the british columbia coast mountains reached their maximum holocene extent during the little ice age early and late little ice age intervals of expansion and retreat fluctuations describe a mass balance response to changing climates although existing dendroclimatic records provide insights into these climatic fluctuations over the last 400 yr their short durations prohibit evaluation of early little ice age climate variability to extend the duration of these records submerged coarse woody debris salvaged from a high elevation lake was cross dated to living chronologies the resulting chronology provides the opportunity to reconstruct a regional june july air temperature anomaly record extending from ad 1225 to 2010 the reconstruction shows that the intervals ad 1350 1420 1475 1550 1625 1700 and 1830 1940 characterized distinct periods of below average june july temperature followed by periods of above average temperature our reconstruction provides the first annually resolved insights into high elevation climates spanning the little ice age in this region and indicates that little ice age moraine stabilization corresponds to persistent intervals of warmer than average temperatures we conclude that coarse woody debris submerged in high elevation lakes has considerable potential for developing lengthy proxy climate records and we recommend that researchers focus attention on this largely ignored paleoclimatic archive

pre little ice age glacier fluctuations in garibaldi provincial park coast mountains british columbia canada holocene glacier fluctuations prior to the little ice age in garibaldi provincial park in the british columbia coast mountains were reconstructed from geomorphic mapping and radiocarbon ages on 37 samples of growth position and detrital wood from glacier forefields glaciers in garibaldi park were smaller than at present in the early holocene although some evidence exists for minor short lived advances at this time the first well documented advance dates to 7700 7300 14c yr bp subsequent advances date to 6400 5100 4300 4100 2900 and 1600 1100 14c yr bp some glaciers approached their maximum holocene limits several times during the past 10 000 years periods of advance in garibaldi park are broadly synchronous with advances elsewhere in the canadian cordillera suggesting a common climatic cause the garibaldi park glacier record is also broadly synchronous with the record of holocene sunspot numbers supporting previous research that suggests solar activity may be an important climate forcing mec

little ice age proxy glacier mass balance records reconstructed from tree rings in the mt waddington area british columbia coast mountains canada the intention of this research was to explore whether dendroclimatological relationships could be used to reconstruct long term proxy records of little ice age glacier mass balance changes in the southern coast mountains of british columbia tree ring width chronologies from the mt waddington area were used in concert with historical glacier records to construct models spanning the past 450 years the approach was to build models that were based on derived relationships between tree ring growth and glacier mass balance 1 warmer temperatures in the summer positively influence tree growth but are detrimental to glacier health 2 colder temperatures during the winter and deeper snowpack have a negative impact on tree growth whereas they are related to greater accumulation on the glacier during the winter season stepwise regression analyses were applied to tree ring chronologies to predict glacier mass balance at local and regional scales the models of net annual balance for the region regional data set show that periods of positive mass balance occurred in the ad 1750s 1820s to 1830s and 1970s peaks of winter balance correspond closely to these periods showing a sharp drop in winter mass balance towards the end of the nineteenth century wavelet analyses suggest that glacial mass balance regimes in the region respond synchronously to pacific ocean circulation systems such as the el nino southern oscillation and the pacific decadal oscillation

holocene glacier activity in the british columbia coast mountains canada abstract the coast mountains flank the pacific ocean in western british columbia canada subdivided into the southern pacific ranges central kitimat ranges and northern boundary ranges the majority of large glaciers and icefields are located in the boundary and pacific ranges prior descriptions of the holocene glacial history of this region indicate the holocene was characterized by repeated episodes of ice expansion and retreat recent site specific investigations augment our understanding of the regional character and duration of these events in this paper previously reported and new radiocarbon evidence is integrated to provide an updated regional assessment the earliest evidence of glacier expansion in the coast mountains comes from the boundary ranges at 8 9 and 7 8 ka and in the pacific ranges at 8 5 8 2 ka with the latter advance corresponding to an interval of rapid global climate deterioration although generally warm and dry climates from 7 3 to 5 3 ka likely limited the size of glaciers in the region there is radiocarbon evidence for advances over the interval from 7 3 to 6 0 and at 5 4 5 3 ka in the pacific ranges following these advances glaciers in the pacific ranges expanded down valley at 4 8 4 6 4 4 4 0 3 5 2 6 1 4 1 2 and 0 8 0 4 ka while glaciers in boundary ranges were advancing at 4 1 4 0 3 7 3 4 3 1 2 8 2 3 1 7 1 1 and 0 8 0 4 ka after 0 4 ka it appears that most glaciers in the coast mountains continued to expand to attain their maximum holocene extents by the early 18th to late 19th centuries this enhanced record of holocene glacier activity highlights the temporal synchrony in the coast mountains individual expansion events in the mid to late holocene broadly correspond to intervals of regional glacier activity reported in the canadian rocky mountains in alaska and on high elevation volcanic peaks in washington state

little ice age glacial activity in strathcona provincial park vancouver island british columbia canada dendroglaciological and lichenometric techniques are used to establish the little ice age lia history of two glaciers colonel foster and septimus in strathcona provincial park vancouver island british columbia our lichenometric investigations were preceded by the development of a locally calibrated rhizocarpon geographicum growth curve 1708 1998 a d documentation of a 3 4 year ecesis interval for both trees and lichen greatly reduces one of the main uncertainties in using geobotanical methods for dating lia landforms the moraine dates provided therefore give a good approximation of the shift in climate conditions that lead to the retreat of the glaciers and subsequent moraine stabilization geobotanical evidence records three synchronous episodes of lia moraine deposition at both glaciers two prominent moraines at each site are dated to the early 1700s and late 1800s with a third smaller moraine dated to the mid 1930s moraines deposited prior to 1397 a d were also recorded at colonel foster glacier however precise dating of these moraines was not possible the moraine records from strathcona provincial park suggest two possible modes of glacier response i synchronous responses to larger scale climatic forcing and ii asynchronous responses to local factors such as microclimate topography and glacier geometry the vancouver island lia record was evaluated in the context of lia results from the pacific north american pna cordillera it compares well with regional moraine records from coastal british columbia washington alaska and the canadian rocky mountains suggesting a regional response of pna glaciers to climate change associated with the lia

neoglacial history of the coast mountains near bella coola british columbia the maximum holocene extent of glaciers in the study area is marked by late neoglacial little ice age terminal moraines moraine stratigraphy and 14c dates from a small number of sites suggest that glacier advance almost as extensive as that of the late neoglacial occurred about 2500 14c years bp and that late neoglacial advance began well before 770 14c years bp or the thirteenth century a d glacier termini then stood close to the position of the climax moraines for several centuries dates of stabilization of end moraines at 16 glaciers were determined by dendrochronology with tree ring counts corrected for sampling errors and ecesis most terminal moraines date from 1860 to 1900 many recessional moraines were formed between 1900 and 1940 coincident with a regionally documented phase of cooler and wetter climate the proposed chronology is similar to results from elsewhere in the canadian cordillera

expansion of alpine glaciers in pacific north america in the first millennium a d radiocarbon ages and lichen dated moraines from 17 glaciers in coastal and near coastal british columbia and alaska document a widespread glacier advance during the first millennium a d glaciers at several sites began advancing ca a d 200 300 based on radiocarbon dated overridden forests the advance is centered on a d 400 700 when glaciers along an 2000 km transect of the pacific north american cordillera overrode forests impounded lakes and deposited moraines the synchroneity of this glacier ad vance and inferred cooling over a large area suggest a regional climate forcing and to gether with other proxy evidence for late holocene environmental change during the me dieval warm period and little ice age provide support for millennial scale climate variability in the north pacific region

the little ice age in the canadian rockies abstract this paper reviews the evidence and history of glacier fluctuations during the little ice age lia in the canadian rockies episodes of synchronous glacier advance occurred in the 12th 13th early 18th and throughout the 19th centuries regional ice cover was probably greatest in the mid 19th century although in places the early 18th century advance was more extensive glaciers have lost over 25 of their area in the 20th century selective preservation of the glacier record furnishes an incomplete chronology of events through the 14th 17th centuries in contrast varve sequences provide continuous annually resolved records of sediments for at least the last millennium in some highly glacierized catchments such records have been used to infer glacier fluctuations evaluation of recent proxy climate reconstructions derived from tree rings provides independent evidence of climate fluctuations over the last millennium most regional glacier advances follow periods of reduced summer temperatures reconstructed from tree rings particularly ca 1190 1250 1280 1340 1690s and the 1800s reconstructed periods of higher precipitation at banff alberta since 1500 are 1515 1550 1585 1610 1660 1680 and the 1880s glacier advances in the early 1700s the late 1800s and in places the 1950 1970s reflect both increased precipitation and reduced summer temperatures negative glacier mass balances from 1976 to 1995 were caused by decreased winter balances the glacier fluctuation record does not contain a simple climate signal it is a complex response to several interacting factors that operate at different timescales evaluation of climate proxies over the last millennium indicates continuous variability at several superimposed timescales dominated by decade century patterns only the 19th century shows a long interval of sustained cold summers this suggests that simplistic concepts of climate over this period should be abandoned and replaced with more realistic records based on continuous proxy data series the use of the term lia should be restricted to describing a period of extended glacier cover rather than being used to define a period with specific climate conditions

nomenclature and resolution in holocene glacial chronologies most quaternary research in canada during the first half of the twentieth century focused on pleistocene glaciation given the dramatic shifts in climate during the pleistocene it is not surprising that the holocene was viewed as a time of benign climate holocene climate variability was first recognized around the middle of the century when paleoecologists found evidence that the early part of the epoch was warmer and drier than the later part in 1970s and 1980s another generation of geologists geographers and botanists began to recognize more complexity in holocene climate and vegetation in western canada several millennial scale glacier advances postdating the early holocene warm interval were defined including the garibaldi phase 6 9 5 6 ka the tiedemann peyto advance 3 5 1 9 ka and the little ice age ad 1200 1900 subsequently application of dendrochronological techniques and stratigraphic studies in glacier forefields showed that the little ice age was itself more complex than previously thought during that 700 year period glaciers repeatedly advanced and retreated in response to climatic variability on time scales ranging from centuries to decades recent work shows that the glacier record of the garibaldi phase and the tiedemann and peyto advances are similar in complexity to the little ice age with multiple advances of glaciers separated by intervals of more restricted ice cover researchers have also identified other times in the holocene when glaciers expanded from restricted positions 8 20 4 90 3 80 and 1 70 1 40 ka continued research undoubtedly will reveal additional complexities but with what is currently known the appropriateness of terms such as tiedemann advance peyto advance and little ice age can be questioned only short periods of time separate these episodes as currently defined and it seems likely that intervals of restricted glacier cover within each of these millennial length intervals are just as long as the intervals separating them

neoglacial glacier fluctuations in the canadian rockies abstract the little ice age was the most extensive neoglacial glacier advance in the canadian rockies evidence of earlier less extensive neoglacial glacier advances is based on wood recovered from several glacier forefields wood flushed out of athabasca glacier 7550 8230 yr b p three dates and dome glacier 6120 6380 yr b p two dates indicates that forests occurred upvalley of present glacier termini during the hypsithermal detrital logs from peyto 14 dates saskatchewan 3 dates robson 3 dates and yoho 1 date glaciers plus in situ slumps at peyto and robson glaciers have yielded 14 c dates between 2490 and 3300 yr b p 12 dates between 2800 and 2990 this wood is derived from sources at or upvalley from present glacier termini and represents forests overridden by glaciers between ca 3100 and 2500 yr b p treeline was higher than present immediately prior to this advance this advance which did not extend beyond the little ice age maximum position is designated the peyto advance and correlated with the tiedemann advance in western british columbia earliest little ice age advances at peyto and robson glaciers are dated ca 800 600 yr b p at positions ca 500 m upvalley from little ice age limits

an 825 year long varve record from lillooet lake british columbia and its potential as a flood proxy abstract lillooet river in southwest british columbia has produced damaging floods many times during the past century the floods are recorded in lillooet lake into which the river flows as anomalously thick clastic varves in order to determine whether an 825 year long varve record obtained from 12 percussion and vibracores can be used as flood proxy we compare river discharge records dating back to 1914 to the thickness of the varves deposited during the same time period correlations between varve thickness and a variety of historical discharge measures are low to moderate for the periods 1914 2004 r 2 0 37 and 1914 1945 r 2 0 40 but higher for the period 1946 2004 r 2 0 55 the best correlation r 2 0 55 is between maximum fall discharge and varve thickness during the most recent period 1946 2004 varve thickness for the earlier period of hydrometric data 1914 1946 which is a time of rapid glacier retreat and warmer temperatures in british columbia is best explained with a discharge proxy combining nival runoff glacier runoff and maximum fall discharge landslides glacier fluctuations river dyking artificial lowering of lillooet lake as well as lag effects of storms are responsible for the considerable unexplained variance in the relation between discharge measures and varve thickness over the historic period the cores contain many anomalously thick varves some of which we attribute to previously dated prehistoric landslides in the watershed or to local landslides into the lake we conclude that many historic and prehistoric floods are faithfully recorded as anomalously thick clastic varves but that other processes operating in the watershed preclude using this record as a reliable paleo flood proxy

early holocene glacier advance southern coast mountains british columbia canada abstract terrestrial and lake sediment records from several sites in the southern coast mountains british columbia provide evidence for an advance of alpine glaciers during the early holocene silty intervals within organic sediments recovered from two proglacial lakes are bracketed by ams 14 c dated terrestrial macrofossils and mazama tephra to 8780 6730 and 7940 6730 14 c yr bp 10 150 7510 and 8990 7510 cal yr bp radiocarbon ages ranging from 7720 to 7380 14 c yr bp 8630 8020 cal yr bp were obtained from detrital wood in recently deglaciated forefields of sphinx and sentinel glaciers these data together with previously published data from proglacial lakes in the canadian rockies imply that glaciers in western canada advanced during the early holocene the advance coincides with the well documented 8200 yr cold event identified in climate proxy data sets in the north atlantic region and elsewhere

extending the place glacier mass balance record to ad 1585 using tree rings and wood density abstract recognizing that climate influences both annual tree ring growth and glacier mass balance changes in the mass balance of place glacier british columbia were documented from increment core records annually resolved ring width rw maximum mxd and mean density md chronologies were developed from engelmann spruce and douglas fir trees sampled at sites within the surrounding region a snowpack record dating to ad 1730 was reconstructed using a multivariate regression of spruce md and fir rw chronologies spruce mxd and rw chronologies were used to reconstruct winter mass balance bw for place glacier to ad 1585 summer mass balance bs was reconstructed using the rw chronology from spruce and net balance was calculated from bw and bs the reconstructions provide insight into the changes that snowpack and mass balance have undergone in the last 400 years as well as identifying relationships to air temperature and circulation indices in southern british columbia these changes are consistent with other regional mass balance reconstructions and indicate that the persistent weather systems characterizing large scale climate forcing mechanisms play a significant glaciological role in this region a comparison to dated moraine surfaces in the surrounding region substantiates that the mass balance shifts recorded in the proxy data are evident in the response of glaciers throughout the region

magnitude and timing of downstream channel aggradation and degradation in response to a dome building eruption at mount hood oregon a dome building eruption at mount hood oregon starting in a d 1780 and lasting until ca 1793 produced dome collapse lithic pyroclastic flows that triggered lahars and intermittently fed 10 8 m 3 of coarse volcaniclastic sediment to sediment reservoirs in headwater canyons of the sandy river mobilization of dominantly sandy sediment from these reservoirs by lahars and seasonal floods initiated downstream migration of a sediment wave that resulted in a profound cycle of aggradation and degradation in the lowermost reach of the river depositional reach 61 87 km from the source stratigraphic and sedimentologic relations in the alluvial fill together with dendrochronologic dating of degradation terraces demonstrate that 1 channel aggradation in response to sediment loading in the headwater canyons raised the river bed in this reach at least 23 m in a decade or less 2 the transition from aggradation to degradation in the upper part of this reach roughly coincided with the end of the dome building eruption 3 fluvial sediment transport and deposition augmented by one lahar achieved a minimum average aggradation rate of 2 m yr 4 the degradation phase of the cycle was more prolonged than the aggradation phase requiring more than half a century for the river to reach its present bed elevation and 5 the present longitudinal profile of the sandy river in this reach is at least 3 m above the pre eruption profile the pattern and rate of channel response and recovery in the sandy river following heavy sediment loading resemble those of other rivers similarly subjected to very large sediment inputs the magnitude of channel aggradation in the lower sandy river greater than that achieved at other volcanoes following much larger eruptions was likely enhanced by lateral confinement of the channel within a narrow incised valley a combination of at least one lahar and winter floods from frequent moderate magnitude rainstorms and infrequent very large storms was responsible for flushing large volumes of sediment to the depositional reach these conditions permitted a sedimentation response in the sandy river that approached the magnitude of channel aggradation resulting elsewhere from large explosive eruptions and high intensity rainfall regimes despite the fact that the sandy river aggradation was in response to an unremarkable dome building eruption in a climate dominated by low to moderate rainfall intensities

late holocene glacier fluctuations in the wrangell mountains alaska four intervals of late holocene glacier advance are recognized from study of nine valley glaciers in the wrangell and westernmost st elias mountains of alaska the oldest glacial advance is recognized at the nabesna and barnard glaciers where five radiocarbon ages suggest advance as early as 2700 cal calibrated yr b p two additional radiocarbon dated advances are centered on cal yr a d 300 and the beginning of the little ice age about a d 1200 the best documented little ice age advances occurred during the mid 1600s through the 1800s and are recognized at all nine glaciers these latter advances are dated by tree rings of trees overrun by glaciers in five glacier valley by 17 radiocarbon dates and by tree ring and lichen ages from 20 moraines that were deposited during the culmination of these advances the glacial chronology is broadly similar to chronologies from adjoining alaskan mountain ranges at both coastal and interior sites for the past 3000 yr there are however differences in timing of advances during the first millennium a d the glacial history for the past 2000 yr is also consistent with temperature sensitive proxy records from interior alaska and yukon territory

holocene history of hubbard glacier in yakutat bay and russell fiord southern alaska stratigraphic and geomorphic data defined by radiocarbon ages tree ring dates and historical observations provide evidence of three major holocene expansions of hubbard glacier early in each advance the hubbard glacier margin blocked russell fiord to create russell lake raising base level and causing stream beds and fan deltas throughout the russell drainage basin to aggrade each hubbard glacier expansion continued with an ice lobe advancing through disenchantment and yakutat bays in the west and an eastern lobe advancing into russell fiord the earlier two holocene expansions were respectively under way at 7690 and 5600 calibrated yr b p and each advance culminated more than 1 k y later the late holocene advance was under way by 3100 yr ago and reached 13 km farther south in russell fiord than the preceding two expansions late holocene deglaciation of yakutat and disenchantment bays was complete before a d 1791 nunatak glacier flowing from neves east of russell fiord became the primary ice source to the russell fiord lobe at or before this date ice retreat from the southern end of russell fiord began in the late eighteenth century and the penultimate russell lake drained ca a d 1860 the relatively slow advances and more rapid retreats of hubbard glacier are consistent with the model of the iceberg calving glacier cycle hubbard glacier is currently advancing and will likely reestablish russell lake in the near future affecting local fisheries however glacier lobes are unlikely to reach the area of the town of yakutat built on late holocene glacial deposits in the next 1 k y