TY - JOUR
T1 - Slow retreat of a land based sector of the West Greenland Ice Sheet during the Holocene Thermal Maximum: evidence from threshold lakes at Paakitsoq
AU - Håkansson, Lena
AU - Briner, Jason P.
AU - Andresen, Camilla S.
AU - Thomas, Elizabeth K.
AU - Bennike, Ole
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Swedish Research council and SSAG . Nicolás Young and Stefan Truex are acknowledged for help with the coring. John Boserup at GEUS is thanked for helping with laboratory equipment. We acknowledge the use of data from CReSIS generated with support from NSF grant ANT-0424589 and NASA grant NNX10AT68G .
PY - 2014/8/15
Y1 - 2014/8/15
N2 - Records from two connected proglacial threshold lakes at Paakitsoq, west Greenland have been analyzed in order to investigate the response of a land-based ice sheet margin to Holocene climate change. The results are used to test whether or not the land terminating margin at Paakitsoq behaved synchronously with the nearby marine terminating Jakobshavn Isbræ during the Holocene. The radiocarbon dated lake sediment cores indicate that the ice margin retreated to its present position ~6.5ka ago and thereafter maintained a relatively stable configuration similar to the present for >1000 years, despite summer temperatures >2°C higher than today. The lakes became non-glacial after 5.4cal.kaBP, when the ice margin retreated behind a drainage divide situated ~1.5km inland of the present margin. By this time, Jakobshavn Isbræ had already reached its minimum configuration. The Paakitsoq ice margin remained >1.5km inland of its present margin until after 240±20cal.yrBP; after this time, both Paakitsoq ice margin and Jakobshavn Isbræ reached their Holocene maxima during the later stage of the Little Ice Age. Our results suggest that the present ice margin position at Paakitsoq is relatively stable in a warming climate but after a total retreat of ~1.5km behind the present margin position it may become marine based and more unstable due to marine melting and calving processes.
AB - Records from two connected proglacial threshold lakes at Paakitsoq, west Greenland have been analyzed in order to investigate the response of a land-based ice sheet margin to Holocene climate change. The results are used to test whether or not the land terminating margin at Paakitsoq behaved synchronously with the nearby marine terminating Jakobshavn Isbræ during the Holocene. The radiocarbon dated lake sediment cores indicate that the ice margin retreated to its present position ~6.5ka ago and thereafter maintained a relatively stable configuration similar to the present for >1000 years, despite summer temperatures >2°C higher than today. The lakes became non-glacial after 5.4cal.kaBP, when the ice margin retreated behind a drainage divide situated ~1.5km inland of the present margin. By this time, Jakobshavn Isbræ had already reached its minimum configuration. The Paakitsoq ice margin remained >1.5km inland of its present margin until after 240±20cal.yrBP; after this time, both Paakitsoq ice margin and Jakobshavn Isbræ reached their Holocene maxima during the later stage of the Little Ice Age. Our results suggest that the present ice margin position at Paakitsoq is relatively stable in a warming climate but after a total retreat of ~1.5km behind the present margin position it may become marine based and more unstable due to marine melting and calving processes.
KW - Greenland ice sheet
KW - Holocene thermal maximum
KW - Little ice age
KW - Neoglaciation
KW - Paleoclimate
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84902677145&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.05.016
DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.05.016
M3 - Article
SN - 0277-3791
VL - 98
SP - 74
EP - 83
JO - Quaternary Science Reviews
JF - Quaternary Science Reviews
ER -