Holocene Glacier Fluctuations in the Peruvian Andes Indicate Northern Climate Linkages
Joseph M. Licciardi,1,*
Joerg M. Schaefer,2
Jean R. Taggart,1
David C. Lund3
The role of the tropics in triggering, transmitting, and amplifying
interhemispheric climate signals remains a key debate in paleoclimatology.
Tropical glacier fluctuations provide important insight on regional
paleoclimatic trends and forcings, but robust chronologies are
scarce. Here, we report precise moraine ages from the Cordillera
Vilcabamba (13°20'S) of southern Peru that indicate prominent
glacial events and associated climatic shifts in the outer tropics
during the early Holocene and late in the "Little Ice Age" period.
Our glacier chronologies differ from the New Zealand record
but are broadly correlative with well-dated glacial records
in Europe, suggesting climate linkages between the tropics and
the North Atlantic region.
2 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Geochemistry, Palisades NY 10964, USA.
3 University of Michigan, Department of Geological Sciences, Ann Arbor MI 48109, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: joe.licciardi{at}unh.edu
