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Title: The Northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet During The Early Pleistocene Was Similar To Today

Abstract

The multi-million year history of the Greenland Ice Sheet remains poorly known. Ice-proximal glacial marine diamict provides a direct but discontinuous record of ice sheet behavior; it is underutilized as a climate archive. In this paper, we present a novel multiproxy analysis of an Early Pleistocene marine diamict from northwestern Greenland. Low cosmogenic nuclide concentrations indicate minimal near-surface exposure, similar to modern terrestrial sediment. Detrital apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) ages all predate glaciation by >150 million years, suggesting the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet had, by 1.9 Ma, not yet incised fjords of sufficient depth to excavate grains with young AHe ages. The diamict contains terrestrial plant leaf wax, likely from land surfaces surrounding the ice sheet. These data indicate that a persistent, dynamic ice sheet existed in northwestern Greenland by 1.9 Ma and that diamict is a useful archive of ice sheet history and process.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [7]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, VT (United States); Boston Univ., MA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, VT (United States)
  3. Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen (Denmark)
  4. Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)
  5. State Univ. of New York, Buffalo, NY (United States)
  6. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  7. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
OSTI Identifier:
1608526
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1581197
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-774748
Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276; 967584
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344; LLNL-JRNL0774748; LLNL‐JRNL‐774748; AC52‐07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 47; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; paleoclimate; climate proxies; cosmogenic nucleides; thermochronology; lipid biomarkers

Citation Formats

Christ, Andrew J., Bierman, Paul R., Knutz, Paul C., Corbett, Lee B., Fosdick, Julie C., Thomas, Elizabeth K., Cowling, Owen C., Hidy, Alan J., and Caffee, Marc W. The Northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet During The Early Pleistocene Was Similar To Today. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1029/2019GL085176.
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Christ, Andrew J., Bierman, Paul R., Knutz, Paul C., Corbett, Lee B., Fosdick, Julie C., Thomas, Elizabeth K., Cowling, Owen C., Hidy, Alan J., & Caffee, Marc W. The Northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet During The Early Pleistocene Was Similar To Today. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085176
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Christ, Andrew J., Bierman, Paul R., Knutz, Paul C., Corbett, Lee B., Fosdick, Julie C., Thomas, Elizabeth K., Cowling, Owen C., Hidy, Alan J., and Caffee, Marc W. Wed . "The Northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet During The Early Pleistocene Was Similar To Today". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085176. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1608526.
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@article{osti_1608526,
title = {The Northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet During The Early Pleistocene Was Similar To Today},
author = {Christ, Andrew J. and Bierman, Paul R. and Knutz, Paul C. and Corbett, Lee B. and Fosdick, Julie C. and Thomas, Elizabeth K. and Cowling, Owen C. and Hidy, Alan J. and Caffee, Marc W.},
abstractNote = {The multi-million year history of the Greenland Ice Sheet remains poorly known. Ice-proximal glacial marine diamict provides a direct but discontinuous record of ice sheet behavior; it is underutilized as a climate archive. In this paper, we present a novel multiproxy analysis of an Early Pleistocene marine diamict from northwestern Greenland. Low cosmogenic nuclide concentrations indicate minimal near-surface exposure, similar to modern terrestrial sediment. Detrital apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) ages all predate glaciation by >150 million years, suggesting the northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet had, by 1.9 Ma, not yet incised fjords of sufficient depth to excavate grains with young AHe ages. The diamict contains terrestrial plant leaf wax, likely from land surfaces surrounding the ice sheet. These data indicate that a persistent, dynamic ice sheet existed in northwestern Greenland by 1.9 Ma and that diamict is a useful archive of ice sheet history and process.},
doi = {10.1029/2019GL085176},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 1,
volume = 47,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Wed Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085176
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