Field report on palaeo-environmental studies at the Greenland ice sheet margin, Paakitsoq, West Greenland, 1994

Oxygen 18 isotope studies (δ¹⁸O) from the large ice sheets of the Polar regions have given rich information about climate and environmental changes during the past c. 250 000 years (250 ka). This has been demonstrated by results from the deep ice-core drilling programmes on the central part of the Greenland ice sheet (e.g. Dansgaard et al., 1982, 1993) and Antarctica (Lorius et al., 1985; Jouzel et al., 1987).

However, the old ice found at depth in the central regions of the ice sheets can also be retrieved at the ice sheet margin, where ice of different ages is found in a sequence with the oldest ice nearest to the ice edge (Lorius & Merlivat, 1977; Reeh et al., 1987, 1991). Oxygen isotope climate research of this kind was undertaken in 1985, 1988 and 1992 at Paakitsoq north-east of Ilulissat/Jakobshavn, West Greenland (Fig. 1).