Enhanced Surface Melting of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet during Stadials ...

• Main Author: Boswell, Steven M.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Columbia University 2018
• Subjects: Paleoclimatology; Geochemistry; FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences; Ice sheets; Climatic changes; Earth sciences; Fennoscandian; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8572vrz; https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8572VRZ

Unexpected melting of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during periods of regional cooling characterizes the climate of the last glacial period. While the Heinrich Events are the most well-studied example of this phenomenon, Samuel Toucanne and colleagues recently documented evidence of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting during Heinrich Stadials, the cold periods during which Heinrich Events occur. In this dissertation, I use the geographic provenance of sediments in the Bay of Biscay, a proxy for Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting, along with other paleoclimate records to: (1) demonstrate the persistence of abrupt Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melting as a feature of the Pleistocene climate system, (2) develop a self-consistent explanation for the synchronous melting of ice sheets in the North Atlantic region, and (3) elucidate the timing of abrupt climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. I begin by introducing a framework for inferring the subglacial transport distance of fine sediments from coupled provenance and ...