- Title
- Exposure dating and glacial reconstruction at Mt. Field, Tasmania, Australia, identifies MIS 3 and MIS 2 glacial advances and climatic variability
- Creator
- Mackintosh, A. N.; Barrows, T. T.; Colhoun, E. A.; Fifield, L. K.
- Relation
- Journal of Quaternary Science Vol. 21, Issue 4, p. 363-376
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.989
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2006
- Description
- Tasmania is important for understanding Quaternary climatic change because it is one of only three areas that experienced extensive mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere glaciation and it lies in a dominantly oceanic environment at a great distance from Northern Hemisphere ice sheet feedbacks. We applied exposure dating using ³⁶Cl to an extensive sequence of moraines from the last glacial at Mt. Field, Tasmania. Glaciers advanced at 41-44 ka during Marine oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and at 18 ka during MIS 2. Both advances occurred in response to an ELA lowering greater than 1100 m below the present-day mean summer freezing level, and a possible temperature reduction of 7-8°C. Deglaciation was rapid and complete by ca. 16 ka. The overall story emerging from studies of former Tasmanian glaciers is that the MIS 2 glaciation was of limited extent and that some glaciers were more extensive during earlier parts of the last glacial cycle.
- Subject
- Tasmania; Mt. Field; Last Glacial Maximum; exposure dating; ³⁶Cl; climatic change
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/33330
- Identifier
- uon:3199
- Identifier
- ISSN:1099-1417
- Language
- eng
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