This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (3) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Andrews, J. T. Articles by Ogilvie, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

A robust, multisite Holocene history of drift ice off northern Iceland: implications for North Atlantic climate

INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Box 450, Boulder CO 80303, USA, john.t.andrews{at}colorado.edu

Dennis Darby

Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA 23529, USA

Dennis Eberle

US Geological Survey, 3215 Marine Street, Suite E-127, Boulder CO 80303, USA

Anne E. Jennings

INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Box 450, Boulder CO 80303, USA

Matthias Moros

Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Allegaten 55, 5007 Bergen, Norway, Baltic Sea Research Institute, Seestrasse 15, 18119 Rostock, Germany

Astrid Ogilvie

INSTAAR and Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Box 450, Boulder CO 80303, USA

An important indicator of Holocene climate change is provided by evidence for variations in the extent of drift ice. A proxy for drift ice in Iceland waters is provided by the presence of quartz. Quantitative x-ray diffraction analysis of the < 2 mm sediment fraction was undertaken on 16 cores from around Iceland. The quartz weight (wt.)% estimates from each core were integrated into 250-yr intervals between –0.05 and 11.7 cal. ka BP. Median quartz wt.% varied between 0.2 and 3.4 and maximum values ranged between 2.8 and 11.8 wt.%. High values were attained in the early Holocene and minimum values were reached 6—7 cal. ka BP. Quartz wt.% then rose steadily during the late Holocene. Our data exhibit no correlation with counts on haematite-stained quartz (HSQ) grains from VM129-191 west of Ireland casting doubt on the ice-transport origin. A pilot study on the provenance of Fe oxide grains in two cores that cover the last 1.3 and 6.1 cal. ka BP indicated a large fraction of the grains between 1 and 6 cal. ka BP were from either Icelandic or presently unsampled sources. However, there was a dramatic increase in Canadian and Russian sources from the Arctic Ocean ~1 cal. ka BP. These data may indicate the beginning of an Arctic Oscillation-like climate mode.

Key Words: Ice rafted debris • Iceland • quartz • drift ice • Holocene • Arctic basin.

The Holocene, Vol. 19, No. 1, 71-77 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683608098953


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?