Pattern,style and timing of British–Irish Ice Sheet advance and retreat over the last 45 000 years: evidence from NW Scotland and the adjacent continental shelf     

Tom Bradwell  Derek Fabel  Chris D. Clark  Richard C. Chiverrell  David Small  Rachel K. Smedley  Margot H. Saher  Steven G. Moreton  Dayton Dove  S. Louise Callard  Geoff A. T. Duller  Alicia Medialdea  Mark D. Bateman  Matthew J. Burke  Neil McDonald  Sean Gilgannon  Sally Morgan  David H. Roberts  Colm ó Cofaigh 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(5):871-933

Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km² of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.  相似文献   

Sedimentology of the continental end‐Permian extinction event in the Sydney Basin,eastern Australia     

Christopher R. Fielding  Tracy D. Frank  Allen P. Tevyaw  Katarina Savatic  Vivi Vajda  Stephen McLoughlin  Chris Mays  Robert S. Nicoll  Malcolm Bocking  James L. Crowley 《Sedimentology》2021,68(1):30-62

Upper Permian to Lower Triassic coastal plain successions of the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia have been investigated in outcrop and continuous drillcores. The purpose of the investigation is to provide an assessment of palaeoenvironmental change at high southern palaeolatitudes in a continental margin context for the late Permian (Lopingian), across the end‐Permian Extinction interval, and into the Early Triassic. These basins were affected by explosive volcanic eruptions during the late Permian and, to a much lesser extent, during the Early Triassic, allowing high‐resolution age determination on the numerous tuff horizons. Palaeobotanical and radiogenic isotope data indicate that the end‐Permian Extinction occurs at the top of the uppermost coal bed, and the Permo‐Triassic boundary either within an immediately overlying mudrock succession or within a succeeding channel sandstone body, depending on locality due to lateral variation. Late Permian depositional environments were initially (during the Wuchiapingian) shallow marine and deltaic, but coastal plain fluvial environments with extensive coal‐forming mires became progressively established during the early late Permian, reflected in numerous preserved coal seams. The fluvial style of coastal plain channel deposits varies geographically. However, apart from the loss of peat‐forming mires, no significant long‐term change in depositional style (grain size, sediment‐body architecture, or sediment dispersal direction) was noted across the end‐Permian Extinction (pinpointed by turnover of the palaeoflora). There is no evidence for immediate aridification across the boundary despite a loss of coal from these successions. Rather, the end‐Permian Extinction marks the base of a long‐term, progressive trend towards better‐drained alluvial conditions into the Early Triassic. Indeed, the floral turnover was immediately followed by a flooding event in basinal depocentres, following which fluvial systems similar to those active prior to the end‐Permian Extinction were re‐established. The age of the floral extinction is constrained to 252.54 ± 0.08 to 252.10 ± 0.06 Ma by a suite of new Chemical Abrasion Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry U‐Pb ages on zircon grains. Another new age indicates that the return to fluvial sedimentation similar to that before the end‐Permian Extinction occurred in the basal Triassic (prior to 251.51 ± 0.14 Ma). The character of the surface separating coal‐bearing pre‐end‐Permian Extinction from coal‐barren post‐end‐Permian Extinction strata varies across the basins. In basin‐central locations, the contact varies from disconformable, where a fluvial channel body has cut down to the level of the top coal, to conformable where the top coal is overlain by mudrocks and interbedded sandstone–siltstone facies. In basin‐marginal locations, however, the contact is a pronounced erosional disconformity with coarse‐grained alluvial facies overlying older Permian rocks. There is no evidence that the contact is everywhere a disconformity or unconformity.  相似文献   

The evolution of the terrestrial-terminating Irish Sea glacier during the last glaciation     

Richard Christopher Chiverrell  Geoff Stephen Powell Thomas  Matthew Burke  Alicia Medialdea  Rachel Smedley  Mark Bateman  Chris Clark  Geoffrey A. T. Duller  Derek Fabel  Geraint Jenkins  Xianjiao Ou  Helen Marie Roberts  James Scourse 《第四纪科学杂志》2021,36(5):752-779

Here we reconstruct the last advance to maximum limits and retreat of the Irish Sea Glacier (ISG), the only land-terminating ice lobe of the western British Irish Ice Sheet. A series of reverse bedrock slopes rendered proglacial lakes endemic, forming time-transgressive moraine- and bedrock-dammed basins that evolved with ice marginal retreat. Combining, for the first time on glacial sediments, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) bleaching profiles for cobbles with single grain and small aliquot OSL measurements on sands, has produced a coherent chronology from these heterogeneously bleached samples. This chronology constrains what is globally an early build-up of ice during late Marine Isotope Stage 3 and Greenland Stadial (GS) 5, with ice margins reaching south Lancashire by 30 ± 1.2 ka, followed by a 120-km advance at 28.3 ± 1.4 ka reaching its 26.5 ± 1.1 ka maximum extent during GS-3. Early retreat during GS-3 reflects piracy of ice sources shared with the Irish-Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), starving the ISG. With ISG retreat, an opportunistic readvance of Welsh ice during GS-2 rode over the ISG moraines occupying the space vacated, with ice margins oscillating within a substantial glacial over-deepening. Our geomorphological chronosequence shows a glacial system forced by climate but mediated by piracy of ice sources shared with the ISIS, changing flow regimes and fronting environments.  相似文献   

The Eltanin asteroid impact: possible South Pacific palaeomegatsunami footprint and potential implications for the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition     

James Goff  Catherine Chagué‐Goff  Michael Archer  Dale Dominey‐Howes  Chris Turney 《第四纪科学杂志》2012,27(7):660-670

Large asteroid impacts are rare, and those into the deep ocean are rarer still. The Eltanin asteroid impact around 2.51 ± 0.07 Ma occurred at a time of great climatic and geological change associated with the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary. Numerical models of the event indicate that a megatsunami was generated, although there is debate concerning its magnitude and the region‐wide extent of its influence. We summarise the existing evidence for possible Eltanin megatsunami deposits in Antarctica, Chile and New Zealand, while also examining other potential sites from several locations, mainly around the South Pacific region. In reviewing these data we note that these events were unfolding at the same time as those associated with the Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary and, as such, most of the geological evidence from that time has a climatic interpretation. The potential climatic and geological ramifications of the Eltanin asteroid impact, however, have failed to be considered by most researchers studying this time period. Although we are not advocating that all geological activity at that time is connected with the Eltanin asteroid impact, it raises interesting questions about the role potentially played by such catastrophic events in contributing to or even triggering epochal transitions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Rip current misunderstandings     

B. Chris Brewster 《Natural Hazards》2010,55(2):161-162

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Geophysical surveys of the sediments of Loch Ness,Scotland: implications for the deglaciation of the Moray Firth Ice Stream,British–Irish Ice Sheet     

Andrew J. Turner  John Woodward  Stuart A. Dunning  Adrian J. Shine  Chris R. Stokes  Colm Ó Cofaigh 《第四纪科学杂志》2012,27(2):221-232

We present results from three geophysical campaigns using high‐resolution sub‐bottom profiling to image sediments deposited in Loch Ness, Scotland. Sonar profiles show distinct packages of sediment, providing insight into the loch's deglacial history. A recessional moraine complex in the north of the loch indicates initial punctuated retreat. Subsequent retreat was rapid before stabilisation at Foyers Rise formed a large stillstand moraine. Here, the calving margin produced significant volumes of laminated sediments in a proglacial fjord‐like environment. Subsequent to this, ice retreated rapidly to the southern end of the loch, where it again deposited a sequence of proglacial laminated sediments. Sediment sequences were then disturbed by the deposition of a thick gravel layer and a large turbidite deposit as a result of a jökulhlaup from the Spean/Roy ice‐dammed lake. These sediments are overlain by a Holocene sheet drape. Data indicate: (i) a former tributary of the Moray Firth Ice Stream migrated back into Loch Ness as a major outlet glacier with a calving margin in a fjord‐like setting; (ii) there was significant sediment supply to the terminus of this outlet glacier in Loch Ness; and (iii) that jökulhlaups are important for sediment supply into proglacial fjord/lake environments and may compose >20% of proglacial sedimentary sequences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Digital data acquisition and analysis: An introduction     

Chris Rand 《地球表面变化过程与地形》1994,19(9):839-844

There is no doubt that although the price of PCs has fallen, the performance for money continues to rise. As this happens, so the suitability of using general-purpose computing platforms, especially PCs, for specific technical applications increases. This article discusses recent developments and reviews some of the systems which are currently available for data acquisition and analysis in the environmental sciences.  相似文献   

Janet/internet resources for environmental scientists     

Chris Windass 《地球表面变化过程与地形》1994,19(9):849-858

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The characterisation and origin of graphite in cratonic lithospheric mantle: a petrological carbon isotope and Raman spectroscopic study   总被引：1，自引：1，他引：1  

D. G. Pearson  F. R. Boyd  S. E. Haggerty  J. D. Pasteris  S. W. Field  P. H. Nixon  N. P. Pokhilenko 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》1994,115(4):449-466

Graphite-bearing peridotites, pyroxenites and eclogite xenoliths from the Kaapvaal craton of southern Africa and the Siberian craton, Russia, have been studied with the aim of: 1) better characterising the abundance and distribution of elemental carbon in the shallow continental lithospheric mantle; (2) determining the isotopic composition of the graphite; (3) testing for significant metastability of graphite in mantle rocks using mineral thermobarometry. Graphite crystals in peridotie, pyroxenite and eclogite xenoliths have X-ray diffraction patterns and Raman spectra characteristic of highly crystalline graphite of high-temperature origin and are interpreted to have crystallised within the mantle. Thermobarometry on the graphite-peridotite assemblages using a variety of element partitions and formulations yield estimated equilibration conditions that plot at lower temperatures and pressures than diamondiferous assemblages. Moreover, estimated pressures and temperatures for the graphite-peridotites fall almost exclusively within the experimentally determined graphite stability field and thus we find no evidence for substantial graphite metastability. The carbon isotopic composition of graphite in peridotites from this and other studies varies from δ¹³ C_PDB = ? 12.3 to ? ?3.8%o with a mean of-6.7‰, σ=2.1 (n=22) and a mode between-7 and-6‰. This mean is within one standard deviation of the-4‰ mean displayed by diamonds from peridotite xenoliths, and is identical to that of diamonds containing peridotite-suite inclusions. The carbon isotope range of graphite and diamonds in peridotites is more restricted than that observed for either phase in eclogites or pyroxenites. The isotopic range displayed by peridotite-suite graphite and diamond encompasses the carbon isotope range observed in mid-ocean-ridge-basalt (MORB) glasses and ocean-island basalts (OIB). Similarity between the isotopic compositions of carbon associated with cratonic peridotites and the carbon (as CO₂) in oceanic magmas (MORB/OIB) indicates that the source of the fluids that deposited carbon, as graphite or diamond, in catonic peridotites lies within the convecting mantle, below the lithosphere. Textural observations provide evidence that some of graphite in cratonic peridotites is of sub-solidus metasomatic origin, probably deposited from a cooling C-H-O fluid phase permeating the lithosphere along fractures. Macrocrystalline graphite of primary appearance has not been found in mantle xenoliths from kimberlitic or basaltic rocks erupted away from cratonic areas. Hence, graphite in mantle-derived xenoliths appears to be restricted to Archaean cratons and occurs exclusively in low-temperature, coarse peridotites thought to be characteristic of the lithospheric mantle. The tectonic association of graphite within the mantle is very similar to that of diamond. It is unlikely that this restricted occurrence is due solely to unique conditions of oxygen fugacity in the cratonic lithospheric mantle because some peridotite xenoliths from off-craton localities are as reduced as those from within cratons. Radiogenic isotope systematics of peridotite-suite diamond inclusions suggest that diamond crystallisation was not directly related to the melting events that formed lithospheric peridotites. However, some diamond (and graphite?) crystallisation in southern Africa occurred within the time span associated with the stabilisation of the lithospheric mantle (Pearson et al. 1993). The nature of the process causing localisation of carbon in cratonic mantle roots is not yet clearly understood.  相似文献   

The Indus-Tsangpo suture zone in Ladakh, northwest Himalaya: Further palaeomagnetic data and implications     

Chris Klootwijk  Madan Lal Sharma  Jozef Gergan  S.K. Shah  Biras Tirkey 《Tectonophysics》1984,106(3-4)

A total of 81 samples (244 specimens) from Upper Cretaceous Indus Molasse and Middle to Upper Cretaceous Dras Flyschoids of the Indus-Tsangpo suture zone in Ladakh (northwest Himalaya) has been studied by thermal demagnetization methods.Both formations showed a characteristic magnetization component indicative for equatorial to low northern palaeolatitudes of acquisition. Similar palaeolatitudes have been obtained before from secondary magnetization components of Early Tertiary age in the Ladakh Intrusives and in the Tibetan Sedimentary Series of central Nepal. The present characteristic components are interpreted likewise as secondary magnetizations which stabilized between 50 and 60 m.y. ago, during Greater India's collision with Asia's southern margin.The Dras Flyschoids show another magnetic component which, in case of primary origin, indicates acquisition at a low southern palaeolatitude. If correct, this interpretation supports recent suggestions for Late Cretaceous obduction of an island arc on Greater India's northern margin.  相似文献