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Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum

Lake sediments retrieved from the beds of former nonerosive ice sheets offer unique possibilities to constrain changes in the extent and style of past glaciation, and place them in an absolutely dated context. We present the first pre-Holocene lake sediments from Arctic Svalbard. Radiocarbon dating...

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Autores principales: van der Bilt, Willem G. M., Lane, Christine S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6810458/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31681839
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw5980
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author van der Bilt, Willem G. M.
Lane, Christine S.
author_facet van der Bilt, Willem G. M.
Lane, Christine S.
author_sort van der Bilt, Willem G. M.
collection PubMed
description Lake sediments retrieved from the beds of former nonerosive ice sheets offer unique possibilities to constrain changes in the extent and style of past glaciation, and place them in an absolutely dated context. We present the first pre-Holocene lake sediments from Arctic Svalbard. Radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant fossils reveals that the investigated catchment was unglaciated and vegetated between 30 and 20 ka B.P. during the global Last Glacial Maximum. The presence of volcanic ash from a contemporaneous Azorean eruption also provides evidence for ice-free conditions. Indicators of sediment compaction and a depositional hiatus suggest subsequent coverage by nonerosive ice until 11 ka B.P. Comparison with regional paleoclimate data indicates that sea ice variability controlled this pattern of ice sheet evolution by modulating moisture supply. Facing rapid regional sea ice losses, our findings have implications for the future response of the Arctic’s cryosphere, a major driver of global sea-level rise.
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spelling pubmed-68104582019-11-01 Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum van der Bilt, Willem G. M. Lane, Christine S. Sci Adv Research Articles Lake sediments retrieved from the beds of former nonerosive ice sheets offer unique possibilities to constrain changes in the extent and style of past glaciation, and place them in an absolutely dated context. We present the first pre-Holocene lake sediments from Arctic Svalbard. Radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant fossils reveals that the investigated catchment was unglaciated and vegetated between 30 and 20 ka B.P. during the global Last Glacial Maximum. The presence of volcanic ash from a contemporaneous Azorean eruption also provides evidence for ice-free conditions. Indicators of sediment compaction and a depositional hiatus suggest subsequent coverage by nonerosive ice until 11 ka B.P. Comparison with regional paleoclimate data indicates that sea ice variability controlled this pattern of ice sheet evolution by modulating moisture supply. Facing rapid regional sea ice losses, our findings have implications for the future response of the Arctic’s cryosphere, a major driver of global sea-level rise. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6810458/ /pubmed/31681839 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw5980 Text en Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
van der Bilt, Willem G. M.
Lane, Christine S.
Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum
title Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum
title_full Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum
title_fullStr Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum
title_full_unstemmed Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum
title_short Lake sediments with Azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest Spitsbergen during the Last Glacial Maximum
title_sort lake sediments with azorean tephra reveal ice-free conditions on coastal northwest spitsbergen during the last glacial maximum
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6810458/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31681839
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw5980
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