Interhemispheric Correlation of Late Pleistocene Glacial Events

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Lowell, T. V., Heusser, C. J., Andersen, B. G., Moreno, P. I., Hauser, A., Heusser, L. E., Schlüchter, C., Marchant, D. R., Denton, G. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1995
• Subjects: New Zealand; Pacific; Parkland; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.269.5230.1541; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.269.5230.1541

A radiocarbon chronology shows that piedmont glacier lobes in the Chilean Andes achieved maxima during the last glaciation at 13,900 to 14,890, 21,000, 23,060, 26,940, 29,600, and ≥33,500 carbon-14 years before present ( 14 C yr B.P.) in a cold and wet Subantarctic Parkland environment. The last glaciation ended with massive collapse of ice lobes close to 14,000 14 C yr B.P., accompanied by an influx of North Patagonian Rain Forest species. In the Southern Alps of New Zealand, additional glacial maxima are registered at 17,720 14 C yr B.P., and at the beginning of the Younger Dryas at 11,050 14 C yr B. P. These glacial maxima in mid-latitude mountains rimming the South Pacific were coeval with ice-rafting pulses in the North Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, the last termination began suddenly and simultaneously in both polar hemispheres before the resumption of the modern mode of deep-water production in the Nordic Seas. Such interhemispheric coupling implies a global atmospheric signal rather than regional climatic changes caused by North Atlantic thermohaline switches or Laurentide ice surges.