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A 1500-year record of temperature and glacial response inferred from varved Iceberg Lake, southcentral Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael G. Loso ,
Robert S. Anderson ,
Suzanne P. Anderson  and
Paula J. Reimer
Michael G. Loso*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA
Robert S. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA
Suzanne P. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA
Paula J. Reimer
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:mloso@alaskapacific.edu (M.G. Loso).
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Abstract

We present a varve thickness chronology from glacier-dammed Iceberg Lake in the southern Alaska icefields. Radiogenic evidence confirms that laminations are annual and record continuous sediment deposition from A.D. 442 to A.D. 1998. Varve thickness is positively correlated with Northern Hemisphere temperature trends, and more strongly with a local, ∼600 yr long tree ring width chronology. Varve thickness increases in warm summers because of higher melt, runoff, and sediment transport (as expected), but also because shrinkage of the glacier dam allows shoreline regression that concentrates sediment in the smaller lake. Varve thickness provides a sensitive record of relative changes in warm season temperatures. Relative to the entire record, temperatures implied by this chronology were lowest around A.D. 600, warm between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1300, cooler between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1850, and have increased dramatically since then. Combined with stratigraphic evidence that contemporary jökulhlaups (which began in 1999) are unprecedented since at least A.D. 442, this record suggests that 20th century warming is more intense, and accompanied by more extensive glacier retreat, than the Medieval Warm Period or any other time in the last 1500 yr.

Keywords

AlaskaArctic climateClimatic historyGlacial lakesGlacial sedimentsGlaciation fluctuationsLittle Ice AgeMedieval Warm PeriodStratigraphyVarves
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , July 2006 , pp. 12 - 24
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1 Present address: Department of Geological Sciences and INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
2 Present address: Department of Geography and INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
3 Present address: 14Chrono Centre Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland BT71NN UK.

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