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The dimensions of past ice sheets provide a record of palaeoclimate but depend on underlying topography, which evolves over geological timescales by tectonic uplift and erosional downcutting. Erosion during the Pleistocene epoch (2,580 to 11.650 thousand years ago) reduced glacier extent in some locations even as climate cooled, but whether other non-climatic influences impacted the glacial–geological record is poorly known. The Antarctic Peninsula provides an opportunity to examine this issue because of its long glacial history and preservation of remnants of a low-relief pre-glacial land surface. Here we reconstructed both palaeo-surface topography and long-wavelength variations of surface uplift for the Antarctic Peninsula by using inverse analysis that assimilates local topographic remnants with the branching structures of entire modern drainage networks. We found that the Antarctic Peninsula rose tectonically by up to 1.5 km due to dynamical support from the mantle. Glaciological models using the current climate and our palaeotopography show greatly reduced ice extent in the northern Antarctic Peninsula compared with modern, indicating that the onset of glaciation identified at offshore sites reflects tectonic uplift of the topography rather than climatic cooling. In the southern Antarctic Peninsula, however, we suggest the low-relief pre-glacial landscape supported a considerably greater ice volume than the modern mountainous topography, illustrating the influence of erosional sculpting on glaciation patterns.

 

The topographic development of the Sierra Nevada, CA has been the topic of research for more than 100 years, yet disagreement remains as to whether 1) the Sierra Nevada records uplift in the late Mesozoic followed by no change or a decrease in elevation throughout the Cenozoic vs 2) uplift in the late Mesozoic followed by a decrease in elevation during the middle Cenozoic, and a second pulse of uplift in the late Cenozoic. The second pulse of uplift in the late Cenozoic is linked to late Cenozoic normal slip along the southern Sierra Nevada (SSN) range front normal fault (SSNF). To test this fault slip hypothesis, we report apatite (U-Th/He) (AHe) results from samples in the footwall of the SSNF collected along three vertical transects (from north to south, RV, MW, and MU) up the eastern escarpment of the SSN. Here, exposed bedrock fault planes and associated joints yield nearly identical strike-dip values of ~356°-69°NE. At the RV transect, 14 AHe samples record an elevation invariant mean age of 17.8 ± 5.3 Ma over a vertical distance of 802 m. At MW, 14 samples collected over a vertical distance of 1043 m yield an elevation invariant mean age of 26.6 ± 5.0 Ma. At MU, 8 samples record an elevation invariant mean age of 12.7 ± 3.7 Ma over a vertical distance of 501 m and 5 higher elevation samples record an elevation invariant mean age of 26.5 ± 3.3 Ma. At MU, the lowest elevation sample yielded an AFT age of 50 Ma and mean track length of 13.1 microns. Preliminary HeFTy modeling of the AHe and AFT ages from this sample yield accelerated cooling at ~22 Ma and ~10 Ma. Preliminary modeling (Pecube + landscape evolution) of the MU AHe results, elevation, and a prominent knickpoint yield an increase in fault slip rate at ~1-2 Ma. We interpret the elevation invariant ages and modeling results as indicating three periods—late Oligocene, middle Miocene, and Pliocene—of cooling and exhumation in the footwall of the SSNF due to normal fault slip. Our results are the first to document late Oligocene to Pliocene cooling and normal slip along the SSNF. Miocene and Pliocene age normal fault slip along the SSNF is contemporaneous with normal slip along range bounding faults across the Basin and Range, including the adjacent Inyo and White Mountains. Combined, these data indicate that since the late Oligocene the SSN defined the stable western limit of the Basin and Range. 

Using offshore detrital apatite (U‐Th)/He thermochronometry and 3D thermo‐kinematic modeling of the catchment topography, we constrain the timing of major topographic change at Bourgeois Fjord, Antarctic Peninsula (AP). While many mid‐latitude glacial landscapes developed primarily in response to global cooling over the last ~2.6 Ma, we find that kilometer‐scale landscape evolution at Bourgeois Fjord began ~30–12 Ma ago and <2 km of valley incision has occurred since ~16 Ma. This early onset of major topographic change occurred following the initiation of alpine glaciation at this location and prior to the development of a regional polythermal ice sheet inferred from sedimentary evidence offshore of the AP. We hypothesize that topographic change relates to (i) feedbacks between an evolving topography and glacial erosion processes, (ii) effects of glacial‐interglacial variability, and (iii) the prevalence of subglacial meltwater. The timing and inferred spatial patterns of long‐term exhumation at Bourgeois Fjord are consistent with a hypothesis that glacial erosion processes were suppressed at the AP during global Plio‐Pleistocene cooling, rather than enhanced. Our study examines the long‐term consequences of glacial processes on catchment‐wide erosion as the local climate cooled. Our findings support the hypothesis that landscapes at different latitudes had different responses to global cooling. Our results also suggest that erosion is enhanced along the plateau flanks of Bourgeois Fjord today, which may be due to periglacial processes or mantling via subglacial till. If regional warming persists and meltwater becomes more pronounced, we predict that enhanced erosion along the plateau flank will accelerate topographic change.