Glacial geology, Brooks Range and other areas of Alaska
Although most of Alaska was never glaciated, the vast mountainous regions generated more Pleistocene glacier ice than in all of the western conterminous U.S. combined. Most of the ice was contained in the northwestern extension of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, but dozens of smaller mountain ranges across the state also supported valley and cirque glaciers. These smaller glacier systems can be reconstructed accurately from the glacial-geomorphic record, and their paleoclimatic significance is more easily interpreted than for ice sheets.
I have a long-standing interest in the glacial geology of Alaska. My colleagues, students, and I have mapped glacier deposits, studied relative-weathering features, and applied a variety of geochronological tools in mountain ranges across the state including: Kigluaik Mountains, Ahklun Mountains, Chuilnuk/Kiokluk Mountains, Kokrines Hills, Zane Hills, Mt. Prindle area, Revelation Mountains, Yukon-Tanana, upper Alaska Peninsula, and most recently, the eastern Brooks Range. In each of these areas, we reconstructed the extent of valley glaciers during the last glacial maximum, and in some cases, the penultimate glaciation. We applied GIS coupled with DEMs to estimate paleo-equilibrium-line altitudes and have interpreted the data in terms of the prevailing climate. We have also dated dozens of moraines by surface-exposure dating of boulders based on cosmogenic isotopes (Cl, Be, and Al).
Or reseach on Alaskan glacial geology has been published in:
Balascio, N.L., Kaufman, D.S., and Manley, W.F., 2005a, Equilibrium-line altitudes during the last glacial maximum across the Brooks Range, Alaska: Journal of Quaternary Science 20, 821-838.
Balascio, N.L., Kaufman, D.S., Briner, J.P., Manley, W.F., 2005b, Late Pleistocene glacial geology of the Okpilak-Kongkut Rivers region, northeastern Brooks Range, Alaska: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 37, 416-424.
Briner, J.P., Kaufman, D.S., Manley, W.F., Finkel, R.C., and Caffee, M.W., 2005, Cosmogenic exposure dating of late Pleistocene moraine stabilization in Alaska: Geological Society of America Bulletin 117, 1108-1120.
Kaufman, D.S. and Manley, W.F., 2004, Pleistocene maximum and Late Wisconsin glacier extents across Alaska, U.S.A., in Ehlers, J. and Gibbard, P.L., eds., Quaternary Glaciations—Extent and Chronology, Part II: North America. Developments in Quaternary Science Volume 2, Amsterdam, Elsevier.
Kaufman, D.S., Porter, S.C., and Gillespie, A.R., 2004, Quaternary alpine glaciation in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Sierra Nevada, and Hawaii, in Gillespie, A.R., Porter, S.C., and Atwarter, B.F., eds., The Quaternary Period in the United States, Developments in Quaternary Science Volume 1, Elsevier Press, 77-103.
Or my earlier work on the glacial geology in Alaska in:
Briner, J.P. and Kaufman, D.S., 2000, Late Pleistocene glacial history of the southwestern Ahklun Mountains, Alaska: Quaternary Research 53, 13-22.
Calkin, P.E., Kaufman, D.S., Przybyl, B.J., Whitford, W.B., and Peck, B.J., 1998, Glacier regimes, periglacial landforms, and Holocene climate change in the Kigluaik Mountains, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, U.S.A.: Arctic and Alpine Research 20, 154-165.
Kaufman, D.S., and Thompson, C.H., 1998, Re-evaluation of pre-late-Wisconsin glacial deposits, lower Naknek valley, southwestern Alaska: Arctic and Alpine Research 30, 142-153.
Kaufman, D.S., and Stilwell, K.B., 1997, Preliminary evaluation of emergent postglacial shorelines, Naknek and Iliamna lakes, southwestern Alaska: Geological Studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey During 1995, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1574, 73-81.
Kaufman, D.S. Forman, S.L., Lea, P.D., and Wobus, C.W., 1996, Age of pre-late-Wisconsin glacial-estuarine sedimentation, Bristol Bay, Alaska: Quaternary Research 45, 59-72.
Stilwell, K.B., and Kaufman, D.S., 1996, Late Wisconsin glacial history of the Iliamna/Naknek/ Brooks lake area, southwestern Alaska: Arctic and Alpine Research 28, 475-487.
Kaufman, D.S., Walter, R.C., Brigham-Grette, J., and Hopkins, D.M., 1991, Middle Pleistocene age of the Nome River glaciation, northwestern Alaska: Quaternary Research 36, 277-293.
Peck, B.J., Kaufman, D.S., and Calkin, P.E., 1990, Relative dating of moraines using moraine morphometric and boulder weathering criteria, Kigluaik Range, Alaska: Boreas 19, 227-239.
Kaufman, D.S. and Calkin, P.E., 1988, Morphometric analysis of Pleistocene moraines in the Kigluaik Mountains, Alaska: Arctic and Alpine Research 20, 273-284.
Kaufman, D.S., Hopkins, D.M., and Calkin, P.E., 1988, Glacial geologic history of the Salmon Lake area, Seward Peninsula: United States Geological Survey Circular 1016, 91-94.
Kaufman, D.S. and Hopkins, D.M., 1986, Glacial history of the Seward Peninsula, in Hamilton, T.D., Reed, K.M., and Thorson, R.M., eds., Glaciation in Alaska—The geologic record: Anchorage, Alaska Geologic Society, 51-77.
