Holocene fluctuations of Bregne ice cap, Scoresby Sund, eastern Greenland

The Arctic cryosphere is responding rapidly to modern global warming. Documenting past changes in the Arctic cryosphere, particularly during times of warmer than present conditions such as the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; 9,000-5,000 yr BP) provides an important background against which the present response and potential for future changes can be compared. Small ice caps located adjacent to the Greenland Ice Sheet respond sensitively to climate change and their past extents provide a proxy for the climatic conditions that have influenced the ice sheet margin. In order to document cryosphere and climatic changes during warmer conditions, we are constructing records of Holocene fluctuations of small ice caps in the Scoresby Sund region of eastern Greenland (71° N, 25.6° W). We use geomorphic mapping, lake sediment records, radiocarbon, and surface exposure (10Be) dating to reconstruct past ice extents. Lake sediment records are from both glacially fed (i.e., threshold) lakes and lakes with no glacial input during the time of interest (i.e., control). Here we present a record of the Holocene extents of Bregne ice cap, Milne Land, western Scoresby Sund, ~50 km southeast of Renland ice cap. Sediments from Two Move Lake (TML), a threshold lake, register the entire Holocene in a thickness of ~70 cm. Radiocarbon dates of lake sediments indicate that the onset of organic accumulation in the lake following the Last Glacial Maximum occurred 8,890±120 cal yr BP. The mid-Holocene is characterized by organic rich mud that is finely laminated in some sections. The onset of Neoglaciation (cooling after HTM) occurs at 2,810±50 cal yr BP and finely laminated sediments during Neoglaciation may register annual deposition. The sediment record from Last Chance Lake, a control lake located 0.5 km from TML, indicates that there has been no glacial input since deglaciation from the Last Glacial Maximum. Unweathered moraines occur <0.5 km from the modern ice cap margin, inboard from TML. 10Be ages of boulders and bedrock just outside these moraines indicate that deglaciation occurred at 10.4±0.5 ka and that the moraines mark the maximum ice extent during the Holocene. Beginning in the early Holocene, the ice cap then had either entirely retreated from the TML basin or contributed minimal sediment input until ~2,800 cal yr BP when clay-rich, finely laminated sediments begin to occur. This chronology is in contrast to small ice caps located in Liverpool Land, 130 km east of Milne Land. In Liverpool Land, lake sediment records indicate that the onset of Neoglaciation occurred at ~800 cal yr BP. The difference between the onset of Neoglaciation in western and eastern Scoresby Sund may be due to differences in basin position relative to the ice cap or may represent a temperature gradient between the inland, high elevation of Bregne ice cap and the coastal, low elevation Liverpool Land ice caps. Other records, such as GRIP borehole temperatures and the δ18O record from the Renland ice cap show cooling from ~4,500-2,000 yr BP suggesting that the terrestrial advances of ice caps in Scoresby Sund lagged behind temperatures registered in ice cores or ice core records are not good proxies for changes at the ice margins.