Revised palaeoclimatic significance of Mueller Glacier moraines,Southern Alps,New Zealand |
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| Authors: | Natalya V Reznichenko Tim R H Davies Stefan Winkler |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK;2. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand |
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| Abstract: | A sequence of Late Holocene moraines on the foreland of the Mueller Glacier, Southern Alps, New Zealand, forms part of a local moraine‐age database used to establish a regional glacier chronology and subsequently to investigate potential intra‐hemispheric and global climate forcing mechanisms. We present new sedimentological and geomorphological evidence that a set of these moraine ridges, previously considered to represent individual advances, constitutes a single moraine complex (the ‘Mueller Memorial Moraine’) formed by supraglacial transport of a large volume of landslide debris to the glacier terminus. Because a moraine formed in this way is not necessarily associated with an advance triggered by a climate event, we question the palaeoclimatic significance of the Mueller Memorial Moraine, as well as that of other moraines in comparable settings. Our findings suggest that the mode of formation and glacio‐dynamical context of moraines whose ages contribute to existing palaeoclimate reconstructions need to be re‐examined in order to assess the reliability of these reconstructions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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| Keywords: | supraglacial rock avalanches moraine formation palaeoclimate reconstructions glacial chronology Southern Alps of New Zealand |
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