Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland
Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) outlet glaciers are currently losing mass, leading to sea level rise. Reconstructions of past outlet glacier behavior through the Holocene help us better understand how they respond to climate change. Kiattuut Sermiat, a southern Greenland outlet glacier near Narsarsuaq, i...
Published in: | Climate of the Past |
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Copernicus Publications
2023
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00068776 2023-10-09T21:51:44+02:00 Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland Puleo, Peter J. K. Axford, Yarrow 2023-09 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00068776 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067192/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/1777/2023/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications Climate of the Past -- http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/cp/cp/published_papers.html -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2217985 -- 1814-9332 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00068776 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067192/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/1777/2023/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2023 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023 2023-09-10T23:21:43Z Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) outlet glaciers are currently losing mass, leading to sea level rise. Reconstructions of past outlet glacier behavior through the Holocene help us better understand how they respond to climate change. Kiattuut Sermiat, a southern Greenland outlet glacier near Narsarsuaq, is known to have experienced an unusually large Late Holocene advance that culminated at ∼1600 cal yr BP and exceeded the glacier's Little Ice Age extent. We report sedimentary records from two lakes at slightly different elevations in an upland valley adjacent to Kiattuut Sermiat. These reveal when the outlet glacier's surface elevation was higher than during the Little Ice Age and constrain the associated outlet glacier surface elevation. We use bulk sediment geochemistry, magnetic susceptibility, color, texture, and the presence of aquatic plant macrofossils to distinguish between till, glaciolacustrine sediments, and organic lake sediments. Our 14C results above basal till recording regional deglaciation skew slightly old due to a reservoir effect but are generally consistent with regional deglaciation occurring ∼ 11 000 cal yr BP. Neoglacial advance of Kiattuut Sermiat is recorded by deposition of glaciolacustrine sediments in the lower-elevation lake, which we infer was subsumed by an ice-dammed lake that formed along the glacier's margin just after ∼ 3900 cal yr BP. This timing is consistent with several other glacial records in Greenland showing neoglacial cooling driving advance between ∼ 4500–3000 cal yr BP. Given that glaciolacustrine sediments were deposited only in the lower-elevation lake, combined with glacial geomorphological evidence in the valley containing these lakes, we estimate the former ice margin's elevation to have been ∼ 670 m a.s.l., compared with ∼ 420 m a.s.l. today. The ice-dammed lake persisted until the glacier surface fell below this elevation at ∼ 1600 cal yr BP. The retreat timing contrasts with overall evidence for cooling and glacier advance in the region at that time, so we infer ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Narsarsuaq Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Greenland Dammed Lake ENVELOPE(-68.258,-68.258,68.496,68.496) Organic Lake ENVELOPE(78.190,78.190,-68.457,-68.457) Kiattuut Sermiat ENVELOPE(-45.267,-45.267,61.267,61.267) Climate of the Past 19 9 1777 1791 |
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English |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Puleo, Peter J. K. Axford, Yarrow Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) outlet glaciers are currently losing mass, leading to sea level rise. Reconstructions of past outlet glacier behavior through the Holocene help us better understand how they respond to climate change. Kiattuut Sermiat, a southern Greenland outlet glacier near Narsarsuaq, is known to have experienced an unusually large Late Holocene advance that culminated at ∼1600 cal yr BP and exceeded the glacier's Little Ice Age extent. We report sedimentary records from two lakes at slightly different elevations in an upland valley adjacent to Kiattuut Sermiat. These reveal when the outlet glacier's surface elevation was higher than during the Little Ice Age and constrain the associated outlet glacier surface elevation. We use bulk sediment geochemistry, magnetic susceptibility, color, texture, and the presence of aquatic plant macrofossils to distinguish between till, glaciolacustrine sediments, and organic lake sediments. Our 14C results above basal till recording regional deglaciation skew slightly old due to a reservoir effect but are generally consistent with regional deglaciation occurring ∼ 11 000 cal yr BP. Neoglacial advance of Kiattuut Sermiat is recorded by deposition of glaciolacustrine sediments in the lower-elevation lake, which we infer was subsumed by an ice-dammed lake that formed along the glacier's margin just after ∼ 3900 cal yr BP. This timing is consistent with several other glacial records in Greenland showing neoglacial cooling driving advance between ∼ 4500–3000 cal yr BP. Given that glaciolacustrine sediments were deposited only in the lower-elevation lake, combined with glacial geomorphological evidence in the valley containing these lakes, we estimate the former ice margin's elevation to have been ∼ 670 m a.s.l., compared with ∼ 420 m a.s.l. today. The ice-dammed lake persisted until the glacier surface fell below this elevation at ∼ 1600 cal yr BP. The retreat timing contrasts with overall evidence for cooling and glacier advance in the region at that time, so we infer ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Puleo, Peter J. K. Axford, Yarrow |
author_facet |
Puleo, Peter J. K. Axford, Yarrow |
author_sort |
Puleo, Peter J. K. |
title |
Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland |
title_short |
Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland |
title_full |
Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland |
title_sort |
duration and ice thickness of a late holocene outlet glacier advance near narsarsuaq, southern greenland |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00068776 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067192/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/1777/2023/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-68.258,-68.258,68.496,68.496) ENVELOPE(78.190,78.190,-68.457,-68.457) ENVELOPE(-45.267,-45.267,61.267,61.267) |
geographic |
Greenland Dammed Lake Organic Lake Kiattuut Sermiat |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Dammed Lake Organic Lake Kiattuut Sermiat |
genre |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Narsarsuaq |
genre_facet |
glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Narsarsuaq |
op_relation |
Climate of the Past -- http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/cp/cp/published_papers.html -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2217985 -- 1814-9332 https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00068776 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00067192/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/1777/2023/cp-19-1777-2023.pdf |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023 |
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Climate of the Past |
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19 |
container_issue |
9 |
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1777 |
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1791 |
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