Equilibrium line altitude variations with latitude, today and during the Late Wisconsin

Abstract

Present-day and late Wisconsin glacier equilibrium line altitudes (ELA) were compared on a transect from Patagonia along the coastal Cordillera to Alaska, and a transect from Mexico along the Sierra Madre-Rocky Mountains to Alaska. Late Wisconsin ELA's were determined from cirques occupied during the late Wisconsin, and present day ELA from observations of active cirque glaciers. The mean change in ELA from the late Wisconsin to the present was 735 m, with a standard deviation of 120 m. This indicates that the change in snowline altitude from the present to the late Wisconsin was approximately uniform and not latitudinally dependent.