Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T16:56:39.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Directly dating postglacial Greenlandic land-surface emergence at high resolution using in situ 10Be

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2018

Paul R. Bierman ,
Dylan H. Rood ,
Jeremy D. Shakun ,
Eric W. Portenga  and
Lee B. Corbett
Paul R. Bierman*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA
Dylan H. Rood
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
Jeremy D. Shakun
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Ave., Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA
Eric W. Portenga
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geology, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197, USA
Lee B. Corbett
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (P.R. Bierman).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Postglacial emergence curves are used to infer mantle rheology, delimit ice extent, and test models of the solid Earth response to changing ice and water loads. Such curves are rarely produced by direct dating of land emergence; rather, most rely on the presence of radiocarbon-datable organic material and inferences made between the age of sedimentary deposits and landforms indicative of former sea level. Here, we demonstrate a new approach, 10Be dating, to determine rates of postglacial land emergence in two different settings. In southern Greenland (Narsarsuaq/Igaliku), we date directly the exposure, as relative sea level fell, of gravel beaches and rocky outcrops allowing determination of rapid, post–Younger Dryas emergence. In western Greenland (Kangerlussuaq), we constrain Holocene isostatic response by dating the sequential stripping of terrace sediment driven by land-surface uplift, relative sea-level fall, and resulting fluvial incision. The technique we employ provides high temporal and elevation resolution important for quantifying rapid emergence immediately after deglaciation and less rapid uplift during the middle Holocene. 10Be-constrained emergence curves can improve knowledge of relative sea-level change by dating land emergence along rocky coasts, at elevations and locations where radiocarbon-datable sediments are not present, and without the lag time needed for organic material to accumulate.

Keywords

UpliftIsostasyGlacierIce sheetEmergenceBeachCosmogenicDating
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 90 , Issue 1 , July 2018 , pp. 110 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andrews, J.T., 1987. Glaciation and sea level: a case study. In: Devoy, R.J.N. (Ed.), Sea Surface Studies: A Global View. Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, pp. 95–126.Google Scholar
Balco, G., Stone, J.O., Lifton, N.A., Dunai, T.J., 2008. A simple, internally consistent, and easily accessible means of calculating surface exposure ages and erosion rates from Be-10 and Al-26 measurements. Quaternary Geochronology 3, 174–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennike, O., Björck, S., Lambeck, K., 2002. Estimates of South Greenland late-glacial ice limits from a new relative sea level curve. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 197, 171–186.Google Scholar
Bennike, O., Wagner, B., Richter, A., 2011. Relative sea level changes during the Holocene in the Sisimiut area, south-western Greenland. Journal of Quaternary Science 26, 353–361.Google Scholar
Bierman, P.R., Marsella, K.A., Patterson, C., Davis, P.T., Caffee, M., 1999. Mid-Pleistocene cosmogenic minimum-age limits for pre-Wisconsinan glacial surfaces in southwestern Minnesota and southern Baffin Island: a multiple nuclide approach. Geomorphology 27, 25–39.Google Scholar
Bierman, P.R., Shakun, J.D., Corbett, L.B., Zimmerman, S.R., Rood, D.H., 2016. A persistent and dynamic East Greenland Ice Sheet over the past 7.5 million years. Nature 540, 256–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borchers, B., Marrero, S., Balco, G., Caffee, M., Goehring, B., Lifton, N., Nishiizumi, K., Phillips, F., Schaefer, J., Stone, J., 2016. Geological calibration of spallation production rates in the CRONUS-Earth project. Quaternary Geochronology 31, 188–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briner, J.P., Goehring, B.M., Mangerud, J., Svendsen, J.I., 2016. The deep accumulation of 10Be at Utsira, southwestern Norway: implications for cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating in peripheral ice sheet landscapes. Geophysical Research Letters 43, 9121–9129.Google Scholar
Briner, J.P., Gosse, J.C., Bierman, P.R., 2006. Applications of cosmogenic nuclides to Laurentide Ice Sheet history and dynamics. Geological Society of America Special Paper 415, 29–41.Google Scholar
Briner, J.P., Stewart, H.A.M., Young, N.E., Philipps, W., Losee, S., 2010. Using proglacial-threshold lakes to constrain fluctuations of the Jakobshavn Isbræ ice margin, western Greenland, during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 3861–3874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briner, J.P., Young, N.E., Goehring, B.M., Schaefer, J.M., 2012. Constraining Holocene 10Be production rates in Greenland. Journal of Quaternary Science 27, 2–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, A.E., Winsor, K., Ullman, D.J., Brook, E.J., Rood, D.H., Axford, Y., LeGrande, A.N., Anslow, F.S., Sinclair, G., 2014. Earliest Holocene south Greenland ice sheet retreat within its late Holocene extent. Geophysical Research Letters 41, 5514–5521.Google Scholar
Clark, J.A., 1976. Greenland’s rapid postglacial emergence: a result of ice-water gravitational attraction. Geology 4, 310–312.Google Scholar
Clark, J.A., Farrell, W.E., Peltier, W.R., 1978. Global changes in postglacial sea level: a numerical calculation. Quaternary Research 9, 265–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbett, L., Bierman, P., Graly, J., Neumann, T., Rood, D., 2013. Constraining landscape history and glacial erosivity using paired cosmogenic nuclides in Upernavik, northwest Greenland. Geological Society of America Bulletin 125, 1059–1062.Google Scholar
Corbett, L., Bierman, P.R., Rood, D.H., 2016a. Constraining multi-stage exposure-burial scenarios for boulders preserved beneath cold-based glacial ice in Thule, Northwest Greenland. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 440, 147–157.Google Scholar
Corbett, L.B., Bierman, P.R., Neumann, T.A., Graly, J.A., 2016b. Stories from under the ice: investigating glacial history and process with cosmogenic nuclides in icebound cobbles. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 48, 283374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbett, L.B., Bierman, P.R., Rood, D.H., 2016c. An approach for optimizing in situ cosmogenic 10Be sample preparation. Quaternary Geochronology 33, 24–34.Google Scholar
Davis, P.T., Davis, R.B., 1980. Interpretation of minimum-limiting radiocarbon dates for deglaciation of Mount Katahdin area, Maine. Geology 8, 396–400.Google Scholar
Dutton, A., Carlson, A.E., Long, A.J., Milne, G.A., Clark, P.U., DeConto, R., Horton, B.P., Rahmstorf, S., Raymo, M.E., 2015. Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass loss during past warm periods. Science 349, aaa4019.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., Lubinski, D.J., Ingólfsson, Ó., Zeeberg, J.J., Snyder, J.A., Siegert, M.J., Matishov, G.G., 2004. A review of postglacial emergence on Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, northern Eurasia. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 1391–1434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fredh, Daniel. Holocene relative sea-level changes in the Tasiusaq area, southern Greenland, with focus on the Ta4 basin. Master Thesis in Geology, Department of Geology, Lund University (2008). Available at: lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/2334019/file/2334020.pdf (accessed February 2017).Google Scholar
Gomez, N., Mitrovica, J.X., Huybers, P., Clark, P.U., 2010. Sea level as a stabilizing factor for marine-ice-sheet grounding lines. Nature Geoscience 3, 850–853.Google Scholar
Gosse, J., Hecht, G., Mehring, N., Klein, J., Lawn, B., Dyke, A., 1998. Comparison of radiocarbon- and in situ cosmogenic nuclide-derived postglacial emergence curves for Prescott Island, central Canadian Arctic. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 30, 298.Google Scholar
Håkansson, L., Alexanderson, H., Hjort, C., Möller, P., Briner, J.P., Aldahan, A., Possnert, G., 2009. Late Pleistocene glacial history of Jameson Land, central East Greenland, derived from cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al exposure dating. Boreas 38, 244–260.Google Scholar
Hallet, B., Putkonen, J., 1994. Surface dating of dynamic landforms: young boulders on aging moraines. Science 265, 937–940.Google Scholar
Hunt, A.L., Larsen, J., Bierman, P., Petrucci, G.A., 2008. Investigation of factors that affect the sensitivity of accelerator mass spectrometry for cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al isotope analysis. Analytical Chemistry 80, 1656–1663.Google Scholar
Koester, A.J., Shakun, J.D., Bierman, P.R., Davis, P.T., Corbett, L.B., Braun, D., Zimmerman, S.R., 2017. Rapid thinning of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in coastal Maine, USA, during late Heinrich Stadial 1. Quaternary Science Reviews 163, 180–192.Google Scholar
Lal, D., Peters, B., 1967. Cosmic ray produced radioactivity on the earth. In: Sitte, K. (Ed.), Handbuch der Physik. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 551–612.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., Rouby, H., Purcell, A., Sun, Y., Sambridge, M., 2014. Sea level and global ice volumes from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, 15296–15303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larsen, N.K., Funder, S., Kjær, K.H., Kjeldsen, K.K., Knudsen, M.F., Linge, H., 2014. Rapid early Holocene ice retreat in West Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 92, 310–323.Google Scholar
Lecavalier, B.S., Milne, G.A., Simpson, M.J.R., Wake, L., Huybrechts, P., Tarasov, L., Kjeldsen, K.K., et al., 2014. A model of Greenland ice sheet deglaciation constrained by observations of relative sea level and ice extent. Quaternary Science Reviews 102, 54–84.Google Scholar
Levy, L.B., Kelly, M.A., Howley, J.A., Virginia, R.A., 2012. Age of the Ørkendalen moraines, Kangerlussuaq, Greenland: constraints on the extent of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 52, 1–5.Google Scholar
Long, A.J., Roberts, D.H., Simpson, M.J.R., Dawson, S., Milne, G.A., Huybrechts, P., 2008. Late Weichselian relative sea-level changes and ice sheet history in southeast Greenland. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 272, 8–18.Google Scholar
Long, A.J., Strzelecki, M.C., Lloyd, J.M., Bryant, C.L., 2012. Dating High Arctic Holocene relative sea level changes using juvenile articulated marine shells in raised beaches. Quaternary Science Reviews 48, 61–66.Google Scholar
Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A., Dawson, S., Roberts, D.H., Bryant, C.L., 2009. Late Holocene relative sea level rise and the Neoglacial history of the Greenland ice sheet. Journal of Quaternary Science 24, 345–359.Google Scholar
Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A., Roberts, D.H., Dawson, S., 2011. Isolation basins, sea-level changes and the Holocene history of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 3748–3768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massa, C., Perren, B.B., Gauthier, É., Bichet, V., Petit, C., Richard, H., 2012. A multiproxy evaluation of Holocene environmental change from Lake Igaliku, South Greenland. Journal of Paleolimnology 48, 241–258.Google Scholar
Matmon, A., Crouvi, O., Enzel, Y., Bierman, P., Larsen, J., Porat, N., Amit, R., Caffee, M., 2003. Complex exposure histories of chert clasts in the late Pleistocene shorelines of Lake Lisan, southern Israel. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 28, 493–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauz, B., Vacchi, M., Green, A., Hoffmann, G., Cooper, A., 2015. Beachrock: a tool for reconstructing relative sea level in the far-field. Marine Geology 362, 1–16.Google Scholar
Nelson, A.H., Bierman, P.R., Shakun, J.D., Rood, D.H., 2014. Using in situ cosmogenic 10Be to identify the source of sediment leaving Greenland. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 39, 1087–1100.Google Scholar
Nishiizumi, K., Imamura, M., Caffee, M.W., Southon, J.R., Finkel, R.C., McAninch, J., 2007. Absolute calibration of 10Be AMS standards. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 258, 403–413.Google Scholar
Peltier, W., 2004. Global glacial isostasy and the surface of the ice-age Earth: the ICE-5G (VM2) model and GRACE. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 32, 111–149.Google Scholar
Randsalu, L., 2008. Holocene Relative Sea-Level Changes in the Tasiusaq Area, Southern Greenland, with Focus on the Ta1 and Ta3 Basins. Master’s thesis, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C.B., Buck, C.E., et al., 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retelle, M., Bradley, R.S., Stuckenrath, R., 1989. Relative sea level chronology determined from raised marine sediments and coastal isolation basins, northeastern Ellesmere Island. Arctic and Alpine Research 21, 113–125.Google Scholar
Roberts, D.H., Long, A.J., 2005. Streamlined bedrock terrain and fast ice flow, Jakobshavns Isbrae, West Greenland: implications for ice stream and ice sheet dynamics. Boreas 34, 25–42.Google Scholar
Rood, D.H., Brown, T.A., Finkel, R.C., Guilderson, T.P., 2013. Poisson and non-Poisson uncertainty estimations of 10Be/9Be measurements at LLNL–CAMS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 294, 426–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rood, D.H., Hall, S., Guilderson, T.P., Finkel, R.C., Brown, T.A., 2010. Challenges and opportunities in high-precision Be-10 measurements at CAMS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics. Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268, 730–732.Google Scholar
Roy, K., Peltier, W., 2015. Glacial isostatic adjustment, relative sea level history and mantle viscosity: reconciling relative sea level model predictions for the US East coast with geological constraints. Geophysical Journal International 201, 1156–1181.Google Scholar
Schildgen, T.F., Purves, R.S., Phillips, W.M., 2002. Modeling effects of snow burial on cosmogenic exposure age dating, Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland, and Wind River Range, WY. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 83, F550.Google Scholar
Scott, E.M., Cook, G.T., Naysmith, P., 2016. Error and uncertainty in radiocarbon measurements. Radiocarbon 49, 427–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, M.J.R., Milne, G.A., Huybrechts, P., Long, A.J., 2009. Calibrating a glaciological model of the Greenland ice sheet from the Last Glacial Maximum to present-day using field observations of relative sea level and ice extent. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 1631–1657.Google Scholar
Sinclair, G., Carlson, A.E., Mix, A.C., Lecavalier, B.S., Milne, G., Mathias, A., Buizert, C., DeConto, R., 2016. Diachronous retreat of the Greenland ice sheet during the last deglaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews 145, 243–258.Google Scholar
Sparrenbom, C.J., Bennie, O., Bjorck, S., Lambeck, K., 2006a. Relative sea-level changes since 15000 cal. yr BP in the Nanortalik area, southern Greenland. Journal of Quaternary Science 21, 29–48.Google Scholar
Sparrenbom, C.J., Bennike, O., Fredh, D., Randsalu-Wendrup, L., Zwartz, D., Ljung, K., Björck, S., Lambeck, K., 2013. Holocene relative sea-level changes in the inner Bredefjord area, southern Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 69, 107–124.Google Scholar
Sparrenbom, C.J., Bennike, O., Björck, S., Lambeck, K., 2006b. Holocene relative sea-level changes in the Qaqortoq area, southern Greenland. Boreas 35, 171–187.Google Scholar
Stern, J.V., Lisiecki, L.E., 2013. North Atlantic circulation and reservoir age changes over the past 41,000 years. Geophysical Research Letters 40, 3693–3697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, J., Lambeck, K., Fifield, L.K., Cresswell, R.G., Evans, J.M., 1995. A lateglacial age for the Main Rock Platform, SW Scotland. EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 76, 685.Google Scholar
Storms, J.E.A., de Winter, I.L., Overeem, I., Drijkoningen, G.G., Lykke-Andersen, H., 2012. The Holocene sedimentary history of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord-valley fill, West Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 35, 29–50.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., 1969. Yale natural radiocarbon measurements IX. Radiocarbon 11, 545–658.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Braziunas, T.F., 1993. Modeling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10,000 BC. Radiocarbon 35, 137–189.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended 14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Tamura, T., 2012. Beach ridges and prograded beach deposits as palaeoenvironment records. Earth-Science Reviews 114, 279–297.Google Scholar
Taylor, E., Long, A., Kra, R.S., 1992. Radiocarbon After Four Decades: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Ten Brink, N.W., 1974. Glacio-isostasy: new data from West Greenland and geophysical implications. Geological Society of America Bulletin 85, 219–228.Google Scholar
Thomas, E.K., Briner, J.P., Ryan-Henry, J.J., Huang, Y., 2016. A major increase in winter snowfall during the middle Holocene on western Greenland caused by reduced sea ice in Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea. Geophysical Research Letters 43, 5302–5308.Google Scholar
Trull, T.W., Brown, E.T., Marty, B., Raisbeck, G.M., Yiou, F., 1995. Cosmogenic 10Be and 3He accumulation in Pleistocene beach terraces in Death Valley, California: implications for cosmic-ray exposure dating of young surfaces in hot climates. Chemical Geology 119, 191–207.Google Scholar
van Tatenhove, F.G.M., van der Meer, J.J.M., 1996. Implications for deglaciation chronology from new AMS age determinations in central West Greenland. Quaternary Research 45, 245–253.Google Scholar
Waelbroeck, C., Duplessy, J.-C., Michel, E., Labeyrie, L., Paillard, D., Duprat, J., 2001. The timing of the last deglaciation in North Atlantic climate records. Nature 412, 724–727.Google Scholar
Wahr, J., van Dam, T., Larson, K., Francis, O., 2001. GPS measurements of vertical crustal motion in Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 106, 33755–33759.Google Scholar
Washburn, A.L., 1962. Radiocarbon-dated postglacial delevelling in Northeast Greenland and its implications. Arctic 15, 66–73.Google Scholar
Weidick, A., 1993. Neoglacial change of ice cover and the related response of the Earth’s crust in West Greenland. Rapport Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse 159, 121–126.Google Scholar
Weidick, A., Kelly, M., Bennike, O., 2004. Late Quaternary development of the southern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet, with particular reference to the Qassimiut lobe. Boreas 33, 284–299.Google Scholar
Weidick, A., Oerter, H., Reeh, N., Thomsen, H.H., Thorning, L., 1990. The recession of the Inland Ice margin during the Holocene climatic optimum in the Jakobshavn Isfjord area of West Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 82, 389–399.Google Scholar
Winsor, K., Carlson, A.E., Caffee, M.W., Rood, D.H., 2015. Rapid last-deglacial thinning and retreat of the marine-terminating southwestern Greenland ice sheet. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 426, 1–12.Google Scholar
Woodroffe, S.A., Long, A.J., Lecavalier, B.S., Milne, G.A., Bryant, C.L., 2014. Using relative sea-level data to constrain the deglacial and Holocene history of southern Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 92, 345–356.Google Scholar
Young, N.E., Briner, J.P., 2015. Holocene evolution of the western Greenland Ice Sheet: assessing geophysical ice-sheet models with geological reconstructions of ice-margin change. Quaternary Science Reviews 114, 1–17.Google Scholar
Young, N.E., Schaefer, J.M., Briner, J.P., Goehring, B.M, 2013. A 10Be production-rate calibration for the Arctic. Journal of Quaternary Science 28, 515–526.Google Scholar