Contact the phenomenon of melting glaciers in Peru with Little Ice Age in Europe

The new study published the exact date of glacial period ice in southern Peru tells us the relationship between tropical climate changes and similar phenomena in Europe and North America in The Little Ice Age was 150-350 years ago.

According to Joe Licciardi, the author of the author, this study 'tells us more about glacial activity on a global scale and climate characteristics during the Little Ice Age. The more we know about the modern climate, the easier it is to understand the current and future climate issues. '

The new study entitled 'The link between the phenomenon of oscillating holoxene in the Andes in Peru with northern climate' is the result of methodological breakthroughs in geologic and casual techniques. when Licciardi found a well-preserved tape in Peru.

On vacation in 2003, Licciardi went hiking near the famous Inca Trail. Incidentally, he found a glacier of the glacier - a strip of rock and soil left after the glacier retreated - 25 km away from Machu Picchu ruins. 'Obviously this is a trail of former valley glaciers at different times in the past,' he said. Unfortunately, Licciardi did not bring any geological equipment with him, and he could not get the sample to the lab.

Two years later, the co-author of the study, David Lund, a geology lecturer at the University of Michigan, also came to the same area and got some samples of salt-pepper color.'Dave also recognized the prospect of this region and shared his desire to conduct research with me,' Licciardi said. In 2006, he returned to the Nevado Salcantay slope at the highest peak in the Cordillera Vilcabamba range. For more than two years, he and Jean Taggart, another member of the research team, collected more stone samples from the area.

The researchers analyzed these samples with the help of the technique of surface exposure dating - in which they measured extremely small amounts of beryllium-10 isotopes. This substance is formed when the rays in the universe come into contact with the surface. Based on the results of the analysis, Ho gave the exact date of the fluctuations of this relatively young glacier. Licciardi and Taggart worked with Joerg Schaefer, a geochemist working at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which produced the youngest chronological results ever seen using deterministic methods. Age of berilli-10 isotopes.

Members of the author group are taking a volumetric sample in southern Peru.(Photo: Joe Licciardi)

' Measuring the youthful and accurate chronology by this method opened up a new way of determining the time of recent glacial fluctuations in remote areas where we do not have historical data,' Licciardi said. Due to the Little Ice Age - which lasted from 1300 AD to 1860 after CN - occurred at the same time as the historical data and climate observations in Europe and Zbawcs Asia, the event was described and recorded. Copy thoroughly in the northern hemisphere. However, in remote areas like the Andes in Peru, data on glacial period events are rare.

The main finding of this survey is that while the Northern Peru glacier moves at the same time as the glacier in Europe, the data obtained in Peru differs from the time of glacier fluctuations in the Southern Alps of the New Alps. Zealand in the previous millennium.

'This finding helps to identify the two hemispheres in the glacier period. It helps us better understand how the Little Ice Age has a climate, and thereby help people better understand the effects of climate change, ' Taggart said.

"If the warming of the Earth goes as quickly as it is now, we will face the possibility that glaciers will soon disappear," Schaefer added.

Licciardi and her colleagues will continue to study in Peru to better understand the expansion of Glacier's Ice Age as well as their withdrawal later.'Our new results explain the climate processes that make these glaciers expand and shrink as seen. However, there are still many open questions, such as: The relative importance of temperature changes to changes in snow volume and glacial condition? ' The research team intends to address this question through models of 'glacial-glacial climate' and assess the level of dependence of southern Peru glaciers on the two main factors of low temperature and low amount of snow. .

Funding is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Geological Society.