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Removal of Exogenous Materials from the Outer Portion of Frozen Cores to Investigate the Ancient Biological Communities Harbored Inside
Published on: July 3, 2016
Glacier extent during the Younger Dryas and 8.2-ka event on Baffin Island, Arctic Canada
Nicolás E Young1, Jason P Briner, Dylan H Rood
1Department of Geology, University at Buffalo, 411 Cooke Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. nicolasy@ldeo.columbia.edu
Abstract:
Greenland ice cores reveal that mean annual temperatures during the Younger Dryas (YD) cold interval--about 12.9 to 11.7 thousand years ago (ka)--and the ~150-year-long cold reversal that occurred 8.2 thousand years ago were ~15° and 3° to 4°C colder than today, respectively. Reconstructing ice-sheet response to these climate perturbations can help evaluate ice-sheet sensitivity to climate change. Here, we report the widespread advance of Laurentide Ice Sheet outlet glaciers and independent mountain glaciers on Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, in response to the 8.2-ka event and show that mountain glaciers during the 8.2-ka event were larger than their YD predecessors. In contrast to the wintertime bias of YD cooling, we suggest that cooling during the 8.2-ka event was more evenly distributed across the seasons.
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