Fiordland glaciers and the Subtropical Front (SW Pacific) during the last glacial period (core TAN1106-28, Solander Trough)

Mountain glaciers are highly sensitive, purely physical monitors of climatic conditions. Geochemical and mineralogical data from core TAN1106-28 (48.372°S, 165.659°E) in the Solander Trough (2798 m water depth) allow the continuous, well-dated, high-resolution reconstruction of glacier fluctuations from New Zealand’s South Island over the last 70,000 years. The Solander Trough also lies beneath the modern Subtropical Front (STF). Major latitudinal shifts of the STF and associated changes in sea-surface temperature (SST) have occurred since the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 26-19 ka), as a result of changes in the westerlies, which possibly played a major role in controlling past precipitation and glacier dynamics in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. To explore these potential relationships, past SST-STF shifts were reconstructed from the TAN1106-28 record using planktic foraminiferal proxies from the same core samples.