Coastal glaciers advanced onto Jameson Land, East Greenland during the late glacial-early Holocene Milne Land Stade

Abstract

We report on ¹⁰Be and optically stimulated luminescence ages from moraines and glaciolacustrine sediments on eastern Jameson Land, East Greenland. Sampled landforms and sediment are associated with advances of outlet glaciers from the local Liverpool Land ice cap situated in the coastal Scoresby Sund region. Previous studies have tentatively correlated these advances with the Milne Land Stade moraines, which are prominent moraine sets deposited by mountain glaciers in the inner Scoresby Sund region. Recent constraints on the formation of the outer and inner of these moraines have suggested two advances of local glaciers, one prior to or during the Younger Dryas and another during the Preboreal. In this paper, we test the correlation of the Liverpool Land glacial advance with the Milne Land Stade. Our results show that outlet glaciers from the Liverpool Land ice cap reached ice-marginal positions marked by moraines in east-facing valleys on Jameson Land sometime during late glacial–early Holocene time (ca. 13–11 Kya). This confirms the correlation of these moraines with the Milne Land Stade moraines described elsewhere in the Scoresby Sund region.

Keywords: Greenland; Jameson Land; glaciation; Milne Land Stade; cosmogenic exposure dating; luminescence dating.

(Published: 10 January 2014)

Citation: Polar Research 2014, 33, 20313, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v33.20313