Chronology of Late Pleistocene glacier variations at the Uludağ Mountain, NW Turkey

Surface exposure ages with cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al on glaciogenic landforms at the Uludağ Mountain, NW Turkey (Mt. Uludağ: 40°04′15″N, 29°13′18″E, 2542 m above sea level), indicate that the local maximum glaciation occurred no later than 20.3 ± 1.5 ka ago. This is in agreement with other exposure age data sets from Anatolia and is in accordance with the timing of the last maximum glaciation in the European Alps coinciding with the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 21 ± 2 ka). Geomorphologically-constrained subsequent glacier oscillations were dated to the Lateglacial period and show distinct phases of readvanced glaciers around 16.1 ± 1.2 ka, 13.3 ± 1.1 ka, and 11.5 ± 1.0 ka ago. This indicates an oscillating glacier recession in NW Anatolia during Termination 1. Published surface exposure ages related to the Lateglacial Gschnitz and Egesen moraines in the European Alps are in good agreement with the derived glacier chronology at the Uludağ Mountain. This implies the parallel occurrence of major climatic shifts on millennial time-scale in the European Alps and NW Turkey during the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2.