New Zealand glaciers

Enigmatic Climatic Event: Antarctic Cold Reversal

Levan Tielidze February 17, 2023

Figure 1. Dated glacier moraines from New Zealand from the period of Antarctic Cold Reversal (ka signifies thousand calendar years ago). Blue colour symbolizes the reconstructed glacier 12,600 thousand years ago. While line indicate reconstructed snowline or equilibrium line altitude (ELA). [Credit: Tielidze et al., 2023].

In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the insight into the response of mountain glaciers to the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR) event in New Zealand to better understand the climatic history of the Southern Hemisphere during the last deglaciation. The ACR was a cold period occurred in the Southern Hemisphere during the transition from the last glacial period to the current interglacial ...[Read More]

A new glacier chronology from New Zealand

Levan Tielidze July 15, 2022

Figure 1. An example of a dated moraine landform from the Southern Alps. Yellow dots indicate the location of the samples. The black ages are from boulders while the blue ages are from bedrock. The dimension of each age is a thousand years old. The red initials indicate sample names (Credit: Tielidze et al., 2022).

In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the new glacier history from the Southern Alps of New Zealand, an important piece of information to better understand the climatic history of Earth during the Quaternary, the current geologic period. Quaternary glaciations Geochronological dating of glacial moraines is useful for determining the extent and timing of past glaciation and for reconst ...[Read More]

The new glacial geomorphological map from New Zealand

Levan Tielidze April 2, 2021

Glacial geomorphological mapping comparison in 3D. a - Moraine ridge in the middle section of the Ahuriri River valley with surrounding area. b - Key landscape elements are shown in the accompanying sketch. (Credit: Tielidze et al., 2021).

Geomorphological maps are a fundamental tool to represent landforms and understand how different morphological elements and agents shaped a natural landscape. They are also important as background information for many fields of research including ecology, forestry and of course, glaciology. In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the importance of mapping glacial geomorphology, presenti ...[Read More]

Did you know? – Proglacial lakes accelerate glacier retreat!

Jenna Sutherland October 18, 2019

In a global context, New Zealand’s small mountain glaciers often get overlooked and yet they are a beautiful part of New Zealand’s landscape. They are the water towers for the South Island and an essential part of its tourism, thanks to a few undeniable heroes (Frans Josef and Fox Glaciers), but sadly, they may not be as prominent in the future. In this post we review the state of modern glaciatio ...[Read More]