Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age
This paper presents new evidence regarding relative sea-level (RSL) changes and vertical land motions at three sites in Greenland since 1300 A.D., a time interval that spans the later part of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). We observe RSL rise at two sites in central...
Published in: | Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
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Online Access: | https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/13353/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.06.027 |
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ftunivnorthumb:oai:nrl.northumbria.ac.uk:13353 2023-05-15T16:24:19+02:00 Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age Long, Antony Woodroffe, Sarah Milne, Glenn Bryant, Charlotte Simpson, Matthew Wake, Leanne 2012 https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/13353/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.06.027 unknown Elsevier Long, Antony, Woodroffe, Sarah, Milne, Glenn, Bryant, Charlotte, Simpson, Matthew and Wake, Leanne (2012) Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 315. pp. 76-85. ISSN 0012-821X F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Article PeerReviewed 2012 ftunivnorthumb https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.06.027 2022-09-25T05:58:01Z This paper presents new evidence regarding relative sea-level (RSL) changes and vertical land motions at three sites in Greenland since 1300 A.D., a time interval that spans the later part of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). We observe RSL rise at two sites in central west Greenland from c. − 0.80 ± 0.20 m at c. 1300 A.D. to c. − 0.20 m ± 0.25 m at c. 1600 A.D., after which RSL slowed and then stabilised. At a third site in south Greenland, we observe RSL rise from c. − 1.40 ± 0.20 m at c. 1400 A.D. until c. 1750 A.D., after which RSL slowed and was stable during at least the latter part of the 20th century. The c. 1600 A.D. RSL slow-down seen at the two former sites is surprising because it occurs during the LIA when one might expect the ice sheet to be gaining mass and causing RSL to rise. We interpret this RSL slowdown to indicate a period of enhanced regional mass loss from central west Greenland since c. 1600 A.D. and propose two hypotheses for this loss: first, a reduction in precipitation during cold and dry conditions and second, higher air temperatures and increased peripheral surface melt of the ice sheet from this date onwards. The latter hypothesis is compatible with a well-established temperature seesaw between western Greenland and northern Europe and, potentially, a previously identified shift from a positive to generally more negative NAO conditions around 1400 to 1600 A.D. Our study shows how RSL data from Greenland can provide constraints on the timing of ice sheet fluctuations in the last millennium and challenges the notion that during cold periods in northern Europe the ice sheet in west Greenland gained mass. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet Northumbria University, Newcastle: Northumbria Research Link (NRL) Greenland Earth and Planetary Science Letters 315-316 76 85 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Northumbria University, Newcastle: Northumbria Research Link (NRL) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnorthumb |
language |
unknown |
topic |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Long, Antony Woodroffe, Sarah Milne, Glenn Bryant, Charlotte Simpson, Matthew Wake, Leanne Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age |
topic_facet |
F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
description |
This paper presents new evidence regarding relative sea-level (RSL) changes and vertical land motions at three sites in Greenland since 1300 A.D., a time interval that spans the later part of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA). We observe RSL rise at two sites in central west Greenland from c. − 0.80 ± 0.20 m at c. 1300 A.D. to c. − 0.20 m ± 0.25 m at c. 1600 A.D., after which RSL slowed and then stabilised. At a third site in south Greenland, we observe RSL rise from c. − 1.40 ± 0.20 m at c. 1400 A.D. until c. 1750 A.D., after which RSL slowed and was stable during at least the latter part of the 20th century. The c. 1600 A.D. RSL slow-down seen at the two former sites is surprising because it occurs during the LIA when one might expect the ice sheet to be gaining mass and causing RSL to rise. We interpret this RSL slowdown to indicate a period of enhanced regional mass loss from central west Greenland since c. 1600 A.D. and propose two hypotheses for this loss: first, a reduction in precipitation during cold and dry conditions and second, higher air temperatures and increased peripheral surface melt of the ice sheet from this date onwards. The latter hypothesis is compatible with a well-established temperature seesaw between western Greenland and northern Europe and, potentially, a previously identified shift from a positive to generally more negative NAO conditions around 1400 to 1600 A.D. Our study shows how RSL data from Greenland can provide constraints on the timing of ice sheet fluctuations in the last millennium and challenges the notion that during cold periods in northern Europe the ice sheet in west Greenland gained mass. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Long, Antony Woodroffe, Sarah Milne, Glenn Bryant, Charlotte Simpson, Matthew Wake, Leanne |
author_facet |
Long, Antony Woodroffe, Sarah Milne, Glenn Bryant, Charlotte Simpson, Matthew Wake, Leanne |
author_sort |
Long, Antony |
title |
Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age |
title_short |
Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age |
title_full |
Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age |
title_fullStr |
Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age |
title_full_unstemmed |
Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age |
title_sort |
relative sea-level change in greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the little ice age |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/13353/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.06.027 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
Long, Antony, Woodroffe, Sarah, Milne, Glenn, Bryant, Charlotte, Simpson, Matthew and Wake, Leanne (2012) Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700yrs and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 315. pp. 76-85. ISSN 0012-821X |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.06.027 |
container_title |
Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
container_volume |
315-316 |
container_start_page |
76 |
op_container_end_page |
85 |
_version_ |
1766012735162679296 |