Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada
Over the last century, northwestern Canada experienced some of the highest rates of tropospheric warming globally, which caused glaciers in the region to rapidly retreat. Our study seeks to extend the record of glacier fluctuations and assess climate drivers prior to the instrumental record in the M...
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Copernicus Publications
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 https://doaj.org/article/65934c3ad0be4edcb52a531b2f009fe2 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:65934c3ad0be4edcb52a531b2f009fe2 2023-11-12T04:17:34+01:00 Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada A. C. Hawkins B. Menounos B. M. Goehring G. Osborn B. M. Pelto C. M. Darvill J. M. Schaefer 2023-10-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 https://doaj.org/article/65934c3ad0be4edcb52a531b2f009fe2 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4381/2023/tc-17-4381-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/65934c3ad0be4edcb52a531b2f009fe2 The Cryosphere, Vol 17, Pp 4381-4397 (2023) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 2023-10-22T00:41:24Z Over the last century, northwestern Canada experienced some of the highest rates of tropospheric warming globally, which caused glaciers in the region to rapidly retreat. Our study seeks to extend the record of glacier fluctuations and assess climate drivers prior to the instrumental record in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountains of northwestern Canada. We collected 27 10 Be surface exposure ages across nine cirque and valley glacier moraines to constrain the timing of their emplacement. Cirque and valley glaciers in this region reached their greatest Holocene extents in the latter half of the Little Ice Age (1600–1850 CE). Four erratic boulders, 10–250 m distal from late Holocene moraines, yielded 10 Be exposure ages of 10.9–11.6 ka, demonstrating that by ca. 11 ka, alpine glaciers were no more extensive than during the last several hundred years. Estimated temperature change obtained through reconstruction of equilibrium line altitudes shows that since ca. 1850 CE, mean annual temperatures have risen 0.2–2.3 ∘ C. We use our glacier chronology and the Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM) to estimate that from 1000 CE, glaciers in this region reached a maximum total volume of 34–38 km 3 between 1765 and 1855 CE and had lost nearly half their ice volume by 2019 CE. OGGM was unable to produce modeled glacier lengths that match the timing or magnitude of the maximum glacier extent indicated by the 10 Be chronology. However, when applied to the entire Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain region, past millennium OGGM simulations using the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) and the Community Climate System Model 4 (CCSM4) yield late Holocene glacier volume change temporally consistent with our moraine and remote sensing record, while the Meteorological Research Institute Earth System Model 2 (MRI-ESM2) and the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate (MIROC) fail to produce modeled glacier change consistent with our glacier chronology. Finally, OGGM forced by future climate projections under varying ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier* The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada Selwyn ENVELOPE(-138.287,-138.287,62.799,62.799) The Cryosphere 17 10 4381 4397 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 A. C. Hawkins B. Menounos B. M. Goehring G. Osborn B. M. Pelto C. M. Darvill J. M. Schaefer Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
Over the last century, northwestern Canada experienced some of the highest rates of tropospheric warming globally, which caused glaciers in the region to rapidly retreat. Our study seeks to extend the record of glacier fluctuations and assess climate drivers prior to the instrumental record in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountains of northwestern Canada. We collected 27 10 Be surface exposure ages across nine cirque and valley glacier moraines to constrain the timing of their emplacement. Cirque and valley glaciers in this region reached their greatest Holocene extents in the latter half of the Little Ice Age (1600–1850 CE). Four erratic boulders, 10–250 m distal from late Holocene moraines, yielded 10 Be exposure ages of 10.9–11.6 ka, demonstrating that by ca. 11 ka, alpine glaciers were no more extensive than during the last several hundred years. Estimated temperature change obtained through reconstruction of equilibrium line altitudes shows that since ca. 1850 CE, mean annual temperatures have risen 0.2–2.3 ∘ C. We use our glacier chronology and the Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM) to estimate that from 1000 CE, glaciers in this region reached a maximum total volume of 34–38 km 3 between 1765 and 1855 CE and had lost nearly half their ice volume by 2019 CE. OGGM was unable to produce modeled glacier lengths that match the timing or magnitude of the maximum glacier extent indicated by the 10 Be chronology. However, when applied to the entire Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain region, past millennium OGGM simulations using the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM) and the Community Climate System Model 4 (CCSM4) yield late Holocene glacier volume change temporally consistent with our moraine and remote sensing record, while the Meteorological Research Institute Earth System Model 2 (MRI-ESM2) and the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate (MIROC) fail to produce modeled glacier change consistent with our glacier chronology. Finally, OGGM forced by future climate projections under varying ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. C. Hawkins B. Menounos B. M. Goehring G. Osborn B. M. Pelto C. M. Darvill J. M. Schaefer |
author_facet |
A. C. Hawkins B. Menounos B. M. Goehring G. Osborn B. M. Pelto C. M. Darvill J. M. Schaefer |
author_sort |
A. C. Hawkins |
title |
Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada |
title_short |
Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada |
title_full |
Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada |
title_fullStr |
Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Late Holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the Mackenzie and Selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern Canada |
title_sort |
late holocene glacier and climate fluctuations in the mackenzie and selwyn mountain ranges, northwestern canada |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 https://doaj.org/article/65934c3ad0be4edcb52a531b2f009fe2 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-138.287,-138.287,62.799,62.799) |
geographic |
Canada Selwyn |
geographic_facet |
Canada Selwyn |
genre |
glacier* The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
glacier* The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 17, Pp 4381-4397 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/4381/2023/tc-17-4381-2023.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/65934c3ad0be4edcb52a531b2f009fe2 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4381-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
4381 |
op_container_end_page |
4397 |
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1782334396450209792 |