New cosmogenic exposure dates from Sermilik Fjord, southeast Greenland document rapid early Holocene retreat of Helheim Glacier
Abstract
Marine-terminating glaciers are currently the dominant route for mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). Over the last decade Helheim Glacier, in concert with the majority of marine-terminating glaciers of the southeast sector of the GrIS, has exhibited dramatic changes in speed, thinning and retreat rates. The Holocene retreat history of the outlet glaciers of southeast Greenland is, however, largely unconstrained. Without detailed records of retreat over longer-time scales recent changes cannot be placed in context, nor is there sufficient evidence to constrain ice sheet models for improved estimates of future sea level rise. We present the first direct chronological constraint on the retreat of ice from Sermilik Fjord in southeast Greenland, the former drainage route of Helheim Glacier. Samples spanning the full length of the 80 km fjord were collected from erratics and streamlined bedrock in July 2009-10 and analysed for terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (10Be) dating. Overlapping exposure ages indicate rapid evacuation of ice from much of the fjord at around 10.5 ka BP. Such substantial early Holocene retreat coincides with establishment of the local marine limit at c. 11 ka BP (Long et al. 2008). The new dates extend and confirm results from a tributary valley close to the fjord mouth that placed retreat from the present day coastline at c. 11.5 ka (Roberts et al. 2008). References: Roberts, D.H., Long, A.J., Schnabel, C., Freeman, S. and Simpson, M.J.R. 2008. The deglacial history of southeast sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews, 27, 1505-1516. Long, A.J., Roberts, R.H., Simpson, M.J.R., Dawson, S., Milne, G.A. and Huybrechts, P. 2008. Late Weichselian relative sea-level changes and ice sheet history in southeast Greenland. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 272, 8-18.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.C23B0614H
- Keywords:
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- 0726 CRYOSPHERE / Ice sheets;
- 1105 GEOCHRONOLOGY / Quaternary geochronology;
- 1150 GEOCHRONOLOGY / Cosmogenic-nuclide exposure dating