Out-of-phase Late Pleistocene glacial maxima in the Western Alps reflect past changes in North Atlantic atmospheric circulation

• Published in: Geology
• Main Authors: Gribenski, Natacha, Valla, Pierre, G, Preusser, Frank, Roattino, Thibault, Crouzet, Christian, Buoncristiani, Jean-François
• Other Authors: Institut für Geologie Bern, Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Gustave Eiffel-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Freiburg, Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03388270; https://hal.science/hal-03388270/document; https://hal.science/hal-03388270/file/Gribenski2021Geology_accepted.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1130/G48688.1

International audience Abstract Paleoglacier reconstructions in the northern and southern forelands of the European Alps indicate a synchronous Late Pleistocene glacial maximum during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2, in phase with global ice volume records. However, strong controversy remains for the western foreland, where scarce and indirect dating as well as modeling studies suggest glacial maxima out of phase with the rest of the Alps. New luminescence dating brings the first direct Late Pleistocene glacial chronology for the western Alpine foreland and reveals two major glacier advances of similar maximum extent, at ca. 75–60 and ca. 40–30 ka, coinciding with MIS 4 and late MIS 3. We propose that asynchrony in glacial maxima between the western and the northern and southern Alpine forelands results from a progressive spatial reorganization of the atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic in response to Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet fluctuations. While such a feedback mechanism has emerged from general circulation models, our Late Pleistocene paleoglacial reconstruction permits tracking of the spatiotemporal evolution of moisture advection patterns over Western Europe.