| 1. |
- Cronin, Thomas M., et al.
(author)
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Deglacial sea level history of the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea margins
- 2017
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In: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 13:9, s. 1097-1110
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Deglacial (12.8-10.7 ka) sea level history on the East Siberian continental shelf and upper continental slope was reconstructed using new geophysical records and sediment cores taken during Leg 2 of the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. The focus of this study is two cores from Herald Canyon, piston core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1 (4-PC1) and multicore SWERUS-L2-4-MC1 (4-MC1), and a gravity core from an East Siberian Sea transect, SWERUS-L2-20-GC1 (20GC1). Cores 4-PC1 and 20-GC were taken at 120 and 115m of modern water depth, respectively, only a few meters above the global last glacial maximum (LGM; similar to 24 kiloannum or ka) minimum sea level of similar to 125-130 meters below sea level (m b.s.l.). Using calibrated radiocarbon ages mainly on molluscs for chronology and the ecology of benthic foraminifera and ostracode species to estimate paleodepths, the data reveal a dominance of river-proximal species during the early part of the Younger Dryas event (YD, Greenland Stadial GS-1) followed by a rise in river-intermediate species in the late Younger Dryas or the early Holocene (Preboreal) period. A rapid relative sea level rise beginning at roughly 11.4 to 10.8 ka (similar to 400 cm of core depth) is indicated by a sharp faunal change and unconformity or condensed zone of sedimentation. Regional sea level at this time was about 108m b.s.l. at the 4-PC1 site and 102m b.s.l. at 20-GC1. Regional sea level near the end of the YD was up to 42-47m lower than predicted by geophysical models corrected for glacio-isostatic adjustment. This discrepancy could be explained by delayed isostatic adjustment caused by a greater volume and/or geo-graphical extent of glacial-age land ice and/or ice shelves in the western Arctic Ocean and adjacent Siberian land areas.
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| 2. |
- Gemery, Laura, et al.
(author)
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Central Arctic Ocean paleoceanography from similar to 50 ka to present, on the basis of ostracode faunal assemblages from the SWERUS 2014 expedition
- 2017
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In: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 13:11, s. 1473-1489
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Late Quaternary paleoceanographic changes at the Lomonosov Ridge, central Arctic Ocean, were reconstructed from a multicore and gravity core recovered during the 2014 SWERUS-C3 Expedition. Ostracode assemblages dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) indicate changing sea-ice conditions and warm Atlantic Water (AW) inflow to the Arctic Ocean from similar to 50 ka to present. Key taxa used as environmental indicators include Acetabulastoma arcticum (perennial sea ice), Polycope spp. (variable sea-ice margins, high surface productivity), Krithe hunti (Arctic Ocean deep water), and Rabilimis mirabilis (water mass change/AWinflow). Results indicate periodic seasonally sea-ice-free conditions during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (similar to 57-29 ka), rapid deglacial changes in water mass conditions (15-11 ka), seasonally sea-ice-free conditions during the early Holocene (similar to 10-7 ka) and perennial sea ice during the late Holocene. Comparisons with faunal records from other cores from the Mendeleev and Lomonosov ridges suggest generally similar patterns, although sea-ice cover during the Last Glacial Maximum may have been less extensive at the new Lomonosov Ridge core site (similar to 85.15 degrees N, 152 degrees E) than farther north and towards Greenland. The new data provide evidence for abrupt, large-scale shifts in ostracode species depth and geographical distributions during rapid climatic transitions.
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| 3. |
- Jakobsson, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Ryder Glacier in northwest Greenland is shielded from warm Atlantic water by a bathymetric sill
- 2020
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In: Communications Earth & Environment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2662-4435. ; 1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The processes controlling advance and retreat of outlet glaciers in fjords draining the Greenland Ice Sheet remain poorly known, undermining assessments of their dynamics and associated sea-level rise in a warming climate. Mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet has increased six-fold over the last four decades, with discharge and melt from outlet glaciers comprising key components of this loss. Here we acquired oceanographic data and multibeam bathymetry in the previously uncharted Sherard Osborn Fjord in northwest Greenland where Ryder Glacier drains into the Arctic Ocean. Our data show that warmer subsurface water of Atlantic origin enters the fjord, but Ryder Glacier’s floating tongue at its present location is partly protected from the inflow by a bathymetric sill located in the innermost fjord. This reduces under-ice melting of the glacier, providing insight into Ryder Glacier’s dynamics and its vulnerability to inflow of Atlantic warmer water.
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| 4. |
- Martens, Jannik, et al.
(author)
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Remobilization of Old Permafrost Carbon to Chukchi Sea Sediments During the End of the Last Deglaciation
- 2019
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In: Global Biogeochemical Cycles. - 0886-6236 .- 1944-9224. ; 33:1, s. 2-14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Climate warming is expected to destabilize permafrost carbon (PF-C) by thaw-erosion and deepening of the seasonally thawed active layer and thereby promote PF-C mineralization to CO2 and CH4. A similar PF-C remobilization might have contributed to the increase in atmospheric CO2 during deglacial warming after the last glacial maximum. Using carbon isotopes and terrestrial biomarkers (Delta C-14, delta C-13, and lignin phenols), this study quantifies deposition of terrestrial carbon originating from permafrost in sediments from the Chukchi Sea (core SWERUS-L2-4-PC1). The sediment core reconstructs remobilization of permafrost carbon during the late Allerod warm period starting at 13,000 cal years before present (BP), the Younger Dryas, and the early Holocene warming until 11,000 cal years BP and compares this period with the late Holocene, from 3,650 years BP until present. Dual-carbon-isotope-based source apportionment demonstrates that Ice Complex Deposit-ice- and carbon-rich permafrost from the late Pleistocene (also referred to as Yedoma)-was the dominant source of organic carbon (66 +/- 8%; mean +/- standard deviation) to sediments during the end of the deglaciation, with fluxes more than twice as high (8.0 +/- 4.6 g.m(-2).year(-1)) as in the late Holocene (3.1 +/- 1.0 g.m(-2).year(-1)). These results are consistent with late deglacial PF-C remobilization observed in a Laptev Sea record, yet in contrast with PF-C sources, which at that location were dominated by active layer material from the Lena River watershed. Release of dormant PF-C from erosion of coastal permafrost during the end of the last deglaciation indicates vulnerability of Ice Complex Deposit in response to future warming and sea level changes.
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| 5. |
- O'Regan, Matt, et al.
(author)
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The De Long Trough: A newly discovered glacial trough on the East Siberian continental margin
- 2017
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In: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 13:9, s. 1269-1284
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ice sheets extending over parts of the East Siberian continental shelf have been proposed for the last glacial period and during the larger Pleistocene glaciations. The sparse data available over this sector of the Arctic Ocean have left the timing, extent and even existence of these ice sheets largely unresolved. Here we present new geophysical mapping and sediment coring data from the East Siberian shelf and slope collected during the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition (SWERUS-C3: Swedish - Russian - US Arctic Ocean Investigation of Climate-Cryosphere-Carbon Interactions). The multibeam bathymetry and chirp sub-bottom profiles reveal a set of glacial landforms that include grounding zone formations along the outer continental shelf, seaward of which lies a > 65m thick sequence of glacio-genic debris flows. The glacial landforms are interpreted to lie at the seaward end of a glacial trough - the first to be reported on the East Siberian margin, here referred to as the De Long Trough because of its location due north of the De Long Islands. Stratigraphy and dating of sediment cores show that a drape of acoustically laminated sediments covering the glacial deposits is older than similar to 50 cal kyr BP. This provides direct evidence for extensive glacial activity on the Siberian shelf that predates the Last Glacial Maximum and most likely occurred during the Saalian (Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6).
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| 6. |
- O'Regan, Matt, et al.
(author)
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The Holocene dynamics of Ryder Glacier and ice tongue in north Greenland
- 2021
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In: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 15:8, s. 4073-4097
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The northern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet is considered to be particularly susceptible to ice mass loss arising from increased glacier discharge in the coming decades. However, the past extent and dynamics of outlet glaciers in this region, and hence their vulnerability to climate change, are poorly documented. In the summer of 2019, the Swedish icebreaker Oden entered the previously unchartered waters of Sherard Osborn Fjord, where Ryder Glacier drains approximately 2 % of Greenland's ice sheet into the Lincoln Sea. Here we reconstruct the Holocene dynamics of Ryder Glacier and its ice tongue by combining radiocarbon dating with sedimentary facies analyses along a 45 km transect of marine sediment cores collected between the modern ice tongue margin and the mouth of the fjord. The results illustrate that Ryder Glacier retreated from a grounded position at the fjord mouth during the Early Holocene (> 10.7±0.4 ka cal BP) and receded more than 120 km to the end of Sherard Osborn Fjord by the Middle Holocene (6.3±0.3 ka cal BP), likely becoming completely land-based. A re-advance of Ryder Glacier occurred in the Late Holocene, becoming marine-based around 3.9±0.4 ka cal BP. An ice tongue, similar in extent to its current position was established in the Late Holocene (between 3.6±0.4 and 2.9±0.4 ka cal BP) and extended to its maximum historical position near the fjord mouth around 0.9±0.3 ka cal BP. Laminated, clast-poor sediments were deposited during the entire retreat and regrowth phases, suggesting the persistence of an ice tongue that only collapsed when the glacier retreated behind a prominent topographic high at the landward end of the fjord. Sherard Osborn Fjord narrows inland, is constrained by steep-sided cliffs, contains a number of bathymetric pinning points that also shield the modern ice tongue and grounding zone from warm Atlantic waters, and has a shallowing inland sub-ice topography. These features are conducive to glacier stability and can explain the persistence of Ryder's ice tongue while the glacier remained marine-based. However, the physiography of the fjord did not halt the dramatic retreat of Ryder Glacier under the relatively mild changes in climate forcing during the Holocene. Presently, Ryder Glacier is grounded more than 40 km seaward of its inferred position during the Middle Holocene, highlighting the potential for substantial retreat in response to ongoing climate change.
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| 7. |
- Pearce, Christof, et al.
(author)
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The 3.6 ka Aniakchak tephra in the Arctic Ocean : a constraint on the Holocene radiocarbon reservoir age in the Chukchi Sea
- 2017
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In: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 13:4, s. 303-316
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The caldera-forming eruption of the Aniakchak volcano in the Aleutian Range on the Alaskan Peninsula at 3.6 cal kyr BP was one of the largest Holocene eruptions worldwide. The resulting ash is found as a visible sediment layer in several Alaskan sites and as a cryptotephra on Newfoundland and Greenland. This large geographic distribution, combined with the fact that the eruption is relatively well constrained in time using radiocarbon dating of lake sediments and annual layer counts in ice cores, makes it an excellent stratigraphic marker for dating and correlating mid-late Holocene sediment and paleoclimate records. This study presents the outcome of a targeted search for the Aniakchak tephra in a marine sediment core from the Arctic Ocean, namely Core SWERUS-L2-2-PC1 (2PC), raised from 57m water depth in Herald Canyon, western Chukchi Sea. High concentrations of tephra shards, with a geochemical signature matching that of Aniakchak ash, were observed across a more than 1.5m long sediment sequence. Since the primary input of volcanic ash is through atmospheric transport, and assuming that bioturbation can account for mixing up to ca. 10 cm of the marine sediment deposited at the coring site, the broad signal is interpreted as sustained reworking at the sediment source input. The isochron is therefore placed at the base of the sudden increase in tephra concentrations rather than at the maximum concentration. This interpretation of major reworking is strengthened by analysis of grain size distribution which points to ice rafting as an important secondary transport mechanism of volcanic ash. Combined with radiocarbon dates on mollusks in the same sediment core, the volcanic marker is used to calculate a marine radiocarbon reservoir age offset Delta R = 477 +/- 60 years. This relatively high value may be explained by the major influence of typically carbon-old Pacific waters, and it agrees well with recent estimates of Delta R along the northwest Alaskan coast, possibly indicating stable oceanographic conditions during the second half of the Holocene. Our use of a volcanic absolute age marker to obtain the marine reservoir age offset is the first of its kind in the Arctic Ocean and provides an important framework for improving chronologies and correlating marine sediment archives in this region. Core 2PC has a high sediment accumulation rate averaging 200 cm kyr(-1) throughout the last 4000 years, and the chronology presented here provides a solid base for high-resolution reconstructions of late Holocene climate and ocean variability in the Chukchi Sea.
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