Articles | Volume 19, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1777-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Duration and ice thickness of a Late Holocene outlet glacier advance near Narsarsuaq, southern Greenland
Peter J. K. Puleo
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University,
Evanston, 60201, USA
Yarrow Axford
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University,
Evanston, 60201, USA
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David J. Harning, Christopher R. Florian, Áslaug Geirsdóttir, Thor Thordarson, Gifford H. Miller, Yarrow Axford, and Sædís Ólafsdóttir
Clim. Past, 21, 795–815, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-795-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-21-795-2025, 2025
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Questions remain about the past climate in Iceland, including the relative impacts of natural and human factors on vegetation change and soil erosion. We present a sub-centennial-scale record of landscape and algal productivity from a lake in north Iceland. Along with a high-resolution tephra age constraint that covers the last ∼ 12 000 years, our record provides an environmental template for the region and novel insight into the sensitivity of the Icelandic ecosystem to natural and human impacts.
David J. Harning, Jonathan H. Raberg, Jamie M. McFarlin, Yarrow Axford, Christopher R. Florian, Kristín B. Ólafsdóttir, Sebastian Kopf, Julio Sepúlveda, Gifford H. Miller, and Áslaug Geirsdóttir
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 4275–4293, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4275-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4275-2024, 2024
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As human-induced global warming progresses, changes to Arctic precipitation are expected, but predictions are limited by an incomplete understanding of past changes in the hydrological system. Here, we measured water isotopes, a common tool to reconstruct past precipitation, from lakes, streams, and soils across Iceland. These data will allow robust reconstruction of past precipitation changes in Iceland in future studies.
Laura J. Larocca and Yarrow Axford
Clim. Past, 18, 579–606, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-579-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-579-2022, 2022
Short summary
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This paper synthesizes 66 records of glacier variations over the Holocene from lake archives across seven Arctic regions. We find that summers only moderately warmer than today drove major environmental change across the Arctic in the early Holocene, including the widespread loss of glaciers. In comparison, future projections of Arctic temperature change far exceed estimated early Holocene values in most locations, portending the eventual loss of most of the Arctic's small glaciers.
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Short summary
We used two lake sediment records at different elevations and landscape evidence to find that a southern Greenland outlet glacier advanced ~ 3700 years ago and then retreated ~ 1600 years ago. This retreat is unlike other nearby outlet glaciers, possibly because of the complex local ice structure or greater sensitivity to snowfall. We also find that the advanced ice surface had an elevation of ~ 670 m a.s.l. (~ 250 m higher than today) from ~ 3700 to 1600 years ago.
We used two lake sediment records at different elevations and landscape evidence to find that a...