Little Ice Age and neoglacial landforms at the Inland Ice margin, Isunguata Sermia, Kangerlussuaq, west Greenland

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: Forman, Steven L., Marín, Liliana, Van Der Veen, Cornelis, Tremper, Catherine, Csatho, Bea
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2007
• Subjects: Geology; Archeology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Greenland; Kangerlussuaq
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00173130601173301; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1080%2F00173130601173301; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00173130601173301

Neoglacial and Little Ice Age (LIA) limits occur within 2km of the Inland Ice margin in the Kangerlussuaq area on west Greenland. The LIA limit is clearly demarcated by ice‐cored and non‐ice‐cored moraines, out‐wash surfaces and trimlines. Rhizocarpon sp. thalli of ≥16mm on these landforms indicate a 1‐2km retreat of the Inland Ice in the past c. 100 years, coincident with peripheral thinning of the ice. An older neoglacial moraine host of Rhizocarpon sp. thalli <40 mm indicates a minimum limiting age of <400 BP, whereas Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) ages on aeolian silt capping the moraine yield close limiting ages of c. 2000 BP. Aeolian silt deposition beyond neoglacial limits yields OSL ages of c. 3000 BP, potentially coeval with advance of the Inland Ice. Aeolian sedimentation and the inferred age of the moraine are coincident with pronounced cooling inferred from palaeolimnological records from west and south Greenland. This neoglacial event at c. 2000 BP is probably of similar extent to the LIA maximum, because of the paucity of preserved moraine remnants.