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Two possible source regions for central Greenland last glacial dust
Author(s) -
Újvári Gábor,
Stevens Thomas,
Svensson Anders,
Klötzli Urs S.,
Manning Christina,
Németh Tibor,
Kovács János,
Sweeney Mark R.,
Gocke Martina,
Wiesenberg Guido L. B.,
Markovic Slobodan B.,
Zech Michael
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl066153
Subject(s) - loess , geology , glacial period , ice core , northern hemisphere , silt , mineral dust , glacier , physical geography , snow , earth science , geochemistry , climatology , geomorphology , aerosol , geography , meteorology
Dust in Greenland ice cores is used to reconstruct the activity of dust‐emitting regions and atmospheric circulation. However, the source of dust material to Greenland over the last glacial period is the subject of considerable uncertainty. Here we use new clay mineral and <10 µm Sr–Nd isotopic data from a range of Northern Hemisphere loess deposits in possible source regions alongside existing isotopic data to show that these methods cannot discriminate between two competing hypothetical origins for Greenland dust: an East Asian and/or central European source. In contrast, Hf isotopes (<10 µm fraction) of loess samples show considerable differences between the potential source regions. We attribute this to a first‐order clay mineralogy dependence of Hf isotopic signatures in the finest silt/clay fractions, due to absence of zircons. As zircons would also be absent in Greenland dust, this provides a new way to discriminate between hypotheses for Greenland dust sources.