A 600‐year marine record associated with the dynamics of the eastern Penny Ice Cap (Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada)

Two composite sedimentary sequences sampled in the ice‐proximal (12CS) and ice‐distal (02CS) areas of Coronation Fjord (Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada) were investigated in order to reconstruct the effect of climate variability on 600 years of changes in sediment transfer from the eastern Penny Ice...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of quaternary science 2023-10, Vol.38 (7), p.1062-1081
Main Authors: Rodríguez‐Cuicas, María‐Emilia, Montero‐Serrano, Jean‐Carlos, St‐Onge, Guillaume, Normandeau, Alexandre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air temperature
Atlantic Oscillation
Climate effects
Climate variability
Deltas
Fjords
Glacial drift
Glacier melting
Glaciers
Grain size
Ice ages
Iceberg calving
Icebergs
Laminates
Little Ice Age
Meltwater
Plumes
Polar environments
Sea surface temperature
Sea surface temperature variations
Sedimentation rates
Sediments
Surface temperature
Surface-air temperature relationships
Temperature variations
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Summary:Two composite sedimentary sequences sampled in the ice‐proximal (12CS) and ice‐distal (02CS) areas of Coronation Fjord (Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada) were investigated in order to reconstruct the effect of climate variability on 600 years of changes in sediment transfer from the eastern Penny Ice Cap (PIC). Detrital proxies, and physical and sedimentological analyses revealed that glacial meltwater discharges led to frequent rapidly deposited layers (RDLs) in ice‐proximal settings. RDLs in ice‐distal settings involved the sudden release of a large quantity of sediment‐laden water during floods probably originating from adjacent fjords with large sandur deltas. Laminated sediments with ice‐rafted debris throughout the Little Ice Age interval in the ice‐proximal environment suggest that colder conditions promoted glacier growth, leading to successive episodes of turbid hyperpycnal meltwater plumes and iceberg calving in Coronation Fjord. Since 1850 ce , the accelerated Coronation retreat in response to modern warming has led to increased sedimentation rates, abrupt mineralogical and grain size proxy variations and more frequent RDLs. Similar trends between the detrital proxies of the ice‐proximal core and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation record and Arctic surface air temperature suggest high connectivity between atmospheric and sea surface temperature variations and PIC dynamics over the last 600 years.
ISSN:0267-8179
1099-1417
DOI:10.1002/jqs.3531