Evaluation of ice sheet vulnerability and landscape evolution using novel cosmogenic-nuclide techniques

• Main Author: Balter-Kennedy, Alexandra
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Geology; Global warming; Climatic changes; Glaciers > Climatic factors; Glaciers > Measurement; Ice sheets > Measurement; Holocene Geologic Period; Greenland; Jakobshavn Isbræ; Ice Sheet; Jakobshavn; Jakobshavn isbræ
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7916/nt03-9t74

Effective coastal adaptation to sea-level rise requires an understanding of how much and how fast glaciers and ice sheets will melt in the coming decades, together with an understanding of the provenance of that ice melt. When land ice is lost to the oceans, sea-levels do not rise uniformly across the globe, but exhibit a “sea-level fingerprint” specific to the source of ice melt, posing an important question motivating this thesis: Which ice mass(es) will contribute the first 1m/3 feet of sea-level rise? The glacial-geologic record archives the vulnerability of ice sheets and their sub-sectors to past warming. To analyze this record of past glacial change, I develop and apply cosmogenic-nuclide techniques for investigating the climate sensitivity of four key ice sheets. The novel geochemical techniques described here also allow me to investigate processes of landscape evolution, including subglacial and subaerial erosion. Subglacial erosion dictates landscape development in glaciated and formerly glaciated settings, which in turn influences ice-flow dynamics and the climate sensitivity of ice masses, making it an important input in ice-sheet models. In Chapter 1, I use 10Be measurements in surficial bedrock and a 4-m-long bedrock near Jakobshavn Isbræ, to constrain the erosion rate beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) on historical and orbital timescales. 10Be concentrations measured below ~2 m depth in a 4-m-long bedrock core are greater than what is predicted by an idealized production-rate depth profile and I develop a model to utilize this excess 10Be at depth to constrain orbital-scale erosion rates. I find that erosion rates beneath GrIS were 0.4–0.8 mm yr-1 during historical times and 0.1–0.3 mm yr-1 on Pleistocene timescales. The broad similarity between centennial- and orbital-scale erosion rates suggests that subglacial erosion rates adjacent to Jakobshavn Isbræ have remained relatively uniform throughout the Pleistocene. In Chapter 2, I present cosmogenic 10Be and 3He data from Ferrar dolerite ...