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Glacial Sediment–Landform Associations and Paleoclimate during the Last Glaciation, Strait of Magellan, Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Douglas I. Benn  and
C. M. Clapperton
Douglas I. Benn
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St. Andrews, Fife, KY 16 9ST, United Kingdom
C. M. Clapperton
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, United Kingdom
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Abstract

Glacial sediments and landforms preserved beside the Strait of Magellan record repeated advances of an outlet of the Patagonian Icefield during and following the last glacial maximum (LGM; ∼25,000–14,000 14C yr B.P.). Ice-marginal landform assemblages consist of thrust moraine complexes, kame and kettle topography, and lateral meltwater channels, very similar to those found at the margins of modern subpolar glaciers. Taken together with other forms of paleoenvironmental evidence, the landform assemblages show that, during the LGM and late-glacial time, permafrost occurred near sea level in southernmost South America. This finding implies that mean annual temperatures were ∼7–8°C lower than at present, somewhat lower than those reconstructed by current glacier–climatic models. Comparison with precipitation–temperature relationships for modern glaciers suggests, in addition, that precipitation levels were lower than today. Reduced glacial-age precipitation may have resulted from a precipitation shadow induced by the Patagonian Icefield, an equatorward migration of the average position of westerly cyclonic storm tracks in the southern midlatitudes, or both these factors.

Keywords

South AmericaChilepaleoclimateglacier reconstructionlast glacial maximum
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , July 2000 , pp. 13 - 23
Copyright
University of Washington

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