Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas
During the last deglaciation, North Atlantic climate abruptly warmed at the Bølling (∼14.7 ka), cooled into the Younger Dryas (∼12.9 ka) and abruptly warmed again into the Holocene (∼11.7 ka). While these events are defined by Greenland ice cores, there is still considerable uncertainty on Greenland...
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ftimperialcol:oai:spiral.imperial.ac.uk:10044/1/93503 2023-05-15T16:25:29+02:00 Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas Carlson, AE Reyes, A Gusterson, E Axford, Y Wilcken, KM Rood, DH 2021-07-20 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93503 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107105 English eng Elsevier Quaternary Science Reviews: the international multidisciplinary research and review journal 0277-3791 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93503 doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107105 © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 2022-07-28 CC-BY-NC-ND 7 1 Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geography Physical Geosciences Multidisciplinary Physical Geography Geology Pleistocene Glaciation Paleoclimatology Greenland Cosmogenic isotopes NORTH-ATLANTIC GLACIAL ICE CLIMATE DEGLACIATION BE-10 SOUTH SHELF Paleontology 04 Earth Sciences 21 History and Archaeology Journal Article 2021 ftimperialcol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107105 2022-01-13T23:40:49Z During the last deglaciation, North Atlantic climate abruptly warmed at the Bølling (∼14.7 ka), cooled into the Younger Dryas (∼12.9 ka) and abruptly warmed again into the Holocene (∼11.7 ka). While these events are defined by Greenland ice cores, there is still considerable uncertainty on Greenland ice-sheet margin responses to abrupt climate change. To refine the ice sheet's deglacial history, we present new cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure ages from boulders on bedrock at five sites in southernmost Greenland fjords located midway between the coast and inland ice margin. We find ice-sheet thinning below three local topographic highs at 12.7 ± 0.3 ka (n = 3), 13.1 ± 0.4 ka (n = 1, 2 outliers), and 12.3 ± 0.2 ka (n = 3), with up-fjord retreat at 12.5 ± 0.3 ka (n = 3) and 12.7 ± 0.2 ka (n = 4) based on two sites just above the mid-fjord marine limit. These mid-fjord 10Be ages therefore show southernmost Greenland ice-sheet thinning and retreat during the Younger Dryas. We hypothesize that this thinning and retreat was a response to ocean warming prior to the Holocene and/or summer shortwave radiative forcing during the Younger Dryas due to peak boreal summer insolation. Our results also support a previously hypothesized winter bias in proxy records of Younger Dryas atmospheric cooling, since a large summer cooling during the Younger Dryas could have counteracted the effects of ocean warming and direct radiative forcing, inhibiting ice-sheet retreat. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Greenland ice cores Ice Sheet North Atlantic Imperial College London: Spiral Greenland Quaternary Science Reviews 267 107105 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Imperial College London: Spiral |
op_collection_id |
ftimperialcol |
language |
English |
topic |
Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geography Physical Geosciences Multidisciplinary Physical Geography Geology Pleistocene Glaciation Paleoclimatology Greenland Cosmogenic isotopes NORTH-ATLANTIC GLACIAL ICE CLIMATE DEGLACIATION BE-10 SOUTH SHELF Paleontology 04 Earth Sciences 21 History and Archaeology |
spellingShingle |
Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geography Physical Geosciences Multidisciplinary Physical Geography Geology Pleistocene Glaciation Paleoclimatology Greenland Cosmogenic isotopes NORTH-ATLANTIC GLACIAL ICE CLIMATE DEGLACIATION BE-10 SOUTH SHELF Paleontology 04 Earth Sciences 21 History and Archaeology Carlson, AE Reyes, A Gusterson, E Axford, Y Wilcken, KM Rood, DH Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas |
topic_facet |
Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geography Physical Geosciences Multidisciplinary Physical Geography Geology Pleistocene Glaciation Paleoclimatology Greenland Cosmogenic isotopes NORTH-ATLANTIC GLACIAL ICE CLIMATE DEGLACIATION BE-10 SOUTH SHELF Paleontology 04 Earth Sciences 21 History and Archaeology |
description |
During the last deglaciation, North Atlantic climate abruptly warmed at the Bølling (∼14.7 ka), cooled into the Younger Dryas (∼12.9 ka) and abruptly warmed again into the Holocene (∼11.7 ka). While these events are defined by Greenland ice cores, there is still considerable uncertainty on Greenland ice-sheet margin responses to abrupt climate change. To refine the ice sheet's deglacial history, we present new cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure ages from boulders on bedrock at five sites in southernmost Greenland fjords located midway between the coast and inland ice margin. We find ice-sheet thinning below three local topographic highs at 12.7 ± 0.3 ka (n = 3), 13.1 ± 0.4 ka (n = 1, 2 outliers), and 12.3 ± 0.2 ka (n = 3), with up-fjord retreat at 12.5 ± 0.3 ka (n = 3) and 12.7 ± 0.2 ka (n = 4) based on two sites just above the mid-fjord marine limit. These mid-fjord 10Be ages therefore show southernmost Greenland ice-sheet thinning and retreat during the Younger Dryas. We hypothesize that this thinning and retreat was a response to ocean warming prior to the Holocene and/or summer shortwave radiative forcing during the Younger Dryas due to peak boreal summer insolation. Our results also support a previously hypothesized winter bias in proxy records of Younger Dryas atmospheric cooling, since a large summer cooling during the Younger Dryas could have counteracted the effects of ocean warming and direct radiative forcing, inhibiting ice-sheet retreat. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Carlson, AE Reyes, A Gusterson, E Axford, Y Wilcken, KM Rood, DH |
author_facet |
Carlson, AE Reyes, A Gusterson, E Axford, Y Wilcken, KM Rood, DH |
author_sort |
Carlson, AE |
title |
Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas |
title_short |
Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas |
title_full |
Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas |
title_fullStr |
Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas |
title_full_unstemmed |
Direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost Greenland ice sheet during the Younger Dryas |
title_sort |
direct evidence for thinning and retreat of the southernmost greenland ice sheet during the younger dryas |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93503 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107105 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Greenland ice cores Ice Sheet North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Greenland Greenland ice cores Ice Sheet North Atlantic |
op_source |
7 1 |
op_relation |
Quaternary Science Reviews: the international multidisciplinary research and review journal 0277-3791 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93503 doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107105 |
op_rights |
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 2022-07-28 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107105 |
container_title |
Quaternary Science Reviews |
container_volume |
267 |
container_start_page |
107105 |
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1766014269779869696 |