A <sup>10</sup>Be chronology of early Holocene local glacier moraines in central West Greenland

The timing of mountain glacier fluctuations is poorly constrained in some parts of Greenland during the Late Holocene. We present 31 10Be cosmic‐ray exposure ages (CRE) of boulders collected from three mountain glacier moraines located in the Tasilap valley, in southeastern Greenland, and 10 10Be CRE ages from one mountain glacier in the Isortup valley, in southern Greenland. For the first time in these areas, mountain glacier fluctuations are documented from moraine CRE for the Late Holocene period. Several glacier advances during the Late Holocene are revealed with exposure ages ranging from 3.90±0.26 to 0.4±0.04 ka. Moraines of three of the four glaciers investigated, dated to 3.75±0.13 ka (n = 3), 3.3±0.19 ka (n = 2) and 2.87±0.13 ka (n = 3), show a common timing of the largest glacier expansion during the Late Holocene. Evidence of at least one individual moraine deposited at ~1.2 ka was found on all glaciers. Finally, the most recent period of glacial advance during the Late Holocene is documented by one glacier in each valley at ~0.66–0.70 ka. The maximum glacier extent at ~3 ka differs from the Late Holocene glacier maximum extent usually reported during the Little Ice Age in east Greenland based on moraine dating and lake sediments. We suggest that the combination of a stronger East Greenland Current and a weaker Irminger Current, potentially associated with increased sea‐ice concentration, superimposed on the long‐term decrease in summer insolation during the Late Holocene could be responsible for this large glacial advance at ~3 ka in southern and southeastern Greenland.

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“…2014; 2016; 2020; O’Hara et al . 2017; Biette et al . 2020), significant uncertainties remain about the behaviour of mountain glaciers.…”

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confidence: 99%

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

Biette

Jomelli

Chenet

et al. 2021

Boreas

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“…Close to Disko Island, a local glacier from Nakàgajoq advanced at 10.4±0.2 ka (O'Hara et al . 2017), and at Uigordleq Lake Young et al . (2015) provided evidence of a glacial advance during the period of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA ~AD 950 to AD 1250) from a moraine dated to 0.8±0.04 ka.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…However, despite some studies that focused on local glacier fluctuations over recent decades (Kelly & Lowell 2009; O'Hara et al . 2017; Schweinsberg et al . 2019), robust moraine chronologies based on CRE dating remain limited in Greenland.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Mountain glacier fluctuations during the Lateglacial and Holocene on Clavering Island (northeastern Greenland) from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

Biette

Jomelli

Chenet

et al. 2020

Boreas

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Despite an increasing interest in Greenlandic mountain glaciers over recent decades, their evolution during the Lateglacial and Holocene still needs to be better constrained. Here we present 25 10Be cosmic‐ray exposure (CRE) ages of boulders collected on moraines from three glaciers located on Clavering Island (northeastern Greenland). CRE ages span 16.29±0.79 to 0.37±0.05 ka and reveal three periods of moraine formation during the Lateglacial, the Early and the Late Holocene. Data show a multi‐modal distribution of the ages during the Lateglacial with exposure ages spanning from 16.29±0.79 to 12.31±1.3 ka. At least two glaciers experienced a greater expansion at the beginning of the Holocene than at the end of the Holocene, dated to 11.3±0.3 and 10.8±0.6 ka, respectively. At the end of the Holocene, glacial advances occurred during the Dark Ages Cold Period and during the Little Ice Age (LIA), synchronous with glacial advances documented in nearby lake sediments. This new CRE chronology highlights that the LIA extent is not the largest glacier advance in the Late Holocene in Clavering Island. This broadly corresponds with other mountain glaciers of western and northern Greenland, and does not appear to reflect northern high latitude summer insolation that would suggest progressive temperature decrease, but instead mimics recent regional continental temperature reconstructions that show a long term warming driven by different forcing.

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“…1). However, direct moraine dating from a growing number of glaciers of the North Atlantic sector [9][10][11][12] (i.e. Greenland, Scandinavia, Iceland, and the European Alps) shows larger ice extents during the early Holocene than during the LIA.…”

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confidence: 99%

In-phase millennial-scale glacier changes in the tropics and North Atlantic regions during the Holocene

et al. 2022

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Based on new and published cosmic-ray exposure chronologies, we show that glacier extent in the tropical Andes and the north Atlantic regions (TANAR) varied in-phase on millennial timescales during the Holocene, distinct from other regions. Glaciers experienced an early Holocene maximum extent, followed by a strong mid-Holocene retreat and a re-advance in the late Holocene. We further explore the potential forcing of TANAR glacier variations using transient climate simulations. Since the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) evolution is poorly represented in these transient simulations, we develop a semi-empirical model to estimate the “AMOC-corrected” temperature and precipitation footprint at regional scales. We show that variations in the AMOC strength during the Holocene are consistent with the observed glacier changes. Our findings highlight the need to better constrain past AMOC behavior, as it may be an important driver of TANAR glacier variations during the Holocene, superimposed on other forcing mechanisms.

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A ¹⁰Be chronology of early Holocene local glacier moraines in central West Greenland

Cited by 11 publications

References 61 publications

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

Mountain glacier fluctuations during the Lateglacial and Holocene on Clavering Island (northeastern Greenland) from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

In-phase millennial-scale glacier changes in the tropics and North Atlantic regions during the Holocene

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A 10Be chronology of early Holocene local glacier moraines in central West Greenland

Cited by 11 publications

References 61 publications

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from 10Be moraine dating

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from 10Be moraine dating

Mountain glacier fluctuations during the Lateglacial and Holocene on Clavering Island (northeastern Greenland) from 10Be moraine dating

In-phase millennial-scale glacier changes in the tropics and North Atlantic regions during the Holocene

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A ¹⁰Be chronology of early Holocene local glacier moraines in central West Greenland

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

Evidence of the largest Late Holocene mountain glacier extent in southern and southeastern Greenland during the middle Neoglacial from ¹⁰Be moraine dating

Mountain glacier fluctuations during the Lateglacial and Holocene on Clavering Island (northeastern Greenland) from ¹⁰Be moraine dating