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Understanding the timing of past glacial advances in Patagonia is of global climatic importance because of the insight this can provide into the influence on glacier behaviour of changes in temperature and precipitation related to the Southern Westerlies. In this paper we present new luminescence ages determined using single grains of K-feldspar from proglacial outwash sediments that were deposited by the Patagonian Ice Sheet around Lago Buenos Aires (∼46 °S), east of the contemporary Northern Patagonian Icefield. The new luminescence ages indicate that major outwash accumulations formed around ∼110 ± 20 ka to 140 ± 20 ka and that these correspond to the Moreno I and II moraine ridges, which were previously dated using cosmogenic isotope dating to 150 ± 30 ka. Luminescence dating at Lago Buenos Aires has also identified outwash sediments that were deposited during glacial advances ∼30.8 ± 5.7 ka and ∼34.0 ± 6.1 ka (MIS 3) that are not recorded in the moraine record. Younger outwash accumulations were then deposited between ∼14.7 ± 2.1 and 26.2 ± 1.6 ka which correspond to the Fenix I – V moraine ridges. The combined chronology suggests that glacial advances occurred ∼110 ± 20 ka to 150 ± 30 ka (MIS 6), ∼30.8 ± 5.7 ka to ∼34.0 ± 6.1 ka (MIS 3), and ∼14.7 ± 2.1 to 26.2 ± 1.6 ka (MIS 2) at Lago Buenos Aires. Overall luminescence dating using single grains of K-feldspar has excellent potential to contribute towards the ever-increasing geochronological dataset constraining the timings of glacial advances in Patagonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In response to climatic change, the size and number of moraine-dammed supraglacial and proglacial lake systems have increased dramatically in recent decades. Given an appropriate trigger, the natural moraine dams that impound these proglacial lakes are breached, producing catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs). These floods are highly complex phenomena, with flood characteristics controlled, in the first instance, by the style of breach formation. Downstream, GLOFs typically exhibit transient, often non-Newtonian fluid dynamics as a result of high rates of sediment entrainment from the dam structure and channel boundaries. Combined, these characteristics introduce numerous modelling challenges. In this review, the historical, contemporary and emerging approaches available to model the individual stages, or components, of a GLOF event are introduced and discussed. A number of methods exist to model the stages of a GLOF event. Dam-breach models can be categorised as being empirical, analytical or numerical in nature, with each method having significant advantages and shortcomings. Empirical relationships that produce estimates of peak discharge and time to peak are straightforward to implement, but the applicability of these models is often limited by the nature of the case study data from which they are derived. Furthermore, empirical models neglect the inclusion of basic hydraulic principles that describe the mechanics of breach formation. Analytical or parametric models simulate breach development using simplified versions of the physically based equations that describe breach enlargement, whilst complex, physically-based codes represent the state-of-the-art in numerical dam-breach modelling. To date, few of the latter have been applied to investigate the moraine-dam failure problem. Despite significant advances in the physical complexity and availability of higher-order hydrodynamic solvers, the majority of published accounts that have attempted to reconstruct or predict GLOF characteristics have been limited, often by necessity, to the use of relatively simplistic models. This is in part attributable to the unavailability of terrain models of many high-mountain catchments at the fine spatial resolutions required for the effective application of numerically-sophisticated codes, and their proprietary (and often cost-prohibitive) nature. However, advanced models are experiencing increasing use in the glacial hazards literature. In particular, the suitability of emerging mesh-free, particle-based methods for simulating dam-breach and GLOF routing may represent a solution to many of the challenges associated with modelling this complex phenomenon. Sources of uncertainty in the GLOF modelling chain have been identified by various workers. However, to date their significance for the robustness of reconstructive and predictive modelling efforts have been largely unexplored and quantified in detail. These sources include the geometric and material characterisation of moraine dam complexes, including lake bathymetry and the presence and extent of buried ice, initial conditions (freeboard, precise spillway dimensions), spatial discretisation of the down-valley domain, hydrodynamic model dimensionality and the dynamic coupling of successive components in the GLOF model cascade. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Predicting the future response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to climate change requires an understanding of the ice streams that dominate its dynamics. Here we use cosmogenic isotope exposure-age dating (26Al, 10Be and 36Cl) of erratic boulders on ice-free land on James Ross Island, north-eastern Antarctic Peninsula, to define the evolution of Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ice in the adjacent Prince Gustav Channel. These data include ice-sheet extent, thickness and dynamical behaviour. Prior to ∼18 ka, the LGM Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet extended to the continental shelf-edge and transported erratic boulders onto high-elevation mesas on James Ross Island. After ∼18 ka there was a period of rapid ice-sheet surface-lowering, coincident with the initiation of the Prince Gustav Ice Stream. This timing coincided with rapid increases in atmospheric temperature and eustatic sea-level rise around the Antarctic Peninsula. Collectively, these data provide evidence for a transition from a thick, cold-based LGM Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet to a thinner, partially warm-based ice sheet during deglaciation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) have become increasingly common over the past century in response to climate change, posing risks for human activities in many mountain regions. In this paper we document and reconstruct the sequence of events and impact of a large GLOF that took place in December 2015 in the Chileno Valley, Patagonia. Hydrograph data suggests that the flood continued for around eight days with an estimated total discharge of 105.6 × 106 m3 of water. The sequence of events was as follows: (1) A large debris flow entered the lake from two steep and largely non-vegetated mountain gullies located northeast of the Chileno Glacier terminus. (2) Water displaced in the lake by the debris flow increased the discharge through the Chileno Lake outflow. (3) Lake and moraine sediments were eroded by the flood. (4) Eroded sediments were redistributed downstream by the GLOF. The post-GLOF channel at the lake outlet widened in some places by >130 m and the surface elevation of the terrain lowered by a maximum of 38.8 ± 1.5 m. Farther downstream, large amounts of entrained sediment were deposited at the head of an alluvial plain and these sediments produced an ~340 m wide fan with an average increase in surface elevation over the pre-GLOF surface of 4.6 ± 1.5 m. We estimate that around 3.5 million m3 of material was eroded from the flood-affected area whilst over 0.5 million m3 of material was deposited in the downstream GLOF fan. The large debris flow that triggered the GLOF was probably a paraglacial response to glacier recession from its Little Ice Age limits. We suggest that GLOFs will continue to occur in these settings in the future as glaciers further recede in response to global warming and produce potentially unstable lakes. Detailed studies of GLOF events are currently limited in Patagonia and the information presented here will therefore help to inform future glacial hazard assessments in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]