The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet
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The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. / MacGregor, Joseph A.; Fahnestock, Mark A.; Colgan, William T.; Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Kjeldsen, Kristian K.; Welker, Jeffrey M.
In: Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 66, No. 258, 2020, p. 667-684.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet
AU - MacGregor, Joseph A.
AU - Fahnestock, Mark A.
AU - Colgan, William T.
AU - Larsen, Nicolaj K.
AU - Kjeldsen, Kristian K.
AU - Welker, Jeffrey M.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Each summer, surface melting of the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet exposes a distinctive visible stratigraphy that is related to past variability in subaerial dust deposition across the accumulation zone and subsequent ice flow toward the margin. Here we map this surface stratigraphy along the northern margin of the ice sheet using mosaicked Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite imagery from the end of the 2019 melt season and finer-resolution WorldView-2/3 imagery for smaller regions of interest. We trace three distinct transitions in apparent dust concentration and the top of a darker basal layer. The three dust transitions have been identified previously as representing late-Pleistocene climatic transitions, allowing us to develop a coarse margin chronostratigraphy for northern Greenland. Substantial folding of late-Pleistocene stratigraphy is observed but uncommon. The oldest conformal surface-exposed ice in northern Greenland is likely located adjacent to Warming Land and may be up to ~55 thousand years old. Basal ice is commonly exposed hundreds of metres from the ice margin and may indicate a widespread frozen basal thermal state. We conclude that the ice margin across northern Greenland offers multiple opportunities to recover paleoclimatically distinct ice relative to previously studied regions in southwestern Greenland.
AB - Each summer, surface melting of the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet exposes a distinctive visible stratigraphy that is related to past variability in subaerial dust deposition across the accumulation zone and subsequent ice flow toward the margin. Here we map this surface stratigraphy along the northern margin of the ice sheet using mosaicked Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite imagery from the end of the 2019 melt season and finer-resolution WorldView-2/3 imagery for smaller regions of interest. We trace three distinct transitions in apparent dust concentration and the top of a darker basal layer. The three dust transitions have been identified previously as representing late-Pleistocene climatic transitions, allowing us to develop a coarse margin chronostratigraphy for northern Greenland. Substantial folding of late-Pleistocene stratigraphy is observed but uncommon. The oldest conformal surface-exposed ice in northern Greenland is likely located adjacent to Warming Land and may be up to ~55 thousand years old. Basal ice is commonly exposed hundreds of metres from the ice margin and may indicate a widespread frozen basal thermal state. We conclude that the ice margin across northern Greenland offers multiple opportunities to recover paleoclimatically distinct ice relative to previously studied regions in southwestern Greenland.
KW - Ice and climate
KW - ice chronology/dating
KW - paleoclimate
KW - remote sensing
U2 - 10.1017/jog.2020.62
DO - 10.1017/jog.2020.62
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85090331656
VL - 66
SP - 667
EP - 684
JO - Journal of Glaciology
JF - Journal of Glaciology
SN - 0022-1430
IS - 258
ER -
ID: 248470844