The Pleistocene Moraine Stages of West-Central Peru

Abstract

Detailed field mapping in three massifs of the central Andes of Peru indicates that there are four glacial moraine stages. Historical evidence and correlation with Patagonia and South Georgia suggest that the three youngest stages relate to Neoglacial re-advances which culminated before 4000 b.p., between a.d. 1750 and 1800 and during the late nineteenth century. The oldest moraine stage may be of late Wisconsin/Weichselian age. The absence of older moraines suggests that the Peruvian Andes were not high enough earlier in the Pleistocene to support larger glaciers.