Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:21:29.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Glacial Lake Wright, a high-level Antarctic lake during the LGM and early Holocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2004

B.L. Hall ,
G.H. Denton  and
B. Overturf
B.L. Hall
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA
G.H. Denton
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
B. Overturf
Affiliation:
Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We report evidence of a large proglacial lake (Glacial Lake Wright) that existed in Wright Valley in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of Antarctica at the last glacial maximum (LGM) and in the early Holocene. At its highstands, Glacial Lake Wright would have stretched 50 km and covered c. 210 km2. Chronology for lake-level changes comes from 30 AMS radiocarbon dates of lacustrine algae preserved in deltas, shorelines, and glaciolacustrine deposits that extend up to 480 m above present-day lakes. Emerging evidence suggests that Glacial Lake Wright was only one of a series of large lakes to occupy the McMurdo Dry Valleys and the valleys fronting the Royal Society Range at the LGM. Although the cause of such high lake levels is not well understood, it is believed to relate to cool, dry conditions which produced fewer clouds, less snowfall, and greater amounts of absorbed radiation, leading to increased meltwater production.

Keywords

AntarcticaMcMurdo Dry ValleyslakesLast Glacial Maximum
Type
Papers—Earth Sciences and Glaciology
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 53 - 60
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)