Holocene Deglaciation of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet: Preliminary 10Be Ages

The response of ice sheets to a warming climate is not well understood. Because we are limited in our understanding of present dynamics, reconstructing the deglaciation of former ice sheets allows for a better understanding of how past ice sheets responded to a warming climate along with their contribution to sea-level rise. These reconstructions also serve as critical constraints for ice sheet modeling efforts. Here, we present a suite of new 10Be ages from erratic boulders along three transects spanning southern to northern Sweden and Finland, that improve our understanding of the deglaciation of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) beginning ~ 11.7ka through its final demise during the early Holocene. Dates from southern Finland, beginning at the Salpausselka Younger Dryas moraine (11.5 × 0.7 ka, n=4), inland southern Finland near Jyvaskyla (11.5 × 0.5ka, n=2), and coastal Finland (~60km from Gulf of Bothnia) near Vimpeli (11.5 × 0.4ka, n=4) indicate a rapid retreat following the Younger Dryas for Southern Finland (~500km within uncertainty of ages). Preliminary dates also exist for Northern Finland, near Inari (10.8 × 0.5ka, n=4) and near Oulu (10.5 × 0.6 ka, n = 4) suggesting a later retreat in the north. Dates from southern Sweden, near Skovde (12.73 × 0.8ka, n=4) to Mora (10.41 × 0.6ka, n=5) suggest a slower retreat (over ~400km). Lastly, dates in Northwestern Sweden suggest a final termination of the SIS around 9.4 × 0.7ka (n = 3). Additional ages are now being processed at PRIME Lab, Purdue University, which will further strengthen our understanding of SIS retreat from all sampled sites. These new data will help to constrain the Holocene deglaciation of the SIS and its associated retreat rates, and establish the SIS contribution to Holocene sea level rise, which will improve our understanding of ice-sheet response to a warming climate.