Quaternary glacial and marine environmental history of northwest Greenland: a review and reappraisal

Kelly, M.; Funder, Svend; Houmark‐Nielsen, Michael; Knudsen, Karen Luise; Kronborg, Christian; Landvik, Jon Y.; Sorby, Lennart

doi:10.1016/s0277-3791(98)00004-3

Cited by 62 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Holocene relative sea-level changes around Greenland have been observed and reported earlier in a number of investigations from different sites (e.g. Funder 1978;Bjö rck & Persson 1981;Bjö rck et al 1994;Rasch & Jensen 1997;Kelly et al 1999;Long et al 1999;Rasch 2000;Bennike & Weidick 2001;Long & Roberts 2002;Long et al 2003). Only limited data have been available from southern Greenland (Fredskild 1973;Funder 1979;Bennike et al 2002;Weidick et al 2004).…”

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confidence: 59%

Holocene relative sea-level changes in the Qaqortoq area, southern Greenland

Sparrenbom¹,

Bennike²,

Björck³

et al. 2006

Boreas

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We present results from an investigation of relative sea-level changes in the Qaqortoq area in south Greenland from c. 11 000 cal. yr BP to the present. Isolation and transgression sequences from six lakes and two tidal basins have been identified using stratigraphical analyses, magnetic susceptibility, XRF and macrofossil analyses. Macrofossils and bulk sediments have been dated by AMS radiocarbon dating. Maximum and minimum altitudes for relative sea level are provided from two deglaciation and marine lagoon sequences. Initially, relative sea level fell rapidly and reached present-day level at Â/9000 cal. yr BP and continued falling until at least 8800 cal. yr BP. Between 8000 and 6000 cal. yr BP, sea level reached its lowest level of around 6 Á/8 m below highest astronomical tide (h.a.t.). At around 3750 cal. yr BP, sea level has reached above 2.7 m below h.a.t. and continued to rise slowly, reaching the present-day level between Â/2000 cal. yr BP and the present. As in the Nanortalik area further south, initial isostatic rebound caused rapid isolation of low elevation basins in the Qaqortoq area. Distinct isolation contacts in the sediments are observed. The late Holocene transgression is less well defined and occurred over a longer time interval. The late Holocene sea-level rise implies reloading by advancing glaciers superimposed on the isostatic signal from the North American Ice Sheet. One consequence of this transgression is that settlements of Palaeo-Eskimo cultures from Â/4000 cal. yr BP may have been transgressed by the sea.Charlotte J. Sparrenbom

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confidence: 59%

Holocene relative sea-level changes in the Qaqortoq area, southern Greenland

Sparrenbom¹,

Bennike²,

Björck³

et al. 2006

Boreas

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“…The extent and thickness of the Saalian glaciation in Greenland is poorly understood (Kelly et al, 1999;Adrielsson and Alexanderson, 2005.). However, our results provide a crude indication of ice surface elevation during MIS 6 being at least 1000 m asl in this area of West Greenland.…”

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confidence: 73%

Ice sheet extent and early deglacial history of the southwestern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Roberts

Long

Schnabel

et al. 2009

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Corresponding author. Tel: 0044-191-344-1935; Fax: 0044-191-334-1801. D.H.Roberts@durham.ac.uk (D.H.Roberts). AbstractThe offshore and coastal geomorphology of southwest Greenland records evidence for the advance and decay of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum. Regional ice flow patterns in the vicinity of Sisimiut show an enlarged ice sheet that extended southwestwards on to the shelf, with an ice stream centred over Holsteinsborg dyb. High level periglacial terrain composed of blockfield and tors is dated to between 101 -142 ka using 26 Al and 10Be cosmogenic exposure ages. These limit the maximum surface elevation of the Last Glacial Maximum ice sheet in this part of southwest Greenland to ca 750 -810 m asl, and demonstrate that terrain above this level has been ice free since MIS 6. Last Glacial Maximum ice thickness on the coast of ca 700 m implies that the ice sheet reached the mid to outer continental shelf edge to form the Outer Hellefisk moraines. Exposure dates record ice surface thinning from 21.0 to 9.8 ka, with downwasting rates varying from 0.06 to 0.12m yr -1 . This reflects strong surface ablation associated with increased air temperatures running up to the Bølling Interstadial (GIS1e) at ca 14 ka, and later marine calving under high sea levels. The relatively late retreat of the Itilleq ice stream inland of the present coastline is similar to the pattern observed at Jakobshavn Isbrae, located 250 km north in Disko Bugt, which also retreated from the continental shelf after ca 10 ka. We hypothesise that the ice streams of West Greenland persisted on the inner shelf until the early Holocene because of their considerable ice thickness and greater ice discharge compared with the adjacent ice sheet. IntroductionMass balance observations of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) show that it is undergoing rapid change (Howat et al., 2005;Chen et al., 2006;Joughin, 2006;Rignot and Kanagaratnam, 2006;Velicogna and Wahr, 2006;Holland et al., 2008). These short term changes may be a response to climate warming, or natural instability in ice sheet behaviour. There is a need, therefore, to develop longer-term perspectives on ice sheet 2 behaviour in order to improve our knowledge of the internal and external environmental controls that drive ice sheet fluctuation.Furthering our understanding the long term behaviour of the western sector of the GIS is important for several reasons. Firstly, early geomorphological research established the Sisimiut region as a benchmark study area for the deglacial chronology of West Greenland (Weidick, 1972;Ten Brink and Weidick, 1975;Kelly, 1985;Funder, 1989). However, the deglacial chronology relied largely on radiocarbon dated marine shells and direct dating of deglacial terrain was not possible. Moreover, recent work has begun to challenge aspects of the resulting regional deglacial chronology. In the Disko Bugt region, for example, ice margin retreat occurred later than originally thought, whilst the early Holocene "Fjord stade" moraines, previously da...

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“…10 14 C kyr BP Blake et al, 1992;Kelly and Bennike, 1992;England, 1999). The location of the margin of the southward glacier that drained Nares Strait is debated (Blake et al, 1996, Kelly et al, 1999. Baffin Island in the eastern Canadian Arctic also may have been glaciated more extensively than previously believed (Marsella et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronology of the last recession of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Bennike

Björck

2002

J Quaternary Science

166

138

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A new deglaciation chronology for the ice-free parts of Greenland, the continental shelf and eastern Ellesmere Island (Canada) is proposed. The chronology is based on a new compilation of all published radiocarbon dates from Greenland, and includes crucial new material from southern, northeastern and northwestern Greenland. Although each date provides only a minimum age for the local deglaciation, some of the dates come from species that indicate ice-proximal glaciomarine conditions, and thus may be connected with the actual ice recession. In addition to shell dates, dates from marine algae, lake sediments, peat, terrestrial plants and driftwood also are included. Only offshore and in the far south have secure late-glacial sediments been found. Other previous reports of late-glacial sediments (older than 11.5 cal. kyr BP) from onshore parts of Greenland need to be confirmed. Most of the present ice-free parts of Greenland and Nares Strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island were not deglaciated until the early Holocene.

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Quaternary glacial and marine environmental history of northwest Greenland: a review and reappraisal

Cited by 62 publications

References 42 publications

Holocene relative sea-level changes in the Qaqortoq area, southern Greenland

Holocene relative sea-level changes in the Qaqortoq area, southern Greenland

Ice sheet extent and early deglacial history of the southwestern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Chronology of the last recession of the Greenland Ice Sheet

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