Scientific history, sampling approach, and physical characterization of the Camp Century subglacial material, a rare archive from beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet
Paul R. Bierman,Andrew J. Christ,Catherine M. Collins,Halley M. Mastro,Juliana Souza,Pierre-Henri Blard,Stefanie Brachfeld,Zoe R. Courville,Tammy M. Rittenour,Elizabeth K. Thomas,Jean-Louis Tison,and François Fripiat
In 1966, the U.S. Army drilled through the Greenland Ice Sheet at Camp Century, Greenland; they recovered 3.44 m of frozen material. Here, we decipher the material’s history. Water, flowing during a warm interglacial when the ice sheet melted from northwest Greenland, deposited the upper material which contains fossil plant and insect parts. The lower material, separated by more than a meter of ice with some sediment, is till, deposited by the ice sheet during a prior cold period.
In 1966, the U.S. Army drilled through the Greenland Ice Sheet at Camp Century, Greenland; they...