Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula

Jorge Rabassa, Jorge Rabassa

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000151664
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze fisiche
• Subtopic: Geologia e scienze della terra

This volume is a compilation of papers of the final meeting of the IGCP Project 201, Quaternary of South America. The papers deal with a range of topics from quaternary vertebrate palaeontology in Argentina to biostratigraphy and chronological scale of uppermost Cenozoic in the Pampean area.

ALLAN ASHWORTH
Department of Geology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.Dak.,USA

1

Obituary—John H.Mercer 1922–1987

John Mercer of the Byrd Polar Research Center (formerly the Institute of Polar Studies), Ohio State University, died on July 3, 1987. His passing represents a great loss to all of Quaternary science but specially to those of us engaged in studies in the southern hemisphere.

The original thoughts John was able to express so elegantly in his writing will endure forever. George Denton once said to me: “You think you are the owner of a great thought, and then you discover that John has already written about it”. He wrote about the importance of marine ice sheets and the role their inherent instability has played in the history of glaciation. He first proposed an unstable glacial history for the West Antarctic icesheet. Furthermore, he was one of the first to suggest a link between the late-glacial climatic oscillations of northwestern Europe and the breakup of marine ice sheets in the Arctic. He was also a pioneer in proposing mechanisms to link glacial and climatic dynamics on a global scale.

John graduated from Gordonstoun School at the beginning of the World War II. He joined the British Marine Service and spent the war travelling the oceans of the world including the hazardous North Atlantic route from Canada to Russia. On three occasions boats he served on were sunk or incapacitated by enemy action. Following the war he studied geography at Cambridge, and it was then that he travelled to Patagonia beginning a love affair with South America that would continue all his life.

The early trips were adventurous. In 1947, together with H. Gianolini, he attempted to walk across the South Patagonian icefield. The expedition almost succeeded, but bad weather and a sick colleague prevented a successful crossing. Later, in the 1950’s he participated in Eric Shipton’s successful expeditions to the South Patagonian icefield. These early experiences undoubtedly were fundamentally important in stimulating his interest in the climatic history of the region. During these trips he made enduring friendships with the “estancieros” who referred to him as their “Senor Johnny”.

JOHN H. MERCER 1922-1987

John’s discovery of Feruglio’s descriptions of the interbedded glacial and lava flows on Cerro Fraile led to one of his most important accomplishments in South America. By applying the most up-to-date dating techniques to the older glacial deposits of the mesetas, he was able to demonstrate a history of glaciation extending back to the Late Miocene.

John was also interested in more recent glacial history. The Lake Region of Chile was his favourite area. “El Alto” was a familiar figure to the residents of Puerto Varas. In reference to his studies in the Lake Region of Chile, Steve Porter commented that John had an uncanny knack for discovering important sites. John is credited with having compiled a glacial chronology for the latest Quaternary history. He provided dates for the major events: the maximum of the last glaciation, the last major readvance, and the initiation of deglaciation. He remained a firm non-believer in the existence of glacial and climatic events that were equivalent in timing to the Younger Dryas Stade of the North Atlantic.

John made pioneering glacial studies in the Chilean Channels during which he established a chronology for neoglaciations which is the standard for South America. John also conducted studies on the Quelccaya icecap of Peru and made important contributions to its recent glacial history.

He also studied glacial geology in Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, New Zealand, and Antarctica. I once asked him if he had ever felt guilty about devoting his life to something so esoteric as climate studies. He replied that he had and, as a consequence, had spent two years in Samoa surveying the island’s population.

Those of us who were fortunate to study with John knew him as a shy, gentle man who detested arrogance and pomposity. Above all he was a field scientist with a love for the simple things in life: a night under the Patagonian stars; the crackle of a calafate camp fire; the smell of burnt mutton; and the warmth afforded by a glass or two of wine from a penguin jug.

Like many others I was introduced to South America field studies by John Mercer. He was a stimulating and enjoyable field companion whose friendship I will deeply miss.

Dr. John Mercer’s publications on the Cenozoic Glacial History of the Southern Hemisphere.

1960 Outline of glaciological research in the Antarctic príor to the IGY, Glac. Notes, 3. 1962 Glacier variations in the Antarctic, Glaciol. Notes, 11.

1962 Glacier variations in New Zealand, Glaciol. Notes, 12.

1962 Glacier variations in the Andes, Glaciol. Notes, 12.

1963 Glacial geology of the Ohio Range, central Horlick Mountains, Antarctica, Inst. Polar Studies Rept. 8.

1965 Glacier variations in southern Patagonia, Geog. Rev. 55, 390-413.

1967 Glaciers of the Antarctic, Amer. Geog. Soc. Antarctic Map Folio Series, 7, 10p.

1967 Southern hemisphere glacier atlas, U.S. Army, Natick Lab., Tech. Rept. 67-76-ES, 325.

1968 Variations of some Patagonian glaciers since the Late-Glacial, Amer. J. Sci., 266, 91-109.

1968 Glacial geology of the Reedy Glacier area, Antarctica, Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 79, 471-486.

1968 The discontinuous glacio-eustatic fall in Tertiary sea level, Palaeogeog. Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol. 5, 77-85.

1968 Antarctic ice and Sangamon sea level, Internat. Assoc. Sci. Hydrology Publ. 79, Gen. Assembly of Berne, 1967, Commission on Snow and Ice, p.217-225.

1969 The Allerod Oscillation: a European climatic anomaly? Arctic and Alpine Res. 1, 227-234.

1969 Glaciation in southern Argentina more than 2 million years ago, Science 164, 823-825.

1970 Antarctic ice and interglacial sea levels, Science 168, 1605-1606.

1970 A former ice sheet in the Arctic Ocean? Palaeogeog. Palaeoclim. Palaeoecol. 8,19-27.

1970 Variations of some Patagonian glaciers since the Late- Glacial II, Amer. J. Sci. 269, 1-25.

1971 Cold glaciers in the central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica; dry ablation areas and subglacial erosion, J. Glaciol., 10, 319-321.

1972 Chilean glacial chronology 20,000-11,000 carbon-14 years ago; some global comparisons, Science 176, 1118-1120.

1972 The lower boundary of the Holocene, Quaternary Res. 2, 15-24.

1972 Some observations on the glacial geology of the Beardmore Glacier area: i, Antarctic Geology and Geophysics, R.J. Adie, Ed., Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 427-433.

1972 Fleck, R.J., Mercer, J.H., Nairn, A.E.M., and Peterson, D.N. Chronology of Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene glacial and magnetic events in southern Argentina, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 16, 15-22.

1972 Mercer, J.H., Fleck, R.J., Mankinen, E.A., and Sander, W., Glaciation in southern Argentina before 3.6 m.y. ago and origin of the Patagonian gravels (Rodados Patagonicos), Abstracts, Geol. Soc. Amer. Annual Meeting, Minneapolis.

1973 Cainozoic temperature trends in the southern hemisphere: Antarctic and Andean glacial evidence, Palaeoecology of Africa and Antarctica, v.6, p.85-114.

1973 Mercer, J.H. and Laugenie, C.A., Glacier in Chile ended a major readvance about 36,000 years ago: some global comparisons, Science 182, 1017-1019.

1975 Stuiver, M.; Mercer, J.H.; and Moreno, H. Erroneous date for Chilean glacial advance, Science 187, 73-74.

1975 Mercer, J.H., Fleck, R.J., Mankinen, E.A., and Sander, W., Southern Patagonia: glacial events between 4 MY and 1 MY ago, in: Quaternary Studies (R.P. Suggate and M.M. Cresswell, eds.), Royal Society of New Zealand, p.223-230.

1975 Mercer, J.H., Thompson, L.G., Marangunic, C. and Ricker, J. Peru’s Quelccaya Ice Cap: glaciological and glacial geological studies, 1974, Antarctic Journal of the United States 10, 19-24.

1976 Glacial history of southernmost South America, Quaternary Research 6, 125-166.

1977 Radiocarbon dating of the past glaciation in Peru, Geology 5, 600-604.

1978 West Antarctic ice sheet and C02 greenhouse effect: a threat of disaster, Nature 271, 321-5.

1978 Age of earliest mid-latitude glaciation, Nature 274, 926.

1978 Glacial development and temperature trends in the Antarctic and in South America, in: Antarctic glaciation and world palaeoenvironments, E.M. van Zinderen Bakker, ed., Balkema, Amsterdam.

1981 Tertiary tillites of the Ross Ice Shelf area, Antarctica, in: Earth’s pre-Pleistocene glacial record, International Geological Correlation Project 38: Pre-Pleistocene tillites, M.H. Hambrey and W.B. Harland, eds. Cambridge University Press, p.204-207.

1981 West Antarctic ice volume: the interplay of sea level and temperature, and a strandline test for absence of the ice sheet during the last interglacial, in: Sea level, ice and climatic change (Proceedings of the Canberra Symposium, December, 1979), IAHS Publ. No 131, p.323-330.

1982 (with J.F. Sutter) Late Miocene-earliest Pliocene glaciation in southern Argentina: implications for global ice sheet history, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 38, 185-206.

1982 Holocene glacier fluctuations in southern South America, Striae 18, 35-40.

1983 Cenozoic glaciation in the Southern Hemisphere, Ann. Rev. Earth Planetary Sci. 11, 99-132.

1983 Webb, P.N., Harwood, D.M., McKelvey, B.C., Mercer, J.H. and Stott, L.D. Neogene and older Cenozoic microfossils in high elevation deposits of the Transantarctic Mountains: Evidence for marine sedimentation and ice volume variation on the east antarctic craton, Antarctic Journal of the United States, 18(5):96-97.

1984 Simultaneous cl...