| Summary: | The overarching goal of this project was to study the Petermann Glacier/ice tongue system and its response to past climate changes, especially during the Holocene. This is a major outlet of the Greenland Ice Sheet and one of only a couple that terminates in a buttressing ice tongue. Its past sensitivity to changes in ocean and atmosphere temperature and sea level are important for predicting its response to modern and future warming. Our research focuses on reconstructing the extent of the Petermann Glacier during the LGM, the timing, rate and style of ice retreat, and the role of ocean forcing, sea level variation and fjord morphology and interaction with other ice sheets and outlets in its past behavior. As a collaborative group, we use the geological and geophysical data collected during the July to Sept. 2015 cruise of icebreaker Oden (OD1507) to the Petermann Fjord and Hall Basin to accomplish our goals. The University of Colorado was responsible for developing certain basic aspects of stratigraphy and paleoceanography through the analyses of mineralogy, grain size and foraminiferal assemblages in sediment cores collected during OD1507 augmented by analysis existing sediment cores collected in 2001 on Canadian cruise 2001LSSL. Three types of data are provided. 1. Quantitative X-ray mineralogy (qXRD) data in percentage form; 2. Particle size data processed for grain size parameters using Gradistat program; 3. Foraminiferal percentage and abundance data.
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