Multiple tropical Andean glaciations during a period of late Pliocene warmth.

ABSTRACT: The extent and behaviour of glaciers during the mid-Piacenzian warm period illustrate the sensitivity of the cryosphere to atmospheric CO₂ concentrations above pre-industrial levels. Knowledge of glaciation during this period is restricted to globally or regionally averaged records from marine sediments and to sparse terrestrial glacial deposits in mid-to-high latitudes. Here we expand the Pliocene glacial record to the tropics by reporting recurrent large-scale glaciation in the Bolivian Andes based on stratigraphic and paleomagnetic analysis of a 95-m sequence of glacial sediments underlying the 2.74-Ma Chijini Tuff. Paleosols and polarity reversals separate eight glacial diamictons, which we link to cold periods in the benthic oxygen isotope record. The glaciations appear to

SUBMITTER: Roberts NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5294413 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature