Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T00:29:56.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Application of 14C AMS Dating to the Chronology of Holocene Glacier Fluctuations in the High Arctic, With Special Reference to Leffert Glacier, Ellesmere Island, Canada*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Weston Blake Jr*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8, Canada
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A series of radiocarbon age determinations obtained by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) shows that the front of Leffert Glacier, a major outlet glacier from the Prince of Wales Icefield, Ellesmere Island, was 18+ km behind (west of) its present position for a period of at least 1500 radiocarbon years. A subsequent readvance occurred close to 2000 radiocarbon years ago, as a consequence of the climatic cooling that followed the warm Hypsithermal Interval. A number of other glaciers in the region appear to have behaved in similar fashion.

Type
II. Carbon Cycle in the Environment
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

André, M, Beer, J, Loetscher, H P, Moor, E, Oeschger, H, Bonani, G, Hofmann, H J, Morenzoni, E, Nessi, M, Suter, M and Wölfli, W, 1986, Dating polar ice by 14C accelerator mass spectrometry, in Stuiver, M and Kra, R S, eds, Internatl 14C conf, 12th, Proc: Radiocarbon, v 28, no. 2A, p 417423.Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1975, Radiocarbon age determinations and postglacial emergence at Cape Storm, Southern Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada: Geogr Annaler, v 57A, p 171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1981, Neoglacial fluctuations of glaciers, southeastern Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Geogr Annaler, v 63A, p 201218.Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1984a, Post-Hypsithermal advance of Leffert Glacier, Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada, in Am Quaternary Assoc, Biennial mtg, 8th, Boulder, Colorado, Aug 13–15, 1984: Prog & Abs, p 14.Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1984b, Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXIV: Geol Survey Canada, Paper 84–7, 35 p.Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1985, Radiocarbon dating with accelerator mass spectrometry: results from Ellesmere Island, District of Franklin, in Current Research, Part B: Geol Survey Canada, Paper 85–1B, p 423429.Google Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1986, New AMS radiocarbon age determinations from east-central Ellesmere Island; applications to glacial geology, in Current Research, Part B: Geol Survey Canada, Paper 86–1B, p 239244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, W Jr, 1987, Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates XXVI: Geol Survey Canada, Paper 86–7, 60 p.Google Scholar
Fisher, D A and Koerner, R M, 1981, Some aspects of climatic change in the High Arctic during the Holocene as deduced from ice cores, in Mahaney, W C, ed, Quaternary paleoclimate: Norwich, England, Geo Abs, p 249271.Google Scholar
Grieg, J A, 1909, Brachiopods and molluscs, with a supplement to the echinoderms, in Report of the second Norwegian Arctic expedition in the “Fram” 1898–1902: Videnskabs-Selskabet i Kristiania 3, no. 20, 45 p.Google Scholar
Koerner, R M, 1977, Ice thickness measurements and their implications with respect to past and present ice volumes in the Canadian High Arctic ice caps: Canadian Jour Earth Sci, v 14, p 26972705.Google Scholar
Lowdon, J A and Blake, W Jr, 1970, Geological Survey of Canada radiocarbon dates IX: Radiocarbon, v 12, no. 1, p 4686.Google Scholar
MacDonald, G M, Beukens, R P, Kieser, W E and Vitt, D H, 1987, Comparative radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant macrofossils and aquatic moss from the “ice-free corridor” of western Canada: Geology, v 15, p 837840.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mangerud, J and Gulliksen, S, 1975, Apparent radiocarbon ages of recent marine shells from Norway, Spitsbergen, and Arctic Canada: Quaternary Research, v 5, p 263273.Google Scholar
Newman, W S, Marcus, L F, Pardi, R R, Paccione, J A and Tomecek, S M, 1980, Eustasy and deformation of the geoid: 1000–6000 radiocarbon years BP, in Mörner, N-A, ed, Earth rheology, isostasy and eustasy: Chichester, England, John Wiley & Sons, p 555567.Google Scholar
Ockelmann, W K, 1958, Marine lamellibranchiata, in Degerbøl, M, Jensen, A D, Spärck, R and Thorson, G, eds, The zoology of East Greenland: Medd om Grønland, v 122, no. 4, 256 p.Google Scholar
Oeschger, H, Andrée, M, Moell, M, Riesen, T, Siegenthaler, U, Ammann, B, Tobolski, K, Bonani, B, Hofmann, H J, Morenzoni, E, Nessi, M, Suter, M and Wölfli, W, 1985, Radiocarbon chronology at Lobsigensee. Comparison of materials and methods, in Lang, G, ed, Swiss lake and mire environments during the last 15 000 years: Dissert Bot 87, Vaduz, J Cramer, p 135139.Google Scholar
Paterson, W S B, Koerner, R M, Fisher, D, Johnsen, S J, Clausen, H B, Dansgaard, W, Bucher, P and Oeschger, H, 1977, An oxygen-isotope climatic record from the Devon Island ice cap, arctic Canada: Nature, v 266, p 508511.Google Scholar
Sverdrup, O, 1903, Nyt Land, fire aar i arktiske egne: Kristiania, Norway, H Aschehoug & Co, v 1, 505 p.Google Scholar