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

合作研究：气候对乌干达-刚果鲁文佐里山脉热带冰川冰碛形成的控制世界热带高山上的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的例子。 然而，热带冰川对降水、湿度和其他各种气候过程非常敏感，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响应，并评估过去气候变化的哪些方面控制着冰川的前进和后退。 该项目旨在通过重建乌干达-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热带山脉冰川的行为。 具体来说，我们将通过使用宇宙成因radinulides测定冰川冰碛沉积物的年代来产生冰川前进的新记录，根据湖泊沉积物岩心产生新的温度记录，并将冷却时期的时间与冰川前进的时间进行比较。 鲁文佐里山脉拥有非洲最广泛的冰川和冰碛系统，但实际上没有直接的日期来限制过去冰川的年龄。此外，几乎没有定量的温度重建热带非洲山区独立的冰川物质平衡估计。 我们的工作将提供新的见解，主要冰川的时间，冰川的敏感性，以及在热带非洲的温度变化，在那里很少这样的年表存在，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.