ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0630-2021
Current Organisation
The University of Edinburgh
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Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 06-01-2023
Abstract: Abstract. The precise environmental mechanisms controlling Quaternary glacial cycles remain ambiguous. To address this problem, it is critical to better comprehend the drivers of spatio-temporal variability in ice-sheet evolution by establishing reliable chronologies of former outlet-glacier advances. When spanning multiple glacial cycles, such chronologies have the capacity to contribute to knowledge on the topic of interhemispheric phasing of glaciations and climate events. In southern Argentina, reconstructions of this kind are achievable, as Quaternary expansions of the Patagonian Ice Sheet have emplaced a well-preserved geomorphological record covering several glacial cycles. Moreover, robust ice-sheet reconstructions from Patagonia are powerful barometers of former climate change, as Patagonian glaciers are influenced by the Southern Westerly Winds and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current coupled to them. It is essential to better constrain former shifts in these circulation mechanisms as they may have played a critical role in pacing regional and possibly global Quaternary climate change. Here, we present a new set of cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al exposure ages from pre-Last Glacial Cycle moraine boulder, glaciofluvial outwash cobble, and bedrock s les. This dataset constitutes the first direct chronology dating pre-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) glacier advances in northern Patagonia and completes our effort to date the entire preserved moraine record of the Río Corcovado valley system (43∘ S, 71∘ W). We find that the outermost margins of the study site depict at least three distinct pre-Last Glacial Cycle stadials occurring around 290–270, 270–245, and 130–150 ka. Combined with the local LGM chronology, we discover that a minimum of four distinct Pleistocene stadials occurred during Marine Isotope Stages 8, 6, and 2 in northern Patagonia. Evidence for Marine Isotope Stage 4 and 3 deposits were not found at the study site. This may illustrate former longitudinal and latitudinal asynchronies in the Patagonian Ice Sheet mass balance during these Marine Isotope Stages. We find that the most extensive middle-to-late Pleistocene expansions of the Patagonian Ice Sheet appear to be out of phase with local summer insolation intensity but synchronous with orbitally controlled periods of longer and colder winters. Our findings thus enable the exploration of the potential roles of seasonality and seasonal duration in driving the southern mid-latitude ice-sheet mass balance, and they facilitate novel glacio-geomorphological interpretations for the study region. They also provide empirical constraints on former ice-sheet extent and dynamics that are essential for calibrating numerical ice-sheet and glacial isostatic adjustment models.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 23-03-2020
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU2020-2384
Abstract: & & The former Patagonian Ice Sheet was the most extensive Quaternary ice sheet of the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica. Against a background of Northern Hemisphere-dominated ice volumes, it is essential to document how the Patagonian Ice Sheet and its outlet glaciers & #64258 uctuated throughout the Quaternary. This information can help us investigate the climate forcing mechanisms responsible for ice sheet & #64258 uctuations and provide insight on the causes of Quaternary glacial cycles at the southern mid-latitudes. Moreover, Patagonia is part of the only continental landmass that fully intersects the precipitation-bearing southern westerly winds and is thus uniquely positioned to study past climatic fluctuations in the southern mid-latitudes. While Patagonian palaeoglaciological investigations have increased, there remains few published studies investigating glacial deposits from the north-eastern sector of the former ice sheet, between latitudes 41& #176 S and 46& #176 S. Palaeoglaciological reconstructions from this region are required to understand the timing of late-Pleistocene glacial expansion and retreat, and to understand the causes behind potential latitudinal asynchronies in the glacial records throughout Patagonia. Here, we reconstruct the glacial history and chronology of a previously unstudied region of north-eastern Patagonia that formerly hosted the Rio Huemul and Rio Corcovado (43& #176 S, 71& #176 W) palaeo ice-lobes. We present the first detailed glacial geomorphological map of the valley enabling interpretations of the region& #8217 s late Quaternary glacial history. Moreover, we present new cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages from moraine boulders, palaeolake shoreline surface cobbles and ice-moulded bedrock. This new dataset establishes a high-resolution reconstruction of the local LGM through robust dating of five distinct moraines limits of the Rio Corcovado palaeo-glacier. Our results demonstrate that, in its north-eastern sector, the Patagonian Ice Sheet reached its last maximum extent during MIS 2, thus contrasting with the MIS 3 maxima found for the southern parts of the ice sheet. We also present geomorphological evidence along with chronological data for the formation of two ice-dammed proglacial lake phases in the valley caused by LGM ice-extent fluctuations and final glacial recession. Furthermore, this dataset allows us to determine the timing and onset of glacial termination 1 in the region. Finally, our findings include the reconstruction of a proglacial lake drainage and Atlantic/Pacific drainage reversal event caused by ice sheet break-up in western Patagonia. Such findings have significant implications for climate fluctuations at the southern mid-latitudes, former Southern Westerly Winds behaviour and interhemispheric climate linkages during and following the local LGM. They provide further evidence supporting the proposed latitudinal asynchrony in the timing of expansion of the Patagonian Ice Sheet during the last glacial cycle and enable glacio-geomorphological interpretations for the studied region.& &
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 18-07-2011
Abstract: Abstract. Two ice-dynamic transitions of the Antarctic ice sheet – the boundary of grounded ice features and the freely-floating boundary – are mapped at 15-m resolution by participants of the International Polar Year project ASAID using customized software combining Landsat-7 imagery and ICESat/GLAS laser altimetry. The grounded ice boundary is 53 610 km long 74 % abuts to floating ice shelves or outlet glaciers, 19 % is adjacent to open or sea-ice covered ocean, and 7 % of the boundary ice terminates on land. The freely-floating boundary, called here the hydrostatic line, is the most landward position on ice shelves that expresses the full litude of oscillating ocean tides. It extends 27 521 km and is discontinuous. Positional (one-sigma) accuracies of the grounded ice boundary vary an order of magnitude ranging from ±52 m for the land and open-ocean terminating segments to ±502 m for the outlet glaciers. The hydrostatic line is less well positioned with errors over 2 km. Elevations along each line are selected from 6 candidate digital elevation models based on their agreement with ICESat elevation values and surface shape inferred from the Landsat imagery. Elevations along the hydrostatic line are converted to ice thicknesses by applying a firn-correction factor and a flotation criterion. BEDMAP-compiled data and other airborne data are compared to the ASAID elevations and ice thicknesses to arrive at quantitative (one-sigma) uncertainties of surface elevations of ±3.6, ±9.6, ±11.4, ±30 and ±100 m for five ASAID-assigned confidence levels. Over one-half of the surface elevations along the grounded ice boundary and over one-third of the hydrostatic line elevations are ranked in the highest two confidence categories. A comparison between ASAID-calculated ice shelf thicknesses and BEDMAP-compiled data indicate a thin-ice bias of 41.2 & m 71.3 m for the ASAID ice thicknesses. The relationship between the seaward offset of the hydrostatic line from the grounded ice boundary only weakly matches a prediction based on beam theory. The mapped products along with the customized software to generate them and a variety of intermediate products are available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 22-11-2022
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 28-02-2013
Abstract: Abstract. We present Bedmap2, a new suite of gridded products describing surface elevation, ice-thickness and the seafloor and subglacial bed elevation of the Antarctic south of 60° S. We derived these products using data from a variety of sources, including many substantial surveys completed since the original Bedmap compilation (Bedmap1) in 2001. In particular, the Bedmap2 ice thickness grid is made from 25 million measurements, over two orders of magnitude more than were used in Bedmap1. In most parts of Antarctica the subglacial landscape is visible in much greater detail than was previously available and the improved data-coverage has in many areas revealed the full scale of mountain ranges, valleys, basins and troughs, only fragments of which were previously indicated in local surveys. The derived statistics for Bedmap2 show that the volume of ice contained in the Antarctic ice sheet (27 million km3) and its potential contribution to sea-level rise (58 m) are similar to those of Bedmap1, but the mean thickness of the ice sheet is 4.6% greater, the mean depth of the bed beneath the grounded ice sheet is 72 m lower and the area of ice sheet grounded on bed below sea level is increased by 10%. The Bedmap2 compilation highlights several areas beneath the ice sheet where the bed elevation is substantially lower than the deepest bed indicated by Bedmap1. These products, along with grids of data coverage and uncertainty, provide new opportunities for detailed modelling of the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 17-07-2023
DOI: 10.5194/ESSD-15-2695-2023
Abstract: Abstract. One of the key components of this research has been the mapping of Antarctic bed topography and ice thickness parameters that are crucial for modelling ice flow and hence for predicting future ice loss and the ensuing sea level rise. Supported by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Bedmap3 Action Group aims not only to produce new gridded maps of ice thickness and bed topography for the international scientific community, but also to standardize and make available all the geophysical survey data points used in producing the Bedmap gridded products. Here, we document the survey data used in the latest iteration, Bedmap3, incorporating and adding to all of the datasets previously used for Bedmap1 and Bedmap2, including ice bed, surface and thickness point data from all Antarctic geophysical c aigns since the 1950s. More specifically, we describe the processes used to standardize and make these and future surveys and gridded datasets accessible under the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data principles. With the goals of making the gridding process reproducible and allowing scientists to re-use the data freely for their own analysis, we introduce the new SCAR Bedmap Data Portal (bedmap.scar.org, last access: 1 March 2023) created to provide unprecedented open access to these important datasets through a web-map interface. We believe that this data release will be a valuable asset to Antarctic research and will greatly extend the life cycle of the data held within it. Data are available from the UK Polar Data Centre: data.bas.ac.uk (last access: 5 May 2023). See the Data availability section for the complete list of datasets.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 23-05-2023
DOI: 10.1029/2023RG000814
Abstract: On behalf of the authors and readers of Reviews of Geophysics (RoG), the American Geophysical Union, and the broader scientific community, the editors wish to wholeheartedly thank those who reviewed manuscripts for RoG in 2022.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 02-03-2016
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL066476
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 25-04-2022
DOI: 10.5194/CP-2022-32
Abstract: Abstract. The precise environmental mechanisms controlling Quaternary glacial cycles remain ambiguous. To address this problem, it is critical to better comprehend the drivers of spatio-temporal variability in ice-sheet evolution by establishing reliable chronologies of former outlet-glacier advances. When spanning multiple glacial cycles, such chronologies have the capacity to resolve conundrums on interhemispheric phasing of glaciations and climate events. In southern Argentina, reconstructions of this kind are achievable, as Quaternary expansions of the Patagonian Ice Sheet have emplaced a well-preserved geomorphological record covering several glacial cycles. Moreover, robust ice-sheet reconstructions from Patagonia are powerful barometers of former climate change, as Patagonian glaciers are influenced by the Southern Westerly Winds and its coupled Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Former shifts in these circulation mechanisms are essential to better constrain, as they may have played a critical role in pacing regional and possibly global Quaternary climate change. Here, we present a new set of cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al exposure ages from pre-Last Glacial Cycle moraine boulder, glaciofluvial outwash cobble and bedrock s les. This dataset constitutes the first direct chronology dating pre-LGM glacier advances in northern Patagonia, and completes our effort to date the entire preserved moraine record of the Río Corcovado valley system (43° S, 71° W). We find the outermost margins of the study site depict at least three distinct pre-Last Glacial Cycle glaciations occurring at 284 ± 7 ka, 257 ± 7 ka, and 147 ± 4 ka. Combined with the local LGM chronology, we discover that a minimum of four distinct Pleistocene glaciations occurred during Marine Isotope Stages eight, six, and two in northern Patagonia. Evidence for stage four and three deposits were not found at the study site, which illustrates former longitudinal and latitudinal asynchronies in Patagonian Ice Sheet mass balance during these stages. We find the most extensive middle-to-late Pleistocene expansions of the Patagonian Ice Sheet appear to be out-of-phase with local summer insolation intensity, but synchronous with orbitally-controlled periods of longer and colder winters. Our findings thus enable to explore the potential roles of seasonality and seasonal duration in driving southern mid-latitude ice-sheet mass balance and facilitate novel glacio-geomorphological interpretations for the study region. They also provide empirical constraints of former ice-sheet extent and dynamics that are essential to calibrating numerical ice-sheet and glacial isostatic adjustment models.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 22-11-2022
Abstract: Abstract. Over the past 60 years, scientists have strived to understand the past, present and future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. One of the key components of this research has been the mapping of Antarctic bed topography and ice thickness parameters that are crucial for modelling ice flow and hence for predicting future ice loss and ensuing sea level rise. Supported by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Bedmap3 Action Group aims not only to produce new gridded maps of ice thickness and bed topography for the international scientific community, but also to standardize and make available all the geophysical survey data points used in producing the Bedmap gridded products. Here, we document the survey data used in the latest iteration, Bedmap3, incorporating and adding to all of the datasets previously used for Bedmap1 and Bedmap2, including ice-bed, surface and thickness point data from all Antarctic geophysical c aigns since the 1950s. More specifically, we describe the processes used to standardize and make these and future survey and gridded datasets accessible under the ‘Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable’ (FAIR) data principles. With the goals to make the gridding process reproducible and to allow scientists to re-use the data freely for their own analysis, we introduce the new SCAR Bedmap Data Portal (bedmap.scar.org, last access: 18 October 2022) created to provide unprecedented open access to these important datasets, through a user-friendly webmap interface. We believe that this data release will be a valuable asset to Antarctic research and will greatly extend the life cycle of the data held within it. Data are available from the UK Polar Data Centre: data.bas.ac.uk.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 25-04-2022
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 03-03-2021
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU21-2820
Abstract: & & The former Patagonian Ice Sheet was the most extensive Quaternary ice sheet of the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica. Against a background of Northern Hemisphere-dominated ice volumes, it is essential to document how the Patagonian Ice Sheet and its outlet glaciers & #64258 uctuated throughout the Quaternary. This information can help us investigate the climate forcing mechanisms responsible for ice sheet & #64258 uctuations and provide insight on the causes of Quaternary glacial cycles at the southern mid-latitudes. Patagonia is part of the only continental landmass that fully intersects the precipitation-bearing Southern Westerly Winds and is thus uniquely positioned to study past climatic fluctuations in the southern mid-latitudes. While Patagonian palaeoglaciological investigations have increased, there remains few published studies investigating glacial deposits from the north-eastern sector of the former ice sheet, between latitudes 41& #176 S and 46& #176 S. Palaeoglaciological reconstructions from this region are required to understand the timing of Pleistocene glacial expansion and retreat, and to understand the causes behind potential latitudinal asynchronies in glacial advances throughout Patagonia. Here, we reconstruct the glacial history and chronology of a previously unstudied region of north-eastern Patagonia that formerly hosted the R& #237 o Corcovado (43& #176 S, 71& #176 W) palaeo ice-lobe. Here we present a new set of cosmogenic & sup& & /sup& Be exposure ages from presumed pre-LGM moraine boulder and glaciofluvial outwash surface cobble s les, establishing for the first time a comprehensive chronology for pre-LGM glacial margins of the R& #237 o Corcovado palaeo-glacier. This new dataset completes our effort to date the entire preserved moraine record of the R& #237 o Corcovado valley: which captures at least seven distinct Pleistocene glacial events. Our results allow answering questions on the timing of the maximum local ice extent of the last glacial cycle as well as older, pre-last glacial cycle glaciations, for which few robust glacier chronologies exist in the Southern Hemisphere. The most informative cosmogenic nuclide-derived glacial chronologies with the capacity to resolve questions on interhemispheric phasing of climate change require unambiguous dating of glacial margins spanning the entirety of the last glacial cycle and ideally earlier glacial cycles. Therefore, our findings have significant implications for understanding past climate fluctuations at the southern mid-latitudes, former Southern Westerly Winds behaviour and interhemispheric climate linkages throughout the Pleistocene. They also provide further evidence supporting the proposed latitudinal asynchrony in the timing of Patagonian Ice Sheet expansion during the last glacial cycle and enable novel glacio-geomorphological interpretations for the studied region.& &
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 13-11-2014
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Robert G Bingham.