Glacier Fluctuations and Climatic Change: Proceedings of the Symposium on Glacier Fluctuations and Climatic Change, held in Amsterdam, 1–5 June 1987

414 Pages·1989·15.18 MB·English

by  J. N. J. Visser (auth.)

GLACIER FLUCTUATIONS AND CLIMATIC CHANGE
GLACIOLOGY AND QUATERNARY GEOLOGY
Series Editor:
C. R. BENTLEY
University ofWisconsin-Madison,
Department ofG eology and Geophysics,
Madison, Wisconsin, U.SA.
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
GLACIER FLUCTUATIONS
AND
CLIMATIC CHANGE
Proceedings of the Symposium on
Glacier Fluctuations and Climatic Change,
held in Amsterdam, 1-5 June 1987
Edited by
J. OERLEMANS
Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography,
University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Workshop on Glacier Fluctuations and Climatic Change <1987
Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Glacier fluctuations and climatic change proceedings of the
Workshop on Glacier Fluctuations and Climatic Change, held in
Amsterdam, 1-5 June 1987 ! edited by J. Oerlemans.
p. em. -- <Glaciology and quaternary geologyl
ISBN 978-90-481-4040-4 ISBN 978-94-015-7823-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-7823-3
1. Glaciers--Congresses. 2. Climatic changes--Congresses.
I. Oerlemans, J. <Johannesl, 1950- II. Title. III. Series.
OE576.W67 1987
551.3' 12--dc19 88-34142
ISBN 978-90-481-4040-4
All Rights Reserved
© 1989 by Springer Science+ Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Episodic palaeozoic glaciation in the Cape-Karoo basin, South Africa 1
J.N.J. VISSER
Quaternary glaciations and palaeoclimate of Mount Kenya, east 13
Africa
W.C. MAHANEY, R.W. BARENDREGT and W. VORTISCH
Tephrochronological studies of holocene glacier fluctuations in
south Iceland
A.J. DUGMORE
Relationship ofland terminating and fjord glaciers to holocene 57
climatic change, South Georgia, Antarctica
C.M. CLAPPERTON, D.E. SUGDEN, and M. PELTO
Glacier changes following the little ice age- a survey of the 77
international data basis and its perspectives
W. HAEBERLI, P. MULLER, P. ALEAN and H.BOSCH
A description of the United States' contribution to the world glacier 103
inventory
C.S.BROWN
Historic glacier variations in Scandinavia 109
J. BOGEN, B. WOLD and G. 0STREM
The decline of the last little ice age in high Asia compared with that
in the Alps
W.KICK
Variations of Rio Plomo glaciers, Andes Centrales Argentinas 143
J.C. LEIVA, L.E. LENZANO, G.A. CABRERA and J.A. SUAREZ
Effects of topographic and climatic controls on 19th and 20th 153
century glacier changes in the Lyngen and Bergsfjord areas,
North Norway.
W.B. WHALLEY, J.E. GORDON and A.F. GELLATLY
A historical perspective of the nineteenth century ice trade 173
R.A. SMITH
vi CONTENTS
Mass balance history of Blue Glacier, Washington, U.S.A. 183
R.L. ARMSTRONG
Mass balance and volume of South Cascade Glacier, Washington, 193
1958-1985
R.M. KRIMMEL
Field stations for glacier-climate research, West Greenland 2!J7
O.B. OLESEN and R.J. BRAITHWAITE
Calculation of glacier ablation from air temperature, West 219
Greenland
R.J.BRAITHWAITE and O.B.OLESEN
Hydrometeorological conditions, mass balance and runoff from 235
Alpine glaciers
D.N. COLLINS
On the blowing snow in Adelie Land, Eastern Antarctica 261
G. WENDLER
Altitudinal shift of the equilibrium line in Greenland calculated 281
from heat balance characteristics
W. AMBACH and M. KUHN
The evolution of the englacial temperature distribution in the 289
superimposed ice zone of a polar ice cap during a summer season
W. GREUELL and J. OERLEMANS
Energy balance calculations on and near Hintereisferner 305
(Austria) and an estimate of the effect of greenhouse warming
on ablation
W.GREUELLandJ.OERLEMANS
Energy and mass balance studies in the firn area of the 325
Hintereisferner
R. J. HARDING, N. ENTRASSER, H. ESCHER-VETTER,
A. JENKINS, G. KASER, M. KUHN, E.M. MORRIS and G. TANZER
A simple method for determining the response time of glaciers 343
T. JOHANNESSON, C.F. RAYMOND and E.D. WADDINGTON
On the response ofvalley glaciers to climatic change 353
J. OERLEMANS
Numerical modelling of Glacier d'Argentiere and its historic front 373
variations
PH. HUYBRECHTS, P. DE NOOZE and H. DECLEIR
CONTENTS vii
Historic front variations of the Rhone Glacier: simulation with an 391
ice flow model
A. STROEVEN, R.VAN DE WAL and J. OERLEMANS
The response of the equilibrium line altitude to climate 4D7
fluctuations: theory and observations
M.KUHN
PREFACE
This book forms the proceedings of an international conference on Glacier
Fluctuations and Climatic Change, held in Amsterdam, at the Royal
Netherlands Academy of Sciences, 1 - 5 June 1987. The conference was
organized by the Institute of Meteorology and Oceanography (University of
Utrecht), and endorsed by the Netherlands section of the
INQUA-commission.
The purpose of the meeting was to bring together scientists from
various disciplines that, in one way or another, study glacier fluctuations.
About 90 scientists participated in the meeting. Disciplines like geology,
palynology, geomorphology, meteorology and glaciology were represented,
and the 45 contributions gave a remarkably good overview of how many
entries there are in studying glacier fluctuations. The differences in
approach showed up clearly, leading to many lively discussions, in
particular between modellers and people working in the field. I think we
all learned a lot !
The production of this volume has taken more time than foreseen, due to
the unexpectedly large number of papers that were submitted. The review
procedure was time consuming, but has certainly contributed to the
quality of the papers. I am indebted to all reviewers for their help in this
matter.
I like to express my gratitude to the Ministry of Housing, Physical
Planning and Environment for financial support in the organization of
the conference. Further financial and administrative help was provided by
the University of Utrecht. The pleasant and efficient organization was to a
large extent due to the efforts of Marjolijn Verhoeven, Eveline Plesman
and Pieter Thijssen.
My special thanks go to Marjolijn Verhoeven, who did most of the typing
and lay-out of this book. I am also grateful to Eveline Plesman and
Christina de Jong, who assisted in the last stage of preparation.
I hope that this volume will prove to be of value to anyone studying the
fluctuations of glaciers.
Johannes Oerlemans
Utrecht, September 1988
ix
EPISODIC PALAEOZOIC GLACIATION IN THE CAPE-KAROO BASIN, SOUTH AFRICA
J.N.J. Visser
Geology Department
P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300
South Africa
ABSTRACT
Late Ordovician (Caradoc to Ashgill) glacial sediments, having a maximum
thickness of 150 m and being deposited over a period of about 12 Ma
during a low-latitude temperate glaciation, are interbedded in quartz
arenites of the Cape Supergroup. Marine sandstone and stratified
diamictite deposited during an interglacial, and soft sediment pavements
separate basal massive arenaceous diamictite from upper argillaceous
diamictite. Permo-Carboniferous (Stephanian to Asselian) glacial
deposits, having a maximum thickness of 800 m, at the base of the thick
Karoo mudrock-sandstone sequence, unconformably overlies the Cape
Supergroup and pre-Cape basement. Glacial sedimentation occurred over a
period of about 19 Ma during a high-latitude temperate glaciation. About
90 per cent of the glacial sequence consists of massive argillaceous
diamictite formed by lodgement, melt-out and debris rain processes on a
marine shelf. Two units consisting of interglacial sediments are
interbedded in the massive diamictites.
The two macro-scale glaciation periods, following no systematic
pattern in southwestern Gondwana, occurred during a cool to cold
climatic period lasting for about 270 Ma from the mid-Cambrian to the
mid-Permian in the Cape-Karoo basin. The main reason for this period of
below average global temperature, was the proximity of the basin during
most of the time to the south pole. The high incidence of plate
tectonics during this period affected the distribution of land masses
and epicontinental seas, and mountain building on southwestern Gondwana
as well as the orientation of the plate rotational axis. A combination
of these factors probably triggered the two glaciations. Meso-scale
warmer cycles with a periodicity of 8 to 9 Ma during the Permo
Carboniferous can be correlated with third-order Vail cycles and are
attributed to plate tectonics.
J. Oerlemo.ns ( ed.), Glacier Fluctuations and Climatic Change, 1-12.
© 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers.