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The Glacial Record of Northern South America

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Book cover Glaciations in North and South America from the Miocene to the Last Glacial Maximum

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences ((BRIEFSEARTHSYST))

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Abstract

The Bogotá basin and direct surroundings (eastern Andes in Colombia) holds a long sedimentary sequence that reaches from the present into the Miocene. Palaeo-botanical data indicates tectonic uplift by some 2,000 m during the Late Miocene–Pliocene that probably precluded sufficiently high enough terrain to support glaciers during the time period preceding the Quaternary. The first mountain glaciation as recorded by glaciofluvial sedimentation in the Bogotá basin is dated by fission-track and magnetic polarity dating at ca. 2.6 Ma, whereas a shift towards more extensive glaciations occurred after ca. 0.8 Ma. Moraines preserved in the Bogotá mountains record a series of glacial events for the time interval ca. 43 to 12.5 ka BP. Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) depression by ca. 1,300 m is reconstructed for the early Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ca. 20 ka BP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G2E3, Canada

    Nat Rutter

  2. Laboratorio de Geomorfología y Cuaternario, CADIC-CONICET, 9410, Ushuaia, Argentina

    Andrea Coronato

  3. Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden

    Karin Helmens

  4. Laboratorio de Geomorfología y Cuaternario, CADIC-CONICET, Bernardo Houssay 200, 9140, Ushuaia, Argentina

    Jorge Rabassa

  5. INCITAP (CONICET-UNLPAM), Avenida Uruguay 151, 6300, Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina

    Marcelo Zárate

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  1. Nat Rutter
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  2. Andrea Coronato
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  3. Karin Helmens
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  4. Jorge Rabassa
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  5. Marcelo Zárate
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Rutter, N., Coronato, A., Helmens, K., Rabassa, J., Zárate, M. (2012). The Glacial Record of Northern South America. In: Glaciations in North and South America from the Miocene to the Last Glacial Maximum. SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4399-1_2

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