A Younger Dryas re-advance of local glaciers in north Greenland
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A Younger Dryas re-advance of local glaciers in north Greenland. / Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Funder, Svend Visby; Linge, Henriette; Möller, Per; Schomacker, Anders; Fabel, Derek; Xu, Sheng; Kjær, Kurt H.
In: Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 147, 2016, p. 47-58.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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T1 - A Younger Dryas re-advance of local glaciers in north Greenland
AU - Larsen, Nicolaj K.
AU - Funder, Svend Visby
AU - Linge, Henriette
AU - Möller, Per
AU - Schomacker, Anders
AU - Fabel, Derek
AU - Xu, Sheng
AU - Kjær, Kurt H.
N1 - Special Issue: PAST Gateways (Palaeo-Arctic Spatial and Temporal Gateways)
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The Younger Dryas (YD) is a well-constrained cold event from 12,900 to 11,700 years ago but it remains unclear how the cooling and subsequent abrupt warming recorded in ice cores was translated into ice margin fluctuations in Greenland. Here we present 10Be surface exposure ages from three moraines in front of local glaciers on a 50 km stretch along the north coast of Greenland, facing the Arctic Ocean. Ten ages range from 11.6 ± 0.5 to 27.2 ± 0.9 ka with a mean age of 12.5 ± 0.7 ka after exclusion of two outliers. We consider this to be a minimum age for the abandonment of the moraines. The ages of the moraines are furthermore constrained using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of epishelf sediments, which were deposited prior to the ice advance that formed the moraines, yielding a maximum age of 12.4 ± 0.6 ka, and bracketing the formation and subsequent abandonment of the moraines to within the interval 11.8-13.0 ka ago. This is the first time a synchronous YD glacier advance and subsequent retreat has been recorded for several independent glaciers in Greenland. In most other areas, there is no evidence for re-advance and glaciers were retreating during YD. We explain the different behaviour of the glaciers in northernmost Greenland as a function of their remoteness from the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which in other areas has been held responsible for modifying the YD drop in temperatures.
AB - The Younger Dryas (YD) is a well-constrained cold event from 12,900 to 11,700 years ago but it remains unclear how the cooling and subsequent abrupt warming recorded in ice cores was translated into ice margin fluctuations in Greenland. Here we present 10Be surface exposure ages from three moraines in front of local glaciers on a 50 km stretch along the north coast of Greenland, facing the Arctic Ocean. Ten ages range from 11.6 ± 0.5 to 27.2 ± 0.9 ka with a mean age of 12.5 ± 0.7 ka after exclusion of two outliers. We consider this to be a minimum age for the abandonment of the moraines. The ages of the moraines are furthermore constrained using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of epishelf sediments, which were deposited prior to the ice advance that formed the moraines, yielding a maximum age of 12.4 ± 0.6 ka, and bracketing the formation and subsequent abandonment of the moraines to within the interval 11.8-13.0 ka ago. This is the first time a synchronous YD glacier advance and subsequent retreat has been recorded for several independent glaciers in Greenland. In most other areas, there is no evidence for re-advance and glaciers were retreating during YD. We explain the different behaviour of the glaciers in northernmost Greenland as a function of their remoteness from the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which in other areas has been held responsible for modifying the YD drop in temperatures.
KW - Greenland ice sheet
KW - Ice marginal fluctuations
KW - Surface exposure dating
KW - Younger Dryas
U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.036
DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.036
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84947570235
VL - 147
SP - 47
EP - 58
JO - Quaternary Science Reviews
JF - Quaternary Science Reviews
SN - 0277-3791
ER -
ID: 154370391