10Be age control of glaciation in the Beartooth Mountains, USA from the latest Pleistocene through the Holocene

Alpine glaciers in the western United States are often associated with late-Holocene Little Ice Age (LIA) advances. Yet, recent studies have shown many of these glacial landforms are remnants of latest-Pleistocene retreat with only the most cirque-proximal moraines preserving LIA activity. Additionally, the timing and magnitude of glacial advances during the Neoglacial-LIA interval remains uncertain with presumed maximum extents occurring during the LIA driven by lower Northern Hemisphere insolation levels. Here we present 10Be surface exposure ages from a glacial valley in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, United States. These new data constrain the presence of the glacier within 2-3 km of the cirque headwalls by the end of the Pleistocene with implications for large-scale retreat after the Last Glacial Maximum. Cirque moraines from two glaciers within the valley preserve a late-Holocene readvance with one reaching its maximum prior to 2.1 ± 0.2 ka and the other 0.2 ± 0.1 ka. Age variability among the moraines demonstrates that not all glaciers were largest during the LIA and presents the possibility of regional climate dynamics controlling glacial mass balance.