Deglacial to Mid Holocene environmental conditions on the northeastern Greenland shelf, western Fram Strait ...

• Main Authors: Elnegaard Hansen, Katrine, Lorenzen, Jesper, Davies, Joanna, Wacker, Lukas, Pearce, Christof, Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; East Greenland; east greenland current; Foraminifera*; Fram Strait; Greenland; North Atlantic; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000568660; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/568660

The western Fram Strait is the only deep-water gateway connecting the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic. Consequently, today, the western Fram Strait and the Northeast Greenland shelf receive cold, low saline Polar and Arctic Atlantic waters from the Arctic Ocean incorporated in the East Greenland Current, together with warmer, saline recirculated Atlantic Water masses derived from the West Spitsbergen Current. We present a multiproxy study (grain size distribution, XRF core scans, and benthic foraminiferal assemblages) based on the lower part of the radiocarbon dated marine sediment core DA17-NG-ST03-039G, covering the period from 13.3 to 3.9 cal ka BP. We reconstruct the deglacial conditions of the Northeast Greenland shelf together with Early to Mid Holocene fluctuations in subsurface Atlantic Water and Polar Water advection. The results show that the outer Northeast Greenland shelf was deglaciated and marine conditions were established prior to c. 13.3 cal ka BP. At this time, our data show Atlantic Water ... : Quaternary Science Reviews, 293 ...