Dating glacial landforms

Abstract

Reliably, dating glacial landforms are fundamental to the field of paleoclimatology. All dating methods have uncertainties and room for improvement. Just as multiple proxies are needed to reconstruct past climate change, or multiple climate models should be used to predict future climate change, more than one geochronological tool should be employed wherever possible to date glacial landforms. Newer and more powerful techniques (e.g., cosmogenic-exposure dating) need to be used in concert with relative-dating techniques, beginning with a foundation of geomorphic mapping and morphostratigraphic relationships. The geochronologic toolbox employed to date glacial landforms is expanding, and it is exciting to think about what additional techniques will be available in the future. At the same time, however, the tools already in hand are sufficient to read landscapes upon which there are widespread traces of former glacier change.