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Full-Text Articles in Glaciology

Topographic Control Of Asynchronous Glacial Advances: A Case Study From Annapurna, Nepal, Beth Pratt-Sitaula, Douglas W. Burbank, Arjun M. Heimsath, Neil F. Humphrey, Michael Oskin, Jaakko Putkonen Dec 2011

Topographic Control Of Asynchronous Glacial Advances: A Case Study From Annapurna, Nepal, Beth Pratt-Sitaula, Douglas W. Burbank, Arjun M. Heimsath, Neil F. Humphrey, Michael Oskin, Jaakko Putkonen

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Differences in the timing of glacial advances, which are commonly attributed to climatic changes, can be due to variations in valley topography. Cosmogenic 10Be dates from 24 glacial moraine boulders in 5 valleys define two age populations, late-glacial and early Holocene. Moraine ages correlate with paleoglacier valley hypsometries. Moraines in valleys with lower maximum altitudes date to the lateglacial, whereas those in valleys with higher maximum altitudes are early Holocene. Two valleys with similar equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs), but contrasting ages, are < 5 km apart and share the same aspect, such that spatial differences in climate can be excluded. A glacial mass-balance cellular automata model of these two neighboring valleys predicts that change from a cooler-drier to warmer-wetter climate (as at the Holocene onset) would lead to the glacier in the higher altitude catchment advancing, while the lower one retreats or disappears, even though the ELA only shifted by ~120 m.


Assessment Of Black Carbon In Snow And Ice From The Tibetan Plateau And Pacific Northwest, Matthew Glen Jenkins Jan 2011

Assessment Of Black Carbon In Snow And Ice From The Tibetan Plateau And Pacific Northwest, Matthew Glen Jenkins

All Master's Theses

An ice core from Mt. Geladandong, Tibetan Plateau, spanning 1853-1983, and snow samples collected over two winters from the Cascade Mountains were analyzed for concentrations of black carbon (BC) using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2). From the ice core, the high-resolution BC record displayed substantial variability, a 2-fold increase in peak concentrations from 1853-1930 to 1930-1983, and a 1.6-fold increase in average concentrations from 1853-1975 to 1975-1983. Concentrations were also higher than at two areas closer to BC sources and analyzed by the same method. In the Pacific Northwest, BC concentrations varied seasonally and annually, with the highest concentrations …