Articles | Volume 18, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1533-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1533-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
05 Apr 2024
Research article |
| 05 Apr 2024
| 05 Apr 2024
Dynamical response of the southwestern Laurentide Ice Sheet to rapid Bølling–Allerød warming
Sophie L. Norris
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Geography, University of Victoria, David Turpin Building, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V9P 5C2, Canada
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, 1–26 Earth Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada
Martin Margold
Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic
David J. A. Evans
Department of Geography, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
Nigel Atkinson
Alberta Geological Survey, Alberta Energy Regulator, 402 Twin Atria Building, 4 4999-98 Avenue, Edmonton, AB, T6B 2X3, Canada
Duane G. Froese
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, 1–26 Earth Sciences Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada
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Benjamin J. Stoker, Helen E. Dulfer, Chris R. Stokes, Victoria H. Brown, Christopher D. Clark, Colm Ó Cofaigh, David J. A. Evans, Duane Froese, Sophie L. Norris, and Martin Margold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-137, 2024
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The retreat of the northwestern Laurentide Ice Sheet allows us to investigate how the ice drainage network evolves over millennial timescales and understand the influence of climate forcing, glacial lakes, and the underlying geology on the rate of deglaciation. We reconstruct the changes in ice flow at 500-year intervals and identify rapid reorganisations of the drainage network, including variations in ice streaming that we link to climatically-driven changes in the ice sheet surface slope.
Mahya Roustaei, Joel Pumple, Jordan Harvey, and Duane Froese
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The Cryosphere, 18, 2407–2428, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2407-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-2407-2024, 2024
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A Baltic-wide glacial landform-based map is presented, filling in a geographical gap in the record that has been speculated about by palaeoglaciologists for over a century. Here we used newly available bathymetric data and provide landform evidence of corridors of fast ice flow that we interpret as ice streams. Where previous ice-sheet-scale investigations inferred a single ice source, our mapping identifies flow and ice margin geometries from both Swedish and Bothnian sources.
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The Cryosphere, 18, 489–503, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-489-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-489-2024, 2024
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Ice content is a critical variable in the context of thawing permafrost, and permafrost cores provide a means to measure the characteristics of frozen ground; however, these measurements are typically destructive and time intensive. Multi-sensor core logging (MSCL) provides a fast, non-destructive method to image permafrost cores, measure bulk density, and estimate ice content. The use of MSCL will improve existing digital permafrost archives by adding high-quality and reproducible data.
Benjamin J. Stoker, Helen E. Dulfer, Chris R. Stokes, Victoria H. Brown, Christopher D. Clark, Colm Ó Cofaigh, David J. A. Evans, Duane Froese, Sophie L. Norris, and Martin Margold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-137, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-137, 2024
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The retreat of the northwestern Laurentide Ice Sheet allows us to investigate how the ice drainage network evolves over millennial timescales and understand the influence of climate forcing, glacial lakes, and the underlying geology on the rate of deglaciation. We reconstruct the changes in ice flow at 500-year intervals and identify rapid reorganisations of the drainage network, including variations in ice streaming that we link to climatically-driven changes in the ice sheet surface slope.
Benjamin J. Stoker, Martin Margold, John C. Gosse, Alan J. Hidy, Alistair J. Monteath, Joseph M. Young, Niall Gandy, Lauren J. Gregoire, Sophie L. Norris, and Duane Froese
The Cryosphere, 16, 4865–4886, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4865-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4865-2022, 2022
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The Laurentide Ice Sheet was the largest ice sheet to grow and disappear in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glaciation. In northwestern Canada, it covered the Mackenzie Valley, blocking the migration of fauna and early humans between North America and Beringia and altering the drainage systems. We reconstruct the timing of ice sheet retreat in this region and the implications for the migration of early humans into North America, the drainage of glacial lakes, and past sea level rise.
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The Cryosphere, 15, 2889–2916, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2889-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2889-2021, 2021
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Subglacial bedforms are commonly used to reconstruct past glacial dynamics and investigate processes occuring at the ice–bed interface. Using analogue modelling and geomorphological mapping, we demonstrate that ridges with undulating crests, known as subglacial ribbed bedforms, are ubiquitous features along ice stream corridors. These bedforms provide a tantalizing glimpse into (1) the former positions of ice stream margins, (2) the ice lobe dynamics and (3) the meltwater drainage efficiency.
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The Cryosphere, 10, 639–664, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-639-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-639-2016, 2016
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We use a numerical model based on approximated ice flow physics and calibrated against field-based evidence to present numerical simulations of multiple advance and retreat phases of the former Cordilleran ice sheet in North America during the last glacial cycle (120 000 to 0 years before present).
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Discipline: Ice sheets | Subject: Geomorphology
Effects of topographic and meteorological parameters on the surface area loss of ice aprons in the Mont Blanc massif (European Alps)
Geomorphology and shallow sub-sea-floor structures underneath the Ekström Ice Shelf, Antarctica
Formation of ribbed bedforms below shear margins and lobes of palaeo-ice streams
A quasi-annual record of time-transgressive esker formation: implications for ice-sheet reconstruction and subglacial hydrology
Ice-stream flow switching by up-ice propagation of instabilities along glacial marginal troughs
Basal control of supraglacial meltwater catchments on the Greenland Ice Sheet
How dynamic are ice-stream beds?
Subglacial drainage patterns of Devon Island, Canada: detailed comparison of rivers and subglacial meltwater channels
Suvrat Kaushik, Ludovic Ravanel, Florence Magnin, Yajing Yan, Emmanuel Trouve, and Diego Cusicanqui
The Cryosphere, 16, 4251–4271, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4251-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-4251-2022, 2022
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Climate change impacts all parts of the cryosphere but most importantly the smaller ice bodies like ice aprons (IAs). This study is the first attempt on a regional scale to assess the impacts of the changing climate on these small but very important ice bodies. Our study shows that IAs have consistently lost mass over the past decades. The effects of climate variables, particularly temperature and precipitation and topographic factors, were analysed on the loss of IA area.
Astrid Oetting, Emma C. Smith, Jan Erik Arndt, Boris Dorschel, Reinhard Drews, Todd A. Ehlers, Christoph Gaedicke, Coen Hofstede, Johann P. Klages, Gerhard Kuhn, Astrid Lambrecht, Andreas Läufer, Christoph Mayer, Ralf Tiedemann, Frank Wilhelms, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 16, 2051–2066, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2051-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2051-2022, 2022
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The maximal extent of grounded ice in this region was 11 km away from the continental shelf break.
The thickness of palaeo-ice on the calving front around the LGM was estimated to be at least 305 to 320 m.
We provide essential boundary conditions for palaeo-ice-sheet models.
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Subglacial bedforms are commonly used to reconstruct past glacial dynamics and investigate processes occuring at the ice–bed interface. Using analogue modelling and geomorphological mapping, we demonstrate that ridges with undulating crests, known as subglacial ribbed bedforms, are ubiquitous features along ice stream corridors. These bedforms provide a tantalizing glimpse into (1) the former positions of ice stream margins, (2) the ice lobe dynamics and (3) the meltwater drainage efficiency.
Stephen J. Livingstone, Emma L. M. Lewington, Chris D. Clark, Robert D. Storrar, Andrew J. Sole, Isabelle McMartin, Nico Dewald, and Felix Ng
The Cryosphere, 14, 1989–2004, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1989-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1989-2020, 2020
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Etienne Brouard and Patrick Lajeunesse
The Cryosphere, 13, 981–996, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-981-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-981-2019, 2019
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Modifications in ice-stream networks have major impacts on ice sheet mass balance and global sea level. However, the mechanisms controlling ice-stream switching remain poorly understood. We report a flow switch in an ice-stream system that occurred on the Baffin Island shelf through the erosion of a marginal trough. Up-ice propagation of ice streams through marginal troughs can lead to the piracy of neighboring ice catchments, which induces an adjacent ice-stream switch and shutdown.
Josh Crozier, Leif Karlstrom, and Kang Yang
The Cryosphere, 12, 3383–3407, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3383-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3383-2018, 2018
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Anna Grau Galofre, A. Mark Jellinek, Gordon R. Osinski, Michael Zanetti, and Antero Kukko
The Cryosphere, 12, 1461–1478, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1461-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1461-2018, 2018
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Water accumulated at the base of ice sheets is the main driver of glacier acceleration and loss of ice mass in Arctic regions. Previously glaciated landscapes sculpted by this water carry information about how ice sheets collapse and ultimately disappear. The search for these landscapes took us to the high Arctic, to explore channels that formed under kilometers of ice during the last ice age. In this work we describe how subglacial channels look and how they helped to drain an ice sheet.
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Short summary
Associated with climate change between the Last Glacial Maximum and the current interglacial period, we reconstruct the behaviour of the southwestern Laurentide Ice Sheet, which covered the Canadian Prairies, using detailed landform mapping. Our reconstruction depicts three shifts in the ice sheet’s dynamics. We suggest these changes resulted from ice sheet thinning triggered by abrupt climatic change. However, we show that regional lithology and topography also play an important role.
Associated with climate change between the Last Glacial Maximum and the current interglacial...
