Abstract Narrative The doctoral student supported by this dissertation award will conduct a field study of the areas covered by the Tioga/Hilgard glaciers in the Sierra Nevada of California. He will use air photos, maps, analysis of glacial deposits, and coring of selected lakes and meadows to reconstruct the surface forms of the glaciers at different times during their retreat in the late Pleistocene. The purpose of the research is to determine more precisely when the region was deglaciated and to infer from that information and other field observations what climatic conditions existed at the time of deglaciation. The methods that will be used in this project are innovative and the research will fill a large gap in our knowledge of late-Pleistocene environments in the western United States. More generally, the project will contribute to our understanding of midlatitude alpine glacier dynamics during warming periods.
