Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere
International audience The relative timing of late Quaternary glacial advances in mid-latitude (40?55° S) mountain belts of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) has become a critical focus in the debate on global climate teleconnections. On the basis of glacial data from New Zealand and southern South Ameri...
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ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:hal-00298119v1 2023-11-12T04:04:48+01:00 Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere Rother, H. Shulmeister, J. Department of Geological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch 2005-12-01 https://hal.science/hal-00298119 https://hal.science/hal-00298119/document https://hal.science/hal-00298119/file/cpd-1-231-2005.pdf en eng HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union (EGU) hal-00298119 https://hal.science/hal-00298119 https://hal.science/hal-00298119/document https://hal.science/hal-00298119/file/cpd-1-231-2005.pdf info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 1814-9340 EISSN: 1814-9359 Climate of the Past Discussions https://hal.science/hal-00298119 Climate of the Past Discussions, 2005, 1 (3), pp.231-253 [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2005 ftccsdartic 2023-10-21T23:15:24Z International audience The relative timing of late Quaternary glacial advances in mid-latitude (40?55° S) mountain belts of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) has become a critical focus in the debate on global climate teleconnections. On the basis of glacial data from New Zealand and southern South America it has been argued that interhemispheric synchrony or asynchrony of Quaternary glacial events is due to Northern Hemisphere (NH) forcing of SH climate through either the ocean or atmosphere systems. Here we present a glacial snow-mass balance model that demonstrates that large scale glacial advances in the temperate and hyperhumid Southern Alps of New Zealand can be generated with very little thermal forcing. This is because the rapid conversion of precipitation from rainfall to snowfall drives massive ice accumulation at small thermal changes (1?4°C). Our model is consistent with recent paleo-environmental reconstructions showing that glacial advances in New Zealand during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT) occurred under very moderate cooling. We suggest that such moderate cooling could be generated by changes in synoptic climatology, specifically through enhanced regional flow of moist westerly air masses. Our results imply that NH climate forcing may not have been the exclusive driver of Quaternary glaciations in New Zealand and that synoptic style climate variations are a better explanation for at least some Late Quaternary glacial events, in particular during the LGIT (e.g. Younger Dryas and/or Antarctic Cold Reversal). Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Antarctic New Zealand |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
spellingShingle |
[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences Rother, H. Shulmeister, J. Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere |
topic_facet |
[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces environment [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences |
description |
International audience The relative timing of late Quaternary glacial advances in mid-latitude (40?55° S) mountain belts of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) has become a critical focus in the debate on global climate teleconnections. On the basis of glacial data from New Zealand and southern South America it has been argued that interhemispheric synchrony or asynchrony of Quaternary glacial events is due to Northern Hemisphere (NH) forcing of SH climate through either the ocean or atmosphere systems. Here we present a glacial snow-mass balance model that demonstrates that large scale glacial advances in the temperate and hyperhumid Southern Alps of New Zealand can be generated with very little thermal forcing. This is because the rapid conversion of precipitation from rainfall to snowfall drives massive ice accumulation at small thermal changes (1?4°C). Our model is consistent with recent paleo-environmental reconstructions showing that glacial advances in New Zealand during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT) occurred under very moderate cooling. We suggest that such moderate cooling could be generated by changes in synoptic climatology, specifically through enhanced regional flow of moist westerly air masses. Our results imply that NH climate forcing may not have been the exclusive driver of Quaternary glaciations in New Zealand and that synoptic style climate variations are a better explanation for at least some Late Quaternary glacial events, in particular during the LGIT (e.g. Younger Dryas and/or Antarctic Cold Reversal). |
author2 |
Department of Geological Sciences University of Canterbury Christchurch |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rother, H. Shulmeister, J. |
author_facet |
Rother, H. Shulmeister, J. |
author_sort |
Rother, H. |
title |
Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere |
title_short |
Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere |
title_full |
Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere |
title_fullStr |
Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere |
title_full_unstemmed |
Synoptic climate change as a driver of late Quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere |
title_sort |
synoptic climate change as a driver of late quaternary glaciations in the mid-latitudes of the southern hemisphere |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-00298119 https://hal.science/hal-00298119/document https://hal.science/hal-00298119/file/cpd-1-231-2005.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic New Zealand |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic New Zealand |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
ISSN: 1814-9340 EISSN: 1814-9359 Climate of the Past Discussions https://hal.science/hal-00298119 Climate of the Past Discussions, 2005, 1 (3), pp.231-253 |
op_relation |
hal-00298119 https://hal.science/hal-00298119 https://hal.science/hal-00298119/document https://hal.science/hal-00298119/file/cpd-1-231-2005.pdf |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
_version_ |
1782341771314855936 |