Search for: All records

Understanding alpine glacier extent during past climate variability is instructive for determining the glacier response to future climate change. Villarrica volcano is a late Pleistocene stratovolcano located in Chile's Southern Volcanic Zone that was covered by the Patagonian Ice Sheet during the last glacial period, and still retains small remnant glaciers today. Moraines preserved several kilometers from the summit on different flanks of the volcano record a history of expanded glacier lengths during the Holocene. However, the precise ages of these moraines are unknown, and the Holocene glacial history of Villarrica remains poorly constrained, limiting our understanding of how glaciers in this region responded to Holocene climate change. To constrain the timing of these moraines, we analyzed cosmogenic 3He in olivine from 25 basaltic andesite moraine boulders for cosmogenic surface exposure dating. Our new chronology reveals multiple late Holocene glacier advances from different flanks of the volcano, with the glaciers culminating and abandoning their moraines during the early Neoglacial period at ∼3355 ± 190 a and ∼1735 ± 215 a, and during the last millennium spanning the Little Ice Age period at ∼720 ± 225 a, ∼370 ± 75 a, and in the last ∼200 years. Our analysis of Holocene climate proxies from south-central Chile indicates that the early Neoglacial advances and subsequent retreat likely reflect increased effective moisture delivered by intensified Southern Westerly Winds and associated shifts in their latitudinal position. In contrast, we interpret the last millennium glacier advances as primarily driven by reduced summer ablation linked to regional cooling, followed by glacier retreat due to increased temperatures. Our chronology and closely spaced moraine positions suggest that glacier retreat on Villarrica, and possibly the broader Southern Volcanic Zone, has been gradual during the late Holocene and interrupted by short-lived advances driven by varying changes in temperature and moisture.