Project Description
Mountain glaciers respond sensitively to changes in Earth's atmosphere such that records of their history serve as a useful proxy for past climates. Thus, comprehensive records of glacier extents can be combined with other types of climate archives to provide a perspective from the past on the present controls on the climate system. This project builds on recent observations by our group that glacier-climate histories at the southern tip of South America showed different patterns from those observed in North America and Europe. Based on these observations, this research examines recent variability in glaciers and climates along middle to high latitudinal gradients in the Southern Hemisphere, which can be used to test hypotheses regarding factors that controlled glacier activities prior to instrumental records of climate. This research also involves testing hypotheses that will illuminate the spatial and temporal variability of paleoclimate signals and the interaction of polar and non-polar controls on Sourthern Hemisphere and global climates. Such a perspective of glacier sensitivity to past climate changes will help improve our understanding of present and projected climate changes. We are collaborating with scientists from Chile and Argentina.
