The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet
Abstract 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 alo...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.62 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143020000623 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2020.62 2024-05-19T07:40:56+00:00 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. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.62 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143020000623 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 66, issue 258, page 667-684 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 journal-article 2020 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.62 2024-04-25T06:51:42Z Abstract 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 66 258 667 684 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract 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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
MacGregor, Joseph A. Fahnestock, Mark A. Colgan, William T. Larsen, Nicolaj K. Kjeldsen, Kristian K. Welker, Jeffrey M. |
spellingShingle |
MacGregor, Joseph A. Fahnestock, Mark A. Colgan, William T. Larsen, Nicolaj K. Kjeldsen, Kristian K. Welker, Jeffrey M. The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
author_facet |
MacGregor, Joseph A. Fahnestock, Mark A. Colgan, William T. Larsen, Nicolaj K. Kjeldsen, Kristian K. Welker, Jeffrey M. |
author_sort |
MacGregor, Joseph A. |
title |
The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_short |
The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_full |
The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_fullStr |
The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
The age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet |
title_sort |
age of surface-exposed ice along the northern margin of the greenland ice sheet |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.62 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143020000623 |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 66, issue 258, page 667-684 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.62 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
66 |
container_issue |
258 |
container_start_page |
667 |
op_container_end_page |
684 |
_version_ |
1799480505015468032 |