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Quaternary Glaciers and Climate on Cerro Chirripó, Costa Rica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kenneth H. Orvis  and
Sally P. Horn
Kenneth H. Orvis
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, E-mail: orvis@utk.edu
Sally P. Horn
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, E-mail: orvis@utk.edu
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Abstract

Glacial lake sediments and glacial geomorphology in Valle de las Morrenas, a glacial trough on the north face of Cerro Chirripó, Costa Rica, provide evidence on high-altitude Pleistocene conditions in Central America. The most recent glacier in the valley (Chirripó stage I) receded very rapidly near the end of the Younger Dryas chronozone. Radiocarbon dates on basal organic sediments from lakes beneath upper, middle, and lower limits of that glacier fall close together, and two-sigma calibrated ages overlap for the period 9700–9600 cal yr B.P. Earliest datable transition sediments from the central lake date to 12,360–11,230 cal yr B.P. Larger, older moraines, and associated trimlines, allowed reconstruction of three paleoglaciers (Chirripó stages II, III, and IV). Computer analysis of hypsometry using published tropical-glacier vertical mass balance profiles yields ELAs of 3506–3523, 3515–3537, and 3418–3509 m, respectively; Chirripó II ELA-estimate positions applied to Chirripó I yield an ELA of 3538–3546 m. We infer minimal temperature depressions of 7.4–8.0°C for the Chirripó I–IV stages. Modeling the behavior of modern tropical glaciers yields basinwide net accumulation estimates of 440–620, 550–830, and 960–1760 mm yr−1 for the Chirripó II, III, and IV stages.

Keywords

Central Americaclimate reconstructionCordillera de TalamancaCosta Ricadeglaciationglacial geomorphologyPleistoceneYounger Dryas
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , July 2000 , pp. 24 - 37
Copyright
University of Washington

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