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Early Warming of Tropical South America at the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition
G. O. Seltzer,1*D. T. Rodbell,2P. A. Baker,3S. C. Fritz,4P. M. Tapia,4H. D. Rowe,5R. B. Dunbar5
Glaciation in the humid tropical Andes is a sensitive indicator of
mean annual temperature. Here, we present sedimentologicaldata from
lakes beyond the glacial limit in the tropical Andesindicating that
deglaciation from the Last Glacial Maximum ledsubstantial warming at
high northern latitudes. Deglaciation fromglacial maximum positions at
Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia (16°S),and Lake Junin, Peru (11°S),
occurred 22,000 to 19,500 calendaryears before the present, several
thousand years before the Bølling-Allerødwarming of the Northern
Hemisphere and deglaciation of the SierraNevada, United States
(36.5° to 38°N). The tropical Andes deglaciatedwhile climatic
conditions remained regionally wet, which reflectsthe dominant control
of mean annual temperature on tropical glaciation.
1 Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse
University, 204 Heroy Geology Laboratory, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
2 Department of Geology, Union College, Schenectady,
NY 12308, USA.
3 Division of Earth and Ocean
Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
4 Department of Geosciences and School of Biological
Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
5 Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
goseltze{at}syr.edu
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
In Science Magazine
TECHNICAL COMMENTS
Peter U. Clark, G. O. Seltzer, D. T. Rodbell, P. A. Baker, S. C. Fritz, P. M. Tapia, H. D. Rowe, and R. B. Dunbar (4 October 2002) Science298 (5591), 7a.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5591.7a] |Full Text »|PDF »
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