Mountain glaciers, because of their small size, are usually close to equilibrium with the local climate and thus should provide a test of whether temperature oscillations in Greenland late in the last glacial period are part of global-scale climate variability or are restricted to the North Atlantic region. Correlation of cosmogenic chlorine-36 dates on Sierra Nevada moraines with a continuous radiocarbon-dated sediment record from nearby Owens Lake shows that Sierra Navada glacial advances were associated with Heinrich events 5, 3, 2, and 1.

F.M. Phillips, M.G. Zreda, L.V. Benson, M.A. Plummer, D. Elmore, P. Sharma

Science 274 (1996) 749-751