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1.
Abstract— Following discoveries of blue ice areas in Greenland resembling meteorite‐bearing blue ice fields in Antarctica, a surface search of several of the most promising sites was carried out in August 2003. The ice fields are located in Kong Christian X Land, in northeastern Greenland around 74°N at elevations between 2100 and 2400 m. No meteorites were found in any of the localities that were searched. Evidence of occasional significant melting (filled crevasses and melt sheets) suggest that summer temperatures are sometimes high enough that dark rocks, like meteorites, can melt through the upper layers of ice. Small terrestrial rocks and cryogenite were found down to 50 cm below the ice surface. Meter‐sized terrestrial rocks were found on top of the ice downstream from nunataks. These rocks shade the ice below, and since they were apparently too massive to warm up during warm days, they remained at the surface as the surrounding ice ablated away. Our findings strongly suggest that Greenland is currently unlikely to harbor significant meteorite concentrations on blue ice fields.  相似文献   

2.
Previous studies have examined the effect of reduced Arctic sea ice cover on the circulation of climate models. Generally, the response is restricted to high northern latitudes. Here we examine a variant on those simulations, specifying both reduced Arctic sea ice cover and no Greenland ice sheet. The GENESIS general circulation model is used in these experiments. As in earlier studies, we find the effect limited primarily to the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, being greater in winter than in summer. New results reported herein involve: (1) in winter reduced Arctic ice cover has a significantly greater effect than reduced Greenland ice cover; (2) reduced ice cover had little effect on location of the winter freezing line over North America and Eurasia; (3) removal of ice caused a 30–50% increase in precipitation in high northern latitudes; however there were no significant effects elsewhere. This result does not support the hypothesis that past changes in Arctic ice cover were responsible for significant changes in area of tropical rainforests; (4) there is a peculiar surface pressure anomaly that extends into the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere. This anomaly may be a spurious artifact of the effect of the removed Greenland ice sheet on the spherical harmonic expansion terms in the model. These sensitivity experiments should serve as a useful frame of reference for future Pliocene simulations with a more complete set of altered boundary conditions.  相似文献   

3.
The effect of mass balance variations on changes in surface elevation of the Greenland ice sheet is examined in connection with the rise in sea level that will be caused by increased melting. Changes in surface elevation of several metres (of either sign) can occur in the ablation area of the ice sheet over a period of a few years as a result of random ablation forcing without being evidence of change in mean climate. Similar, but smaller, changes can occur in the accumulation area due to accumulation forcing. The ablation area of the ice sheet probably thickened from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s as a result of lower ablation in that period but thinned again in the late 1980s as a result of higher ablation then. There is no evidence of any present trend of increased melting. Future climate warming will involve an accelerated thinning of the ablation area that could be detected in 1–2 decades against the background of natural fluctuations in surface elevation.  相似文献   

4.
Impact melt rocks formed during hypervelocity impact events are ideal for studying impact structures. Here, we describe impact melt rock samples collected proximal to the 31 km wide 58 Ma Hiawatha impact structure, northwest Greenland, which is completely covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet. The melt rocks contain diagnostic shock indicators (e.g., planar deformation features [PDF] in quartz and shocked zircon) and form three groups based on melt textures and chemistry: (i) hypocrystalline, (ii) glassy, and (iii) carbonate-based melt rocks. The exposed foreland directly in front of the structure consists of metasedimentary successions and igneous plutons; however, the carbonate-based impactites indicate a mixed target sequence with a significant carbonate-rich component. Well-preserved organic material in some melt rocks indicates that North Greenland at the time of impact was host to abundant organic material, likely a dense high-latitude temperate forest. Geochemical signatures of platinum-group elements in selected samples indicate an extraterrestrial component and support previous identification of a highly fractionated iron impactor in glaciofluvial sand. Our results illustrate the possibility to study impact structures hidden beneath a thick ice sheet based on transported samples and this opens a new avenue for identifying other potential impact craters in Greenland and Antarctica.  相似文献   

5.
Increased melting on glaciers and ice sheets and rising sea level are often mentioned as important aspects of the anticipated greenhouse warming of the earth's atmosphere. This paper deals with the sensitivity of Greenland's ice mass budget and presents a tentative projection of the Greenland component of future sea level rise for the next few hundred years. To do this, the ‘Villach II temperature scenario’ is prescribed,output from a comprehensive mass balance model is used to drive a high-resolution 3-D thermomechanic model of the ice sheet.The mass balance model consists of two parts: the accumulation part is based on presently observed values and is forced by changes in mean anr tempeerature. The ablation model is based on the degree-day method and accounts for daily and annual temperature cycle, a different degree-day factor for ice and snow melting and superimposed ice formation. Under present-day climatic conditions, the following total mass balance results (in ice equivalent per years): 599.3 × 109 m3 of accumulation, 281.7 × 109m3 of runoff assuming a balanced budget, 317.6 × 109m3 of iceberg calving. A 1K uniform warming is then calculated to increase the runoff by 119.5 × 109 m3. Since accumulation also increases by 32 × 109 m3, this leads to reduction of the total mass balance by 887.5 × 109 m3 of ice, corresponding to a sea level rise of 0.22 mm/yr. For temperature increase larger than 2.7 K, runoff, exceeds accumulation, and if ice sheet dynamics were to remain unchanged, this would add an extra amount of 0.8 mmyr to the worl's oceans.Imposing the Villach II scenario (warming up to 4.23 K) and accumulating mass balance changes forward in time (static response) would then result in a global sea level rise of 7.1 cm by 2100 AD, but this figure may go up to as much as 40 cm per century in case the warming is doubled. In a subsequent dynamic model involving the ice flow, the ice sheet is found to produce a counteracting effect by dynamically producing steeper slopes at the margin, thereby reducing the area over which runoff can take place. This effect is particularly apparent in the northeastern part of the ice sheet, and is also more pronounced for the smaller temperature perturbations. Nevertheless, all these experiments certainly highlight the vulnerability of the Greenland ice sheet with respect to a climatic warming.  相似文献   

6.
Recent studies in the Arkhangelsk region, northwest Russia, have identified at least three consecutive tills all associated with the last Valdaian (Weichselian) glaciation. The Scandinavian ice sheet deposited a Late Valdaian till (ca. 17 ka BP), whereas two tills were deposited in the Early–Middle Valdaian by the Barents/Kara Sea ice sheet (ca. 45–60 ka BP) and an older ice sheet with an eastern centre (ca. 74 ka BP). This article expands on previous stratigraphical work on the discrimination of regional till units by a combination of compositional characteristics and directional properties. Tills associated with the Scandinavian ice sheet were deposited by a glacier advancing from west or northwest, transporting predominantly material from the Fennoscandian shield and the White Sea area. The Barents/Kara Sea ice sheet moved from the north and northeast, whereas the oldest ice advance came from the east–southeast. Although, the two oldest tills both contain material with an eastern provenance, the Viryuga Till is dominated more by local carbonate-rich material. This study demonstrates that detailed investigation of till units facilitate the distinction of glacial events imperative for the reconstructing of the last glaciation in northern Russia.  相似文献   

7.
Glacial bedform patterns and sediments deposited by the temperate and polythermal Late Devensian ice sheet in north-central Ireland record changes in the processes, location, and magnitude of subglacial meltwater throughout the last full glacial cycle (21–14 14C kyear BP). Meltwater characteristics are related directly to basal ice thermal regime and ice dynamics, including ice velocity and shifts in the location of ice centres. Therefore, reconstructed meltwater characteristics may provide insight into wider controls on dynamic ice behaviour. A range of meltwater-related features are present across north-central Ireland. These include tunnel valleys, drumlin leeside sequences, eskers, and boulder lags. Other bedforms including Rogen moraines were modified by meltwater activity along ice streams. Meltwater was stored subglacially in two contrasting regions located beneath or near ice centres in north-central Ireland. (1) The Lough Erne Basin is developed in a lowland depression occupied partly by subglacial Rogen moraine ridges which were formed around the time of the last glacial maximum. Meltwater was stored between Rogen ridge crests and released by hydraulic jacking associated with drumlinisation (16.6 14C kyear BP) and ice streaming (13.8 14C kyear BP). (2) The Lough Neagh Basin occupies a similar lowland depression and was the location of an ice sheet centre throughout the last glacial cycle. No bedforms are present beneath or immediately surrounding Lough Neagh. A larger, more continuous meltwater lake existed in the Lough Neagh depression, probably sealed by a region of cold-based ice outside lake margins. Water escaped through regional-scale tunnel valleys, particularly the Poyntzpass channel which was active during the Carlingford ice readvance (Killard Stadial, correlated with Heinrich event 1 at 14.5 14C kyear BP). Overall, reconstructed subglacial lake characteristics and drainage mechanisms are related closely to basal ice thermal regime and substrate relief (controlling lake geometry), and provide insight into controls on overall ice sheet dynamics.  相似文献   

8.
Growth of mid-latitude ice sheets during the glacial cycles of the Quaternary repeatedly reorganises the pattern of groundwater flow on a continent-wide scale. Relatively small scale non-glacial catchments are replaced by catchments which are integrated on the scale of continental ice sheets. Simulations are presented of the response to glaciation of a large part of the western European groundwater system during the last two (Saalian, Weichselian) glacial cycles. A two-dimensional model along an ice sheet flowline from western Sweden to The Netherlands illustrates the impact of glaciation on flow in the vertical plane, and a vertically integrated model illustrates its impact on areal patterns of flow.Hydraulics heads, hydraulic gradients and flow velocities are increased far above their modern values, and relatively shallow aquifers are completely flushed out during glacial periods. There are significant implications for groundwater chemistry and geological structures. Large seepage pressures generated near to ice sheet margins and major impacts on the distribution of effective pressures will produce structures such as hydrofractures, sediment dykes, sediment volcanoes, loading structures etc. The model can be readily applied to hydrocarbon resorvoirs.  相似文献   

9.
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10.
Ionization in the polar atmosphere causes the formation of nitrate compounds, which are frozen out and incorporated into the layers of the polar ice sheets. From a 122-m ice core collected in 1992 on the central Greenland ice sheet, it has been possible to examine a solar signal in a ultra-high resolution record of nitrate concentrations. The sequence extends over a period of 415 years at a temporal resolution of no less than one analysis per month (total number of samples 7776 resulting from 1.5 cm sampling along the entire core). This type of measurement reveals major nitrate anomalies which are thought to result from the injection of individual solar proton events into the winter polar stratosphere. For this reason, the large nitrate anomalies provide the possibility to delineate a signal of solar activity well beyond the known geophysical records.  相似文献   

11.
The Antarctic ice cap is the largest ice sheet of modern times. It is of considerable importance to predict the sea level variability due to the associated changes in ice volume. We present the results of a simple grounded ice sheet model, developed from Oerlemans [Oerlemans, J., 2002. Global dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, Climate Dynamics 19, 85–93.], in which the net oceanic evaporation influences the ice cap volume in two ways, through changes in: (i) the accumulation rate, and (ii) the mean sea level. The net evaporation changes are driven by the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly time series of Howard [Howard, W.R., 1997. A warm future in the past, Nature, 388, 418–419.] for the subantarctic Southern Ocean over the period 220 kyr to the present. The effect of the waxing and waning of the northern hemisphere ice sheets is integrated into the model using an independent model, in which ice melting depends on the SST anomaly and ice calving depends on the sea level anomaly. A series of analytical expressions are derived for the related properties of the coupled ocean–ice system applicable over time scales of 100 kyr, which show, in particular, that the Antarctic ice cap volume changes are due mainly to the effects of the northern hemisphere ice sheets on sea level (which influences ice calving), rather than directly to changes in SST, and hence the ice cap volume is greatest during interglacial periods. This conclusion, which is independent of the specification of the ice melting regime for the northern hemisphere ice sheets, strongly suggests that the changes in accumulation flux estimated from the Vostok proxy temperature data and used in other studies of the Antarctic mass balance have been overestimated. A simple expression is also presented for the lag of ice cap volume to SST, and it is found that the predictions for the mean sea level variability are similar to observations for a melting flux of the northern hemisphere ice sheets about twice their accumulation flux due to the net oceanic evaporation, except during major deglaciations when these two fluxes appear to be of similar magnitude.  相似文献   

12.
Tropical climatology through the last glacial cycle is believed to have ranged from colder, windier conditions at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to relatively warm, stable conditions during the Holocene. Changes in strength of the South Asian monsoon have previously been determined from a variety of proxy data and have been attributed primarily to changes in radiative forcing, although tropical sea surface temperature (SST) is known to play a fundamental role in regulating monsoon strength and is also believed to have changed throughout the late Quaternary.In this study, the monsoons simulated in a coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (GCM) configured for the mid-Holocene (6000 years B.P.) and for the LGM (21,000 years B.P.) are compared. The colder and windier conditions simulated for the LGM produced a summer monsoon whose westerly winds are stronger and whose precipitation and snowfall into the eastern Himalaya are increased, with drier conditions over the rest of the Indian subcontinent and over most of southwest Asia.The mid-Holocene monsoon circulation is stronger than today, and annual mean snow accumulation is increased over the northwestern Himalaya. These changes in precipitation and snow accumulation are analyzed in terms of the altered atmospheric circulations, which are in turn driven by changes in radiative forcing, sea surface temperatures, and sea surface height. All of these factors are therefore demonstrated to be important in governing the spatial distribution of snow and ice deposition in the Himalaya during the late Quaternary, and are likely to have contributed to the observed asynchroneity of Himalayan glaciation and Northern Hemisphere ice sheet volume.  相似文献   

13.
Kocharov  G.E.  Ogurtsov  M.G.  Dreschhoff  G.A.M. 《Solar physics》1999,188(1):187-190
The quasi-five-year variation in the abundance of nitrate in Central Greenland ice is revealed. Probable origin of the variation is the connection of solar proton events with the period of declining solar activity. Such a connection exists during more than 200 years and appears to be a fundamental property of solar activity.  相似文献   

14.
Two sets of nitrate (NO3 –) concentration data in Central Greenland ice, obtained through the GISP2 collaboration and by the University of Kansas, were analyzed statistically. The two records correlate well over time scales from a few years up to a century. They both contain quasi five-year, decadal and century-type time variations. A quasi five-year periodicity resulting from increases in the mean nitrate concentration before and after maximum sunspot number was confirmed. A tendency of solar proton events to occur more frequently during the rise/decline phases of the solar cycle may cause a quasi five-year variation. Century-type (60–110 yr) variability in nitrate outstrips the corresponding Gleissberg cycle in sunspots by 12–17 years and changes synchronously (correlates with zero phase shift) with the smoothed length of the solar Schwabe cycle. A significant correlation between century-type periodicities for nitrates in Greenland ice and northern Fennoscandian temperatures was established. The results show that despite a strong dependence on local meteorology, nitrate concentration in ice contains valuable information about global geophysical phenomena in the past.  相似文献   

15.
Abstract— The ice flow conditions of a 100 times 100 km area of Victoria Land, Antarctica were analyzed with the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technique. The area includes a number of meteorite concentration sites, in particular the Allan Hills ice fields. Regional ice flow velocities around the Midwestern and Near‐western ice fields and the Allan Hills main ice field are shown to be ≤2.5 m yr?1. These sites are located on a horseshoe‐shaped area that bounds an area characterized by higher ice flow velocities of up to 5 m yr?1. Meteorite find locations on the Elephant Moraine are located in this “high ice flow” area. The SAR derived digital elevation model (DEM) shows atypical low surface slopes for Antarctic conditions, which are the cause for the slow ice movements. Numerous ice rises in the area are interpreted to cap sub‐ice obstacles, which were formed by tectonic processes in the past. The ice rises are considered to represent temporary features, which develop only during warm stages when the regional ice stand is lowered. Ice depressions, which develop in warm stages on the lee side of ice rises, may act as the sites of temporary build‐up of meteorite concentrations, which turn inoperative during cold stages when the regional ice level rises and the ice rises disappear. Based on a simplified ice flow model, we argue that the regional ice flow in cold stages is reduced by a factor of at least 3.  相似文献   

16.
The propagation of electromagnetic waves in the northern polar ice sheet of Mars is considered. It is shown that the dispersion and attenuation of radio waves in the polar sheet are regulated by two groups of factors: the physical and chemical composition of the ice, and the geometrical parameters of the layered structure of polar sheet. Both analytical and numerical simulations of ultra wide band chirp radar pulse propagating through the cap are performed. Wide variety of combinations of the physical and geometrical parameters of the ice sheet, consistent with previously published observational data, has been considered. The frequency bands of transparency and opacity of the northern ice sheet for radar signals were found. The side clutter for this particular region of the planet is studied.  相似文献   

17.
The sensitivity of the ocean circulation to changes in North Atlantic surface fluxes has become a major factor in explaining climate variability. The role of the Antarctic Bottom Water in modulating this variability has received much less attention, limiting the development of a complete understanding of decadal to millennial time-scale climate change. New analyses indicate that the southern deepwater source may change dramatically (e.g., experience a decrease of as much as two thirds during last 800 years). Such change can substantially alter the ocean circulation patterns of the last millennium. Additional analyses indicate that the Southern Hemisphere led the Northern Hemisphere changes in some of the glacial cycles of Pleistocene, implying a seesaw-type oscillation of the global ocean conveyor. The potential for melting of sea ice and ice sheets in the Antarctica associated with global warming can cause a further slowdown of the southern deepwater source. These results demand an assessment of the role of the Southern Ocean in driving changes of the global ocean circulation and climate. Systematic model simulation targeting the ocean circulation response to changes in surface salinity in the high latitudes of both Northern and Southern Hemispheres demonstrate that meltwater impacts in one hemisphere may lead to a strengthening of the thermohaline conveyor driven by the source in the opposite hemisphere. This, in turn, leads to significant changes in poleward heat transport. Further, meltwater events can lead to deep-sea warming and thermal expansion of abyssal water, that in turn cause a substantial sea-level change even without a major ice sheet melting.  相似文献   

18.
The Pyoza River area in the Arkhangelsk district exposes sedimentary sequences suitable for study of the interaction between consecutive Valdaian ice sheets in Northern Russia. Lithostratigraphic investigations combined with luminescence dating have revealed new evidence on the Late Pleistocene history of the area. Overlying glacigenic deposits of the Moscowian (Saalian) glaciation marine deposits previously confined to three separate transgression phases have all been connected to the Mikulinian (Eemian) interglacial. Early Valdaian (E. Weichselian) proglacial, lacustrine and fluvial deposits indicate glaciation to the east or north and consequently glacier damming and meltwater run-off in the Pyoza area around 90–110 ka BP. Interstadial conditions with forest-steppe tundra vegetation and lacustrine and fluvial deposition prevailed at the end of the Early Valdaian around 75–95 ka BP. A terrestrial-based glaciation from easterly uplands reached the Pyoza area at the Early to Middle Valdaian transition around 65–75 ka BP and deposited glaciofluvial strata and subglacial till (Yolkino Till). During deglaciation, laterally extensive glaciolacustrine sediments were deposited in ice-dammed lakes in the early Middle Valdaian around 55–75 ka BP. The Barents–Kara Sea ice sheet deposited the Viryuga Till on the lower Pyoza from northerly directions. The ice sheet formed the Pyoza marginal moraines, which can be correlated with the Markhida moraines further east, and proglacial lacustrine deposition persisted in the area during the first part of the Middle Valdaian. Glacio-isostatic uplift caused erosion followed by pedogenesis and the formation of a deflation horizon in the Middle Valdaian. Widely dispersed periglacial river plains were formed during the Late Valdaian around 10–20 ka BP. Thus, the evidence of a terrestrial-based ice sheet from easterly uplands in the Pyoza area suggests that local piedmont glaciers situated in highlands such as the Timan Ridge or the Urals could have developed into larger, regionally confined ice sheets. Two phases of ice damming and development of proglacial lakes occurred during the Early and Middle Valdaian. The region did not experience glaciation during the Late Valdaian.  相似文献   

19.
The land surface of what is now the Barents Sea region may have been eroded to a sub-aerial platform prior to the Quaternary, due to both tectonic uplift-induced and sea-level lowering-induced erosion processes. The Barents Sea was then further eroded into its present form by the subsequent action of ice sheets. Two bedrock configurations, representing the pre-Quaternary sub-aerial Barents Shelf topography and the largely submarine morphology of the present day, were used as input to a glaciological ice sheet model so that the dynamic evolution of the maximum-sized ice sheets, caused solely by a change in bedrock elevation, could be identified. The ice-sheet model was run under constant glacial environmental conditions, until mass balance stability was reached, over both bedrock configurations. The simple parabolic ice sheet surface, which formed on a flat sub-aerial bedrock platform, was found to be significantly different in dynamic character compared with an ice sheet developed on the present submarine bedrock topography. In this latter situation, the central ice dome is drained by ice streams in Bjørnøyrenna, Storfjordrenna and smaller outlet glaciers in the north of the ice sheet.  相似文献   

20.
Beach and shoreface sediments deposited in the more than 800-km long ice-dammed Lake Komi in northern European Russia have been investigated and dated. The lake flooded the lowland areas between the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet in the north and the continental drainage divide in the south. Shoreline facies have been dated by 18 optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates, most of which are closely grouped in the range 80–100 ka, with a mean of 88±3 ka. This implies that that the Barents–Kara Ice Sheet had its Late Pleistocene maximum extension during the Early Weichselian, probably in the cold interval (Rederstall) between the Brørup and Odderade interstadials of western Europe, correlated with marine isotope stage 5b. This is in strong contrast to the Scandinavian and North American ice sheets, which had their maxima in isotope stage 2, about 20 ka. Field and air photo interpretations suggest that Lake Komi was dammed by the ice advance, which formed the Harbei–Harmon–Sopkay Moraines. These has earlier been correlated with the Markhida moraine across the Pechora River Valley and its western extension. However, OSL dates on fluvial sediments below the Markhida moraine have yielded ages as young as 60 ka. This suggests that the Russian mainland was inundated by two major ice sheet advances from the Barents–Kara seas after the last interglacial: one during the Early Weichselian (about 90 ka) that dammed Lake Komi and one during the Middle Weichselian (about 60 ka). Normal fluvial drainage prevailed during the Late Weichselian, when the ice front was located offshore.  相似文献   

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