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1.
Local glaciers and ice caps (GICs) comprise only ~5.4% of the total ice volume, but account for ~14–20% of the current ice loss in Greenland. The glacial history of GICs is not well constrained, however, and little is known about how they reacted to Holocene climate changes. Specifically, in North Greenland, there is limited knowledge about past GIC fluctuations and whether they survived the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM, ~8 to 5 ka). In this study, we use proglacial lake records to constrain the ice‐marginal fluctuations of three local ice caps in North Greenland including Flade Isblink, the largest ice cap in Greenland. Additionally, we have radiocarbon dated reworked marine molluscs in Little Ice Age (LIA) moraines adjacent to the Flade Isblink, which reveal when the ice cap was smaller than present. We found that outlet glaciers from Flade Isblink retreated inland of their present extent from ~9.4 to 0.2 cal. ka BP. The proglacial lake records, however, demonstrate that the lakes continued to receive glacial meltwater throughout the entire Holocene. This implies that GICs in Finderup Land survived the HTM. Our results are consistent with other observations from North Greenland but differ from locations in southern Greenland where all records show that the local ice caps at low and intermediate elevations disappeared completely during the HTM. We explain the north–south gradient in glacier response as a result of sensitivity to increased temperature and precipitation. While the increased temperatures during the HTM led to a complete melting of GICs in southern Greenland, GICs remained in North Greenland probably because the melting was counterbalanced by increased precipitation due to a reduction in Arctic sea‐ice extent and/or increased poleward moisture transport.  相似文献   

2.
Uummannaq Fjord, West Greenland, held the Uummannaq Ice Stream system that drained an estimated ~6% of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) during the Last Glacial Maximum. Published ages for the final deglaciation in Uummannaq Fjord vary from as early as c. 9.8 ka to as late as c. 5.3 ka. Assessing this variability requires additional chronological controls to improve the deglaciation history of central West Greenland. Here, we combine 14C dating of lake sediment cores with cosmogenic 10Be exposure dating at sites adjacent to the present GrIS margin in the central‐inland sector of the Uummannaq Fjord system. We find that ice retreated to or within the present GrIS margin at 10.8±0.2 ka (n = 6). Although this ‘final deglaciation’ to or within the present GrIS margin across the Uummannaq Fjord system varies from c. 10.8 to 5.3 ka, all chronologies indicate collapse from the continental shelf to the inner fjords at c. 11.0 ka, which occurred at a net retreat rate of 300–1100 m a−1. The Uummannaq Fjord system deglaciated c. 1000 years earlier than the major fjord system to the south, Disko Bugt. However, similarly rapid retreat rates of the two palaeo‐ice stream systems suggest that their collapse may have been aided by high calving rates. The asynchronous deglaciation of the GrIS throughout the Uummannaq Fjord system probably relates to the influence of varying fjord geometry on marine glacier behaviour.  相似文献   

3.
Here we present Holocene organic carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, carbon isotope ratio and macrofossil data from a small freshwater lake near Sisimiut in south‐west Greenland. The lake was formed c. 11 cal ka BP following retreat of the ice sheet margin and is located above the marine limit in this area. The elemental and isotope data suggest a complex deglaciation history of interactions between the lake and its catchment, reflecting glacial retreat and post‐glacial hydrological flushing probably due to periodic melting of local remnant glacial ice and firn areas between 11 and 8.5 cal ka BP. After 8.5 cal ka BP, soil development and associated vegetation processes began to exert a greater control on terrestrial–aquatic carbon cycling. By 5.5 cal ka BP, in the early Neoglacial cooling, the sediment record indicates a change in catchment–lake interactions with consistent δ13C while C/N exhibits greater variability. The period after 5.5 cal ka BP is also characterized by higher organic C accumulation in the lake. These changes (total organic carbon, C/N, δ13C) are most likely the result of increasing contribution (and burial) of terrestrial organic matter as a result of enhanced soil instability, as indicated by an increase in Cenococcum remains, but also Sphagnum and Empetrum. The impact of glacial retreat and relatively subdued mid‐ to late Holocene climate variation at the coast is in marked contrast to the greater environmental variability seen in inland lakes closer to the present‐day ice sheet margin. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

4.
Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden in North-East Greenland is at present covered by a floating glacier. Raised marine deposits in the surrounding area contain shells of marine molluscs, bones of marine mammals and pieces of driftwood. A fairly systematic sampling of such material has been conducted, followed by extensive radiocarbon dating. We suggest that the Greenland ice sheet extended onto the shelf offshore North-East Greenland during isotope stage 2, perhaps even reaching the shelf break. During the subsequent recession of the ice sheet, the entrance of Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden had become ice-free by 9.7 cal. ka BP. The recession culminated between 7.7 and 4.5 cal. ka BP, during which time the fjord was glacier-free along its entire 80 km length. No dates younger than 4.5 cal. ka BP are available on marine material from the fjord, and it seems probable that the fjord has been continuously covered by the floating glacier since this time. The maximum glaciation was attained around AD 1900, after which thinning and recession took place. The marine limit increases from c. 40 m above sea level near the present margin of the Inland Ice to c. 65 m above sea level at the outer coast. These figures fit into the regional pattern of the marine limit for areas both to the south and north. The marine fauna comprise two bivalves, Macoma calcarea and Serripes groenlandicus, that may represent a southern element present during the Holocene temperature optimum. Remains of three taxa of southern extralimital terrestrial and limnic plants were dated to 5.1 cal. ka BP, and remains of another extralimital plant were dated to 8.8 and 8.5 cal. ka BP. The known Holocene time ranges of the willow Salix arctica and the lemming Dicrostonyx torquatus have been extended back to 8.8 and 6.4 cal. ka BP, respectively, providing minimum dates for their immigration to Greenland.  相似文献   

5.
The now acknowledged thinning of the Greenland Ice Sheet raises concerns about its potential contribution to future sea level rise. In order to appreciate the full extent of its contribution to sea level rise, reconstruction of the ice sheet's most recent last deglaciation could provide key information on the timing and the height of the ice sheet at a time of rapid climate readjustment. We measured 10Be concentrations in 12 samples collected along longitudinal and altitudinal transects from Sisimiut to within 10 km of the Isunguata Sermia Glacier ice margin on the western coast of Greenland. Along the longitudinal transect, we collected three perched boulders and two bedrocks. In addition, we sampled seven perched boulders along a vertical transect in a valley within 10 km of the Isunguata Sermia Glacier ice margin. Our pilot dataset constrains the height of the ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) between 500 m and 840 m (including the 120 m relative sea level depression at the time of the LGM, 21 ka BP). From the transect we estimate the thinning of the ice sheet at the end of the deglaciation between 12.3 ± 1.5 10Be ka (n = 2) and 8.3 ± 1.2 10Be ka (n = 3) to be ～6 cm a?1 over this time period. Direct dating of the retreat of the western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet has the potential to better constrain the retreat rate of the ice margin, the thickness of the former ice sheet as well as its response to climate change. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

6.
A new Greenland Ice Core Chronology (GICC05) based on multi-parameter counting of annual layers has been obtained for the last 42 ka. Here we compare the glacial part of the new time scale, which is based entirely on records from the NorthGRIP ice core, to existing time scales and reference horizons covering the same period. These include the GRIP and NorthGRIP modelled time scales, the Meese-Sowers GISP2 counted time scale, the Shackleton–Fairbanks GRIP time scale (SFCP04) based on 14C calibration of a marine core, the Hulu Cave record, three volcanic reference horizons, and the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion event occurring around Greenland Interstadial 10. GICC05 is generally in good long-term agreement with the existing Greenland ice core chronologies and with the Hulu Cave record, but on shorter time scales there are significant discrepancies. Around the Last Glacial Maximum there is a more than 1 ka age difference between GICC05 and SFCP04 and a more than 0.5 ka discrepancy in the same direction between GICC05 and the age of a recently identified tephra layer in the NorthGRIP ice core. Both SFCP04 and the tephra age are based on 14C-dated marine cores and fixed marine reservoir ages. For the Laschamp event, GICC05 agrees with a recent independent dating within the uncertainties.  相似文献   

7.
Here we combine 10Be depth profile techniques applied to late glacial ice‐contact marine and lacustrine deltas, as well as boulder exposure dating of associated features in the Scoresby Sound region, east Greenland, to determine both the surface age and the magnitude of cosmogenic nuclide inheritance. Boulder ages from an ice‐contact delta in northern Scoresby Sund show scatter typical of polar regions and yield an average age of 12.8 ± 0.5 ka – about 2 ka older than both our average profile surface age of 10.9 ± 0.7 ka from three depth profiles and a radiocarbon‐based estimate. On the other hand, boulder exposure ages from a set of moraines in southern Scoresby Sund show excellent internal consistency for polar regions and yield an average age of 11.6 ± 0.2 ka. The profile surface age from a corresponding ice‐contact delta is 8.1 ± 0.9 ka, while a second delta yields an age of 10.0 ± 0.4 ka. Measured 10Be inheritance concentrations from all depth profiles are internally consistent and are between 10% and 20% of the surface concentrations, suggesting a regional cosmogenic inheritance signal for the Scoresby Sound landscape. Based on the profile inheritance concentrations, we explore the first‐order catchment‐averaged bedrock erosion under the Greenland ice sheet, yielding estimates of total erosion during the last glacial cycle of the order of 2–30 m. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

8.
Jakobshavn Isbræ is one of the largest ice streams in the Greenland Ice Sheet, presently draining c. 6.5% of the Inland Ice. Here we present high‐resolution Chirp and Sparker sub‐bottom profiles from a seismic survey conducted just outside of the Jakobshavn Isfjord, which provides detailed insight into the glacimarine sedimentary history of the Jakobshavn ice stream during the Holocene. We observe acoustically stratified and homogeneous sediments that drape an irregular substratum and were deposited between ～10 and c. 7.6k cal a BP. The stratified lower units are interpreted as the product of ice‐proximal glacimarine sedimentation deposited rapidly when the grounded ice margin was located close to depositional basins on topographic highs. The upper acoustically homogenous units reflect suspension settling of fine‐grained material and gravitational flows that were extruded from an increasingly unstable ice margin as the ice retreated into the fjord. Proximity to the ice margin and bedrock topography were the dominant controls on sediment accumulation during deglaciation although the 8.2‐ka cooling event probably influenced the position of the ice margin at the fjord mouth. The post‐glacial sedimentary record is characterized by glacimarine and hemipelagic rainout with an increased ice‐rafted detritus fraction that records sedimentation following ice stream retreat into Jakobshavn Isfjord sometime after c. 7.8k cal a BP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

9.
Palaeoglaciological reconstructions of the North Sea sector of the last British Ice Sheet have, as other shelf areas, suffered from a lack of dates directly related to ice‐front positions. In the present study new high‐resolution TOPAS seismic data, bathymetric records and sediment core data from the Witch Ground Basin, central North Sea, were compiled. This compilation made it possible to map out three ice‐marginal positions, partly through identification of terminal moraines and partly through location of glacial‐fed debrisflows. The interfingering of the distal parts of the glacial‐fed debrisflows with continuous marine sedimentation enabled the development of a chronology for glacial events based on previously published and some new radiocarbon dates on marine molluscs and foraminifera. From these data it is suggested that after the central Witch Ground Basin was deglaciated at c. 27 cal. ka BP, the eastern part was inundated by glacial ice from the east in the Tampen advance at c. 21 cal. ka BP. Subsequently, the basin was inundated by ice from northeast during the Fladen 1 (c. 17.5 cal. ka BP) and the Fladen 2 (16.2 cal. ka BP) events. It should be emphasized that the Fladen 1 and 2 events, individually, may represent dynamics of relatively small lobes of glacial ice at the margin of the British Ice Sheet and that the climatic significance of these may be questioned. However, the Fladen Events probably correlate in time with the Clogher Head and Killard Point re‐advances previously documented from Ireland and the Bremanger event from off western Norway, suggesting that the British and Fennoscandian ice sheets both had major advances in their northwestern parts, close to the northwestern European seaboard, at this time.  相似文献   

10.
The deglacial history of the central sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet is poorly constrained, particularly along major ice‐stream flow paths. The Tyne Gap Palaeo‐Ice Stream (TGIS) was a major fast‐flow conduit of the British–Irish Ice Sheet during the last glaciation. We reconstruct the pattern and constrain the timing of retreat of this ice stream using cosmogenic radionuclide (10Be) dating of exposed bedrock surfaces, radiocarbon dating of lake cores and geomorphological mapping of deglacial features. Four of the five 10Be samples produced minimum ages between 17.8 and 16.5 ka. These were supplemented by a basal radiocarbon date of 15.7 ± 0.1 cal ka BP, in a core recovered from Talkin Tarn in the Brampton Kame Belt. Our new geochronology indicates progressive retreat of the TGIS from 18.7 to 17.1 ka, and becoming ice free before 16.4–15.7 ka. Initial retreat and decoupling of the TGIS from the North Sea Lobe is recorded by a prominent moraine 10–15 km inland of the present‐day coast. This constrains the damming of Glacial Lake Wear to a period before ∼18.7–17.1 ka in the area deglaciated by the contraction of the TGIS. We suggest that retreat of the TGIS was part of a regional collapse of ice‐dispersal centres between 18 and 16 ka.
  相似文献   

11.
Holocene relative sea level (RSL) changes have been investigated by analysing and dating isolation sequences from five lakes near Sisimiut in south‐western Greenland. The transitions between marine and lacustrine sediments were determined from elemental analyses and analyses of macroscopic plant and animal remains. Radiocarbon dating was used to provide minimum ages for the transitions and to construct a RSL curve. Dating of a shell of the marine bivalve Macoma balthica indicates that deglaciation of the lowlands occurred in the early Holocene, at around 10 900 cal a BP. The RSL curve shows initial rapid regression from the marine limit at around 140 m, implying strong glacio‐isostatic rebound. We suggest that the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet was located at the shelf break during the Last Glacial Maximum. Frequent remains of the ostracode Sarcypridopsis aculeata, which is a thermophilous brackish water species that is unknown from the extant fauna of Greenland, in one of the basins around 8500 cal a BP may mark the beginning of the Holocene thermal maximum in the region. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

12.
A long dust history established using geological archives from dust provenance areas is necessary to understand the role of atmospheric dust in the global climate system better. Core sediments from a closed-basin groundwater-recharged lake in arid Central Asia were investigated using a multi-proxy approach (e.g. 14C AMS dating, pollen, and grain size) to trace the dust history since ~ 15 cal ka BP. Pollen analysis showed that before 7.9 cal ka BP, the vegetation was of desert type. After 7.9 cal ka BP, vegetation density increased, probably due to slightly increased moisture. The Chenopodiaceae-dominated desert expanded rapidly at 4.2–3.8 cal ka BP. Grain-size analysis was conducted for samples of lake deposits, modern aeolian dust, and dust trapped in snow, and the data showed that there was strong aeolian dust deposition at 11.8–11.1, 10.6–8, 6.1–4.9, and after 3.3 cal ka BP. This timing corresponds well with periods of increased terrestrial dust fluxes recorded by Greenland ice cores. Our study may document changes in the location and intensity of the Siberia High. These changes may play a more important role in the history of dust emission in arid Central Asia than previously thought.  相似文献   

13.
Our knowledge about the glaciation history in the Russian Arctic has to a large extent been based on geomorphological mapping supplemented by studies of short stratigraphical sequences found in exposed sections. Here we present new geochronological data from the Polar Ural Mountains along with a high‐resolution sediment record from Bolshoye Shchuchye, the largest and deepest lake in the mountain range. Seismic profiles show that the lake contains a 160‐m‐thick sequence of unconsolidated lacustrine sediments. A well‐dated 24‐m‐long core from the southern end of the lake spans the last 24 cal. ka. From downward extrapolation of sedimentation rates we estimate that sedimentation started about 50–60 ka ago, most likely just after a large glacier had eroded older sediments from the basin. Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) exposure dating (10Be) of boulders and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments indicate that this part of the Ural Mountains was last covered by a coherent ice‐field complex during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4. A regrowth of the glaciers took place during a late stage of MIS 3, but the central valleys remained ice free until the present. The presence of small‐ and medium‐sized glaciers during MIS 2 is reflected by a sequence of glacial varves and a high sedimentation rate in the lake basin and likewise from 10Be dating of glacial boulders. The maximum extent of the mountain glaciers during MIS 2 was attained prior to 24 cal. ka BP. Some small present‐day glaciers, which are now disappearing completely due to climate warming, were only slightly larger during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as compared to AD 1953. A marked decrease in sedimentation rate around 18–17 cal. ka BP indicates that the glaciers then became smaller and probably disappeared altogether around 15–14 cal. ka BP.  相似文献   

14.
《第四纪科学杂志》2017,32(1):48-62
The southernmost terrestrial extent of the Irish Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), which drained a large proportion of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet, impinged on to the Isles of Scilly during Marine Isotope Stage 2. However, the age of this ice limit has been contested and the interpretation that this occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains controversial. This study reports new ages using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of outwash sediments at Battery, Tresco (25.5 ± 1.5 ka), and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating of boulders overlying till on Scilly Rock (25.9 ± 1.6 ka), which confirm that the ISIS reached the Isles of Scilly during the LGM. The ages demonstrate this ice advance on to the northern Isles of Scilly occurred at ∼26 ka around the time of increased ice‐rafted debris in the adjacent marine record from the continental margin, which coincided with Heinrich Event 2 at ∼24 ka. OSL dating (19.6 ± 1.5 ka) of the post‐glacial Hell Bay Gravel at Battery suggests there was then an ∼5‐ka delay between primary deposition and aeolian reworking of the glacigenic sediment, during a time when the ISIS ice front was oscillating on and around the Llŷn Peninsula, ∼390 km to the north. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Quaternary Science Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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15.
The Okanagan Centre section is the stratotype for marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 4 sediments (Okanagan Centre Drift) in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Previous work suggested that these sediments record two glacial and two interglacial cycles. This study reports on detailed sedimentological and geochronological investigations of lithostratigraphic units comprising the Okanagan Centre sequence, revealing successive deposition of subaqueous and subaerial outwash, a subglacial till and glaciolacustrine sediments during MIS 4. A limiting optical age of 113 ± 8 ka defines the base of this sequence. Sedimentological, paleopedological, optical dating and tephrochronological data from sediments near the middle of the sequence reveal soil development (MIS 3) in eolian sediments deposited on a river terrace overlying a deglaciated surface. Within these sediments, identification of Mt. St. Helens set C tephra suggest sedimentation between 50 and 35k 14C a BP. Optical dating corroborates the tephrochronology and suggests that this surface formed after ～52 ± 7 ka. The record of MIS 2 glaciation is restricted to deglaciation, and overlies MIS 3 sediments above an unconformity possibly related to regional subglacial meltwater erosion. Eolian sediments containing Mt Mazama set O tephra (～7.62k cal a BP) cap the sequence.  相似文献   

16.
Terraces of different age in the Zackenberg delta, located at 74°N in northeast Greenland, have provided the opportunity for an interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of Holocene glacial, periglacial, pedological, biological and archaeological conditions that existed during and after delta deposition. The raised Zackenberg delta accumulated mainly during the Holocene Climatic Optimum, starting slightly prior to 9500 cal. yr BP (30 m a.s.l.) and continued until at least 6300 cal. yr BP (0.5 m a.s.l.). Evidence of sea‐level change is based on conventional 14C dates of shells from the marine delta bottomsets, 14C AMS dating of macroscopic plant material from the foresets and of fluvial deposits. Arthropod and plant remains from 7960 cal. yr BP in the delta foresets include the oldest evidence of the arctic hare in Greenland and evidence of a rich herb flora slightly different from the modern flora. Empetrum nigrum and Salix herbacea remains indicate a summer temperature at least as high as today during delta deposition. Post‐depositional nivation activity, dated by luminescence, lichenometry and Schmidt Hammer measurements indicate mainly late Holocene activity, at least since 2900 yr BP, including Little Ice Age (LIA) avalanche activity. Pedological analyses of fossil podsols in the Zackenberg delta, including 14C AMS dating of selected organic rich B‐horizons, show continued podsol development during the Holocene Climatic Optimum and into the subsequent colder period of the late Holocene, until 3000–2400 yr BP. A Neo‐Eskimo house ruin found on the lower part of the delta, presently being eroded by the sea, is dated to AD 1800. It presumably was abandoned prior to AD 1869, and suggests that some of the last Eskimos that lived in northeast Greenland might have occupied the Zackenberg delta. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

17.
Chronology of the last recession of the Greenland Ice Sheet   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  
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. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

18.
The 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 and 142 ka using 26Al 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 0.12 m 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 Isbræ, 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.  相似文献   

19.
During the last glacial stage, Washington Land in western North Greenland was probably completely inundated by the Greenland Ice Sheet. The oldest shell dates from raised marine deposits that provide minimum ages for the last deglaciation are 9300 cal. yr BP (northern Washington Land) and 7600 cal. yr BP (SW Washington Land). These dates indicate that Washington Land, which borders the central part of Nares Strait separating Greenland from Ellesmere Island in Canada, did not become free of glacier ice until well into the Holocene. The elevation of the marine limit falls from 110 m a.s.l. in the north to 60 m a.s.l. in the southwest. The recession was followed by readvance of glaciers in the late Holocene, and the youngest shell date from Neoglacial lateral moraines north of Humboldt Gletscher is 600 cal. yr BP. Since the Neoglacial maximum, probably around 100 years ago, glaciers have receded. The Holocene marine assemblages comprise a few southern extralimital records, notably of Chlamys islandica dated to 7300 cal. yr BP. Musk ox and reindeer disappeared from Washington Land recently, perhaps in connection with the cold period that culminated about 100 years ago.  相似文献   

20.
The offshore sector around Shetland remains one of the least well-studied parts of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet with several long-standing scientific issues unresolved. These key issues include (i) the dominance of a locally sourced ‘Shetland ice cap’ vs an invasive Fennoscandian Ice Sheet; (ii) the flow configuration and style of glaciation at the Last Glacial Maximum (i.e. terrestrial vs marine glaciation); (iii) the nature of confluence between the British–Irish and Fennoscandian Ice Sheets; (iv) the cause, style and rate of ice sheet separation; and (v) the wider implications of ice sheet uncoupling on the tempo of subsequent deglaciation. As part of the Britice-Chrono project, we present new geological (seabed cores), geomorphological, marine geophysical and geochronological data from the northernmost sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (north of 59.5°N) to address these questions. The study area covers ca. 95 000 km2, an area approximately the size of Ireland, and includes the islands of Shetland and the surrounding continental shelf, some of the continental slope, and the western margin of the Norwegian Channel. We collect and analyse data from onshore in Shetland and along key transects offshore, to establish the most coherent picture, so far, of former ice-sheet deglaciation in this important sector. Alongside new seabed mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a multi-proxy suite of new isotopic age assessments, including 32 cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages from glacially transported boulders and 35 radiocarbon dates from deglacial marine sediments, to develop a synoptic sector-wide reconstruction combining strong onshore and offshore geological evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. The results show widespread and significant spatial fluctuations in size, shape and flow configuration of an ice sheet/ice cap centred on, or to the east of, the Orkney–Shetland Platform, between ~30 and ~15 ka BP. At its maximum extent ca. 26–25 ka BP , this ice sheet was coalescent with the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet to the east. Between ~25 and 23 ka BP the ice sheet in this sector underwent a significant size reduction from ca. 85 000 to <50 000 km2, accompanied by several ice-margin oscillations. Soon after, connection was lost with the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet and a marine corridor opened to the east of Shetland. This triggered initial (and unstable) re-growth of a glaciologically independent Shetland Ice Cap ca. 21–20 ka BP with a strong east–west asymmetry with respect to topography. Ice mass growth was followed by rapid collapse, from an area of ca. 45 000 km2 to ca. 15 000 km2 between 19 and 18 ka BP , stabilizing at ca. 2000 km2 by ~17 ka BP. Final deglaciation of Shetland occurred ca. 17–15 ka BP , and may have involved one or more subsidiary ice centres on now-submerged parts of the continental shelf. We suggest that the unusually dynamic behaviour of the northernmost sector of the British–Irish Ice Sheet between 21 and 18 ka BP – characterized by numerous extensive ice sheet/ice mass readvances, rapid loss and flow redistributions – was driven by significant changes in ice mass geometry, ice divide location and calving flux as the glaciologically independent ice cap adjusted to new boundary conditions. We propose that this dynamism was forced to a large degree by internal (glaciological) factors specific to the strongly marine-influenced Shetland Ice Cap.  相似文献   

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