Articles | Volume 22, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1941-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-22-1941-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
05 Nov 2026
Research article |
| 05 Nov 2026
| 05 Nov 2026
Can multi-glacier moraine analysis constrain paleoclimate reconstructions? Evidence from 3D glacier modeling in the Cordillera Real, Bolivia
Aix Marseille Université, CEREGE, CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France
Léo Martin
Aix Marseille Université, CEREGE, CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France
Adrien Gilbert
Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Grenoble-INP, Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement, Grenoble, France
Vincent Jomelli
Aix Marseille Université, CEREGE, CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France
Antoine Rabatel
Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Grenoble-INP, Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement, Grenoble, France
Simon Filhol
Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Météo-France, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Toulouse, CNRM, Centre d’Études de la Neige, 38000 Grenoble, France
Deborah Verfaillie
Aix Marseille Université, CEREGE, CNRS, Aix-en-Provence, France
Pierre-Henri Blard
Université de Lorraine, CRPG, CNRS, Nancy, France
Laboratoire de glaciologie, Département Géosciences, Environnement et Société–Institut des Géosciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
Jérôme Lavé
Université de Lorraine, CRPG, CNRS, Nancy, France
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Marin Kneib, Amaury Dehecq, Adrien Gilbert, Auguste Basset, Evan S. Miles, Guillaume Jouvet, Bruno Jourdain, Etienne Ducasse, Luc Beraud, Antoine Rabatel, Jérémie Mouginot, Guillem Carcanade, Olivier Laarman, Fanny Brun, and Delphine Six
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Paul R. Bierman, Andrew J. Christ, Catherine M. Collins, Halley M. Mastro, Juliana Souza, Pierre-Henri Blard, Stefanie Brachfeld, Zoe R. Courville, Tammy M. Rittenour, Elizabeth K. Thomas, Jean-Louis Tison, and François Fripiat
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In 1966, the U.S. Army drilled through the Greenland Ice Sheet at Camp Century, Greenland; they recovered 3.44 m of frozen material. Here, we decipher the material’s history. Water, flowing during a warm interglacial when the ice sheet melted from northwest Greenland, deposited the upper material which contains fossil plant and insect parts. The lower material, separated by more than a meter of ice with some sediment, is till, deposited by the ice sheet during a prior cold period.
Nicolás Acuña Reyes, Elwin van't Wout, Shaun Lovejoy, and Fabrice Lambert
Clim. Past, 20, 1579–1594, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1579-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1579-2024, 2024
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This study employs Haar fluctuations to analyse global atmospheric variability over the Last Glacial Cycle, revealing a latitudinal dependency in the transition from macroweather to climate regimes. Findings indicate faster synchronisation between poles and lower latitudes, supporting the pivotal role of poles as climate change drivers.
Pedro Doll, Shaun Robert Eaves, Ben Matthew Kennedy, Pierre-Henri Blard, Alexander Robert Lee Nichols, Graham Sloan Leonard, Dougal Bruce Townsend, Jim William Cole, Chris Edward Conway, Sacha Baldwin, Gabriel Fénisse, Laurent Zimmermann, and Bouchaïb Tibari
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In this study, we use cosmogenic-sourced 3He to determine the eruption ages of 23 lava flows at Mt Ruapehu, Aotearoa New Zealand, and we show how this method can help overcome challenges associated with traditional dating methods in young lavas. Comparison with other methods demonstrates the accuracy of our data and the method's reliability. The new eruption ages allowed us to identify periods of quasi-simultaneous activity from different volcanic vents during the last 20 000 years.
Alexis Caro, Thomas Condom, Antoine Rabatel, Nicolas Champollion, Nicolás García, and Freddy Saavedra
The Cryosphere, 18, 2487–2507, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2487-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2487-2024, 2024
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The glacier runoff changes are still unknown in most of the Andean catchments, thereby increasing uncertainties in estimating water availability, especially during the dry season. Here, we simulate glacier evolution and related glacier runoff changes across the Andes between 2000 and 2019. Our results indicate a glacier reduction in 93 % of the catchments, leading to a 12 % increase in glacier melt. These results can be downloaded and integrated with discharge measurements in each catchment.
Susanne Preunkert, Pascal Bohleber, Michel Legrand, Adrien Gilbert, Tobias Erhardt, Roland Purtschert, Lars Zipf, Astrid Waldner, Joseph R. McConnell, and Hubertus Fischer
The Cryosphere, 18, 2177–2194, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2177-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2177-2024, 2024
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Ice cores from high-elevation Alpine glaciers are an important tool to reconstruct the past atmosphere. However, since crevasses are common at these glacier sites, rigorous investigations of glaciological conditions upstream of drill sites are needed before interpreting such ice cores. On the basis of three ice cores extracted at Col du Dôme (4250 m a.s.l; French Alps), an overall picture of a dynamic crevasse formation is drawn, which disturbs the depth–age relation of two of the three cores.
Arthur Bayle, Bradley Z. Carlson, Anaïs Zimmer, Sophie Vallée, Antoine Rabatel, Edoardo Cremonese, Gianluca Filippa, Cédric Dentant, Christophe Randin, Andrea Mainetti, Erwan Roussel, Simon Gascoin, Dov Corenblit, and Philippe Choler
Biogeosciences, 20, 1649–1669, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1649-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-1649-2023, 2023
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Glacier forefields have long provided ecologists with a model to study patterns of plant succession following glacier retreat. We used remote sensing approaches to study early succession dynamics as it allows to analyze the deglaciation, colonization, and vegetation growth within a single framework. We found that the heterogeneity of early succession dynamics is deterministic and can be explained well by local environmental context. This work has been done by an international consortium.
Rubén Basantes-Serrano, Antoine Rabatel, Bernard Francou, Christian Vincent, Alvaro Soruco, Thomas Condom, and Jean Carlo Ruíz
The Cryosphere, 16, 4659–4677, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4659-2022, 2022
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We assessed the volume variation of 17 glaciers on the Antisana ice cap, near the Equator. We used aerial and satellite images for the period 1956–2016. We highlight very negative changes in 1956–1964 and 1979–1997 and slightly negative or even positive conditions in 1965–1978 and 1997–2016, the latter despite the recent increase in temperatures. Glaciers react according to regional climate variability, while local humidity and topography influence the specific behaviour of each glacier.
Agathe Defourny, Pierre-Henri Blard, Laurent Zimmermann, Patrick Jobé, Arnaud Collignon, Frédéric Nguyen, and Alain Dassargues
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2637–2648, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2637-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2637-2022, 2022
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The Belgian city of Spa is known worldwide for its ferruginous and naturally sparkling groundwater springs that gave their name to the bathing tradition commonly called
spa. However, the origin of the dissolved CO2 they contain was still a matter of debate. Thanks to new analysis on groundwater samples, particularly carbon and helium isotopes together with dissolved gases, this study has demonstrated that the volcanic origin of the CO2 is presumably from the neighboring Eifel volcanic fields.
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Short summary
Glacier deposits are used to reconstruct past climate, but the same glacier size can result from different mixes of temperature and snowfall. Using numerical glacier simulations in the Bolivian Andes, we explored how to overcome this ambiguity. We show that combining several neighboring glaciers with independent rainfall records partly resolves it, giving temperatures 0.8°C and 1.3°C lower during the Little Ice Age and Early Holocene (~10,000 years ago), respectively.
Glacier deposits are used to reconstruct past climate, but the same glacier size can result from...
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