A Greenland-wide empirical reconstruction of paleo ice sheet retreat informed by ice extent markers: PaleoGrIS version 1.0

• Published in: Climate of the Past
• Main Authors: Leger, T.P.M., Clark, C.D., Huynh, C., Jones, S., Ely, J.C., Bradley, S.L., Diemont, C., Hughes, A.L.C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 2024
• Subjects: Greenland; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/211445/; https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/211445/1/cp-20-701-2024.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-701-2024

The Greenland Ice Sheet is a large contributor to global sea level rise, and current mass losses are projected to accelerate. However, model projections of future ice sheet evolution are limited by the fact that the ice sheet is not in equilibrium with present-day climate but is still adjusting to past changes that occurred over thousands of years. While the influence of such committed adjustments on future ice sheet evolution remains unquantified, it could be addressed by calibrating numerical ice sheet models over larger timescales and, importantly, against empirical data on ice margin positions. To enable such paleo data–model interactions, we need Greenland-wide empirical reconstructions of past ice sheet extent that combine geomorphological and geochronological evidence. Despite an increasing number of field studies producing new chronologies, such a reconstruction is currently lacking in Greenland. Furthermore, a time slice reconstruction can help to (i) answer open questions regarding the rate and pattern of ice margin evolution in Greenland since the glacial maximum, (ii) develop a standardised record of empirical data, and (iii) identify new sites for future field campaigns. Based on these motivations, we here present PaleoGrIS 1.0, a new Greenland-wide isochrone reconstruction of ice sheet extent evolution through the Late Glacial and early- to mid-Holocene informed by both geomorphological and geochronological markers. Our isochrones have a temporal resolution of 500 years and span ∼ 7.5 kyr from approximately 14 to 6.5 kyr BP. We describe the resulting reconstruction of the shrinking ice sheet and conduct a series of ice-sheet-wide and regional analyses to quantify retreat rates, areal extent change, and their variability across space and time. During the Late Glacial and early- to mid-Holocene, we find the Greenland Ice Sheet has lost about one-third of its areal extent (0.89 million km2). Between ∼ 14 and ∼ 8.5 kyr BP, it experienced a near-constant rate of areal extent loss of 170 ± 27 km2 yr−1. ...