Collaborative Research: Climate controls on the formation of tropical glacier moraines in the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda-Congo

合作研究：乌干达鲁文佐里山脉热带冰川冰川形成的气候控制-世界热带高山上的康戈冰川是地球气候系统中最敏感的组成部分之一。目前这些冰川的融化是人为气候变化的一个壮观例子。然而，热带冰川对降水、湿度和各种其他气候过程非常敏感，而不仅仅是气温。因此，冰川学和气候研究的一个主要目标是了解热带冰川对气候变化的反应，并评估过去气候变化的哪些方面控制着冰川的进退。该项目试图通过重建乌干达-刚果鲁文佐里山脉过去的温度变化和冰川运动来测试温度变化是否控制了热带山脉冰川的行为。具体地说，我们将通过使用宇宙成因的雷迪纳利测年冰川冰川沉积来产生新的冰川推进记录，根据湖泊沉积岩芯产生新的温度记录，并将冷却时间与冰川推进时间进行比较。鲁文佐里山脉拥有非洲最广泛的冰川和冰川系统，但实际上没有直接的日期来限制过去冰川的年龄。此外，实际上没有独立于冰川物质平衡估算得出的非洲热带山脉的定量温度重建。我们的工作将为热带非洲主要冰川的时间、冰川敏感性和温度变化提供新的见解，这些地区几乎没有这样的年表，并将阐明控制热带冰川动态的气候过程。

Collaborative Research: Climate controls on the formation of tropical glacier moraines in the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda-CongoGlaciers on the world's high tropical mountains are among the most sensitive components of the Earth's climate system. The current melting of these glaciers is a spectacular example of anthropogenic climate change. However, tropical glaciers are strongly sensitive to precipitation, humidity, and various other climate processes, not just air temperature. A major objective of glaciology and climate research is thus to understand the responses of tropical glaciers to climate change, and to evaluate which aspects of past climate change control glacier advance and retreat. This project seeks to test whether changes in temperature control the behavior of tropical mountain glaciers by reconstructing past temperature changes and glacier movement in the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda-Congo. Specifically we will generate new records of glacier advance by dating glacier moraine deposits using cosmogenic radinulides, generate a new temperature record based from lake sediment cores, and compare the timing of periods of cooling with the timing of glacier advances. The Rwenzori Mountains host the most extensive glacier and moraine systems in Africa, but there are virtually no direct dates to constrain the age of past glaciations. Moreover, there are virtually no quantitative temperature reconstructions from tropical African mountains derived independently of glacial mass balance estimates. Our work will provide new insight into the timing of major glaciations, glacier sensitivity, and temperature changes in tropical Africa, where few such chronologies exist, and will elucidate the climate processes that control tropical glacier dynamics.