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Paleoenvironments during Younger Dryas‐ E arly Holocene retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet from outer Disko Trough, central west Greenland
Author(s) -
JENNINGS ANNE E.,
WALTON MARIAH E.,
Ó COFAIGH COLM,
KILFEATHER AOIBHEANN,
ANDREWS JOHN T.,
ORTIZ JOSEPH D.,
DE VERNAL ANNE,
DOWDESWELL JULIAN A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of quaternary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.142
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-1417
pISSN - 0267-8179
DOI - 10.1002/jqs.2652
Subject(s) - geology , younger dryas , greenland ice sheet , oceanography , holocene , ice sheet , glacial period , ice shelf , iceberg , ice core , continental shelf , foraminifera , fjord , sea ice , paleontology , cryosphere , benthic zone
Paleoenvironments during the late Younger Dryas through early Holocene retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet from the outer shelf in the Disko Trough system of central West Greenland were investigated via lithofacies, foraminifera, dinocysts and sediment provenance analyses in radiocarbon‐dated sediment cores from the upper slope (JR175‐VC35) and outer shelf (JR175‐VC20 and HU2008029‐070CC). Core data show that the ice margin retreated rapidly from the outer shelf by calving, beginning by 12.2k cal a BP under cold paleoceanographic conditions with up to 11 months of sea‐ice. Ice retreat into Disko Bugt was well underway by 10.9k cal a BP. Enhanced ice‐sheet ablation in Disko Bugt and elsewhere along the West Greenland coast is inferred from cold glacial marine conditions associated with high sedimentation rates between 10.9 and 9.5k cal a BP on the outer shelf. Glacial marine conditions are recorded on the outer shelf until 7.8k cal a BP. Detrital carbonate‐bearing sediments rich in >2‐mm clasts deposited between 11.6 and 10.6 k cal a BP indicate that icebergs calved from northern Baffin Bay ice margins were melting and releasing sediments along West Greenland while the Greenland Ice Sheet margin was retreating into Disko Bugt.