Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-29T02:24:26.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iceberg discharge to the Chukchi shelf during the Younger Dryas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jenna C. Hill  and
Neal W. Driscoll
Jenna C. Hill*
Affiliation:
Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine & Wetland Studies, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, USA
Neal W. Driscoll
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:jchill@coastal.edu (J.C. Hill).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The extent of glaciation in northwestern Alaska, the source of sediment supply to the Chukchi shelf and slope, and the movement of sea ice and icebergs across the shelf during the last glacial maximum (LGM) remain poorly constrained. Here we present geophysical and geological data from the outer Chukchi margin that reveal a regionally extensive, heavily ice-scoured surface ∼ 5–8 m below the modern seafloor. Radiocarbon dating of this discrete event yields age estimates between 10,600 and 11,900 14C yr BP, indicating the discharge event occurred during the Younger Dryas. Based on mineralogy of the ice-rafted debris, the icebergs appear to be sourced from the northwestern Alaskan margin, which places important constraints on the ice extent in northern Alaska during the LGM as well as existing circulation models for the region.

Keywords

Marine GeologyChukchi shelfIceberg dischargeYounger DryasGlaciation
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , July 2010 , pp. 57 - 62
Copyright
University of Washington

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

Aagaard, K., and Carmack, E. The role of sea ice and other fresh water in the Arctic circulation. Journal of Geophysical Research 94, (1989). 14485–14498.Google Scholar
Bard, E., Hamelin, B., Tisnerat-Laborde, N., and Cabioch, G. Radiocarbon calibration by means of mass spectrometric 230Th/234U and 14C ages of corals: an updated database including samples from Barbados: Muroroa and Tahiti. Radiocarbon 40, (1988). 1085–1092.Google Scholar
Barnes, P., Rearic, D., and Reimnitz, E. Ice gouging characteristics and processes. Barnes, P., Schell, D., and Reimnitz, E. The Alaskan Beaufort Sea—ecosystems and environments. (1984). Academic Press, Orlando, FL. 185–213.Google Scholar
Beikman, H.M., (1980). Geologic map of Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey, 2 sheets, scale 1:2.500,000 Google Scholar
Bischof, J., Clark, D.L., and Vincent, J. Origin of ice-rafted debris: Pleistocene paleoceanography in the western Arctic Ocean. Paleoceanography 11, (1996). 743–756.Google Scholar
Bond, G., Broecker, W., Johnsen, S., McManus, J., Labeyrie, L., Jouzel, J., and Bonani, G. Correlations between climate records from North Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice. Nature 365, (1993). 143–147.Google Scholar
Broeker, W. Massive iceberg discharges as triggers for global climate change. Nature 372, (1994). 421–424.Google Scholar
Clark, P.U., Marshall, S.J., Clarke, G.K.C., Hostetler, S.W., Licciardi, J.M., and Teller, J.T. Freshwater forcing of abrupt climate change during the last glaciation. Science 293, (2001). 283–287.Google Scholar
Davies, T.A. et al. Glaciated Continental Margins: an Atlas of Acoustic Images. (1997). Chapman and Hall, London.Google Scholar
Dusel-Bacon, C., Brosgé, W.P., Till, A.B., Doyle, E.O., Mayfield, C.F., Reiser, H.N., and Miller, T.P. Distribution, facies, ages, and proposed tectonic associations of regionally metamorphosed rocks in northern Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1497-A. (1989). Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Andrews, J.T., Clark, P.U., England, J.H., Miller, G.H., Shaw, J., and Veillette, J.J. The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, (2002). 9–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grantz, A., Mann, D.M., and May, S.D. Multichannel seismic-reflection data collected in 1978 in the Eastern Chukchi Sea. U.S.G.S. Open-File Report 86-206. (1986). Google Scholar
Hamilton, T.D. Late Cenozoic glaciation of the central Brooks Range. Hamilton, T.D., Reed, K.M., and Thorson, R.M. Glaciation in Alaska. (1986). Alaska Geological Society, Anchorage, Alaska. 9–50.Google Scholar
Heinrich, H. Origin and consequences of cyclic ice rafting in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean during the past 130, 000 years. Quaternary Research 29, (1988). 142–152.Google Scholar
Héquette, A., Desrosiers, M., and Barnes, P.W. Sea ice scouring on the inner shelf of the southeastern Canadian Beaufort Sea. Marine Geology 128, (1995). 201–219.Google Scholar
Hill, J.C., Driscoll, N.W., Brigham-Grette, J., Donnelly, J.P., Gayes, P.T., and Keigwin, L.D. New evidence for high discharge to the Chukchi shelf since the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Research 68, (2007). 271–279.Google Scholar
Hill, J.C., and Driscoll, N.W. Paleodrainage on the Chukchi shelf reveals sea level history and meltwater discharge. Marine Geology 254, (2008). 129–151.Google Scholar
Jakobsson, M., Garnder, J.V., Vogt, P.R., Mayer, L.A., Armstrong, A., Backman, J., Brennan, R., Calder, B., Hall, J.K., and Kraft, B. Multibeam bathymetric and sediment profiler evidence for ice grounding on the Chukchi Borderland, Arctic Ocean. Quaternary Research 63, (2005). 150–160.Google Scholar
Kauffman, D.S., and Manley, W.F. Pleistocene maximum and Late Wisconsinian glacier extents across Alaska, U.S.A. Ehlers, J., and Gibbard, P.L. Quaternary glaciations—extent and chronology, Part II, North America. (2004). Elsevier, Amsterdam. 9–27.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D., Donnelly, J.P., Cook, M.S., Driscoll, N.D., and Brigham-Grette, J. Rapid sea-level rise and Holocene climate in the Chukchi Sea. Geology 34, (2006). 861–864.Google Scholar
Mann, D.H., Peteet, D.M., Reanier, R.E., and Kunz, M.L. Responses of an arctic landscape to Late Glacial and early Holocene climatic changes: the importance of moisture. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, (2002). 997–1021.Google Scholar
Phillips, R.L., Barnes, P., Hunter, R.E., Reiss, T.E., and Rearic, D.M. Geologic Investigations in the Chukchi Sea 1984, NOAA Ship SURVEYOR Cruise. U.S.G.S. Open-File Report 88-25. (1988). Google Scholar
Polyak, L., Edwards, M.E., Coakley, B.J., and Jakobsson, M. Ice shelves in the Pleistocene Arctic Ocean inferred from glaciogenic deep-sea bedforms. Nature 410, (2001). 453–457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polyak, L., Darby, D.A., Bischof, J.F., and Jakobsson, M. Stratigraphic constraints on late Pleistocene glacial erosion and deglaciation of the Chukchi margin, Arctic Ocean. Quaternary Research 67, (2007). 234–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, L.M., Miller, G.H., Otto-Bliesner, , and Shin, S.-I. Sensitivity of the Northern Hemisphere climate system to extreme changes in Holocene Arctic sea ice. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, (2003). 645–658.Google Scholar
Stokes, C.R., Clark, C.D., Darby, D.A., and Hodgson, D.A. Late Pleistocene ice export events into the Arctic Ocean from the M'Clure Strait Ice Stream, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Global and Planetary Change 49, (2005). 139–162.Google Scholar
Zweck, C., and Huybrechts, P. Modelling of the northern hemisphere ice sheets during the last glacial cycle and glaciological sensitivity. Journal of Geophysical Research 110, (2005). doi:10.1028/2004JD005489CrossRefGoogle Scholar