Constraining Holocene 10 Be production rates in Greenland

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Briner, Jason P., Young, Nicolás E., Goehring, Brent M., Schaefer, Joerg M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2011
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Greenland; Jakobshavn Isbræ; Baffin; Jakobshavn; Jakobshavn isbræ
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1562; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.1562; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.1562

Abstract The absence of a production rate calibration experiment on Greenland has limited the ability to link 10 Be exposure dating chronologies of ice‐margin change to independent records of rapid climate change. We use radiocarbon age control on Holocene glacial features near Jakobshavn Isbræ, western Greenland, to investigate 10 Be production rates. The radiocarbon chronology is inconsistent with the 10 Be age calculations based on the current globally averaged 10 Be production rate calibration data set, but is consistent with the 10 Be production rate calibration data set from north‐eastern North America, which includes a calibration site nearby on north‐eastern Baffin Island. Based on the best‐dated feature available from the Jakobshavn Isbræ forefield, we derive a 10 Be production rate value of 3.98 ± 0.24 atoms g a −1 , using the ‘St’ scaling scheme, which overlaps with recently published reference 10 Be production rates. We suggest that these 10 Be production rate data, or the very similar data from north‐eastern North America, are used on Greenland. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.