Did Andean glaciers drive coastal dune formation during the last glacial cycle in Central Chile?
Abstract
There is an urgency to study the large paleo sand dunes of coastal central semiarid Chile (31-35 ºS) and their forming factors because they can provide key insights into past and present mechanisms of environmental change and provide answers to questions, such as how present climate change and linked glacier retreat in the Andes can affect dunes and associated ecosystems. The paucity of data available and limited evidence within this extensive semiarid region, including the Andes and coastal regions, do not allow for the development at present for a definitive conceptual model of dune formation and the potential causal role of the Andean glaciers as drivers of coastal eolian morphogenesis. In this project, we plan to assess the role of the Andean glacier change as a causal factor driving the coastal sand dune formation, extent and variability in central semiarid Chile (30-35ºS) during the last glacial cycle. Our study rationale considers the Andean river discharge linked to climate and glacier fluctuations as driving the “on” and “off” switch of sediment supply for coastal eolian deposits at different temporal scales. In order to determine the Andean glacier and coastal dunes geographic and causal linkages, we will build precise in situ moraine based 10Be - 36Cl, and ancient dune-based luminescence chronologies for the last glacial cycle to be able to detrmine how the enhanced sediment supply from the Andes to the coast linked to glacier fluctuations and pervasive paraglacial processes is connect with coastal paleo sand dune development. The expected results of this project will impact and significantly increase our knowledge regarding large sand coastal sand dunes origin and change in time; timing of glaciation and deglaciation in the semiarid Andes; mechanisms of climate change acting on central Chile during the late Quaternary; and mountain geomorphic process linked to glacial and deglacial phases, such as the present one.
keywords Central Chile glaciers coastal dunes geochronology environmental change
Publikationen
Project staff
Christopher Lüthgens
Assoc. Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr. Christopher Lüthgens
christopher.luethgens@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-87213
BOKU Project Leader
01.04.2021 - 31.03.2025
BOKU partners
External partners
Instituto de Geografia
Juan Luis García, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
partner