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A Holocene Record of Atmospheric Dust Deposition on the Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Christian M. Zdanowicz ,
Gregory A. Zielinski ,
Cameron P. Wake ,
David A. Fisher  and
Roy M. Koerner
Christian M. Zdanowicz*
Affiliation:
Climate Change Research Center, EOS, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824
Gregory A. Zielinski
Affiliation:
Climate Change Research Center, EOS, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824
Cameron P. Wake
Affiliation:
Climate Change Research Center, EOS, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824
David A. Fisher
Affiliation:
Terrain Sciences, Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E8, Canada
Roy M. Koerner
Affiliation:
Terrain Sciences, Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E8, Canada
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed at Glaciology, Terrain Sciences Division, Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8 Canada.
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Abstract

An >11,550-yr-long record of atmospheric dust deposition was developed from an ice core (P95) drilled through the Penny ice cap, Baffin Island. The P95 record documents environmental changes that affected the production and transport of dust in the eastern Canadian Arctic during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Dust deposition on the Penny ice cap was greatest in late-glacial time when the climate was dry and windy and comparatively low in the Holocene. Microparticles deposited during late-glacial time are finer than in Greenland cores, suggesting distinct dust sources and transport trajectories to each region. Dust deposition at the P95 site increased after ca. 7800 yr ago as the Penny ice cap receded and distance from local dust sources was reduced. Deflation of newly exposed marine sediments on southwestern Baffin Island may have contributed to this dust increase. The P95 and GISP2 (Greenland) dust records show diverging trends in the middle to late Holocene, reflecting the growing influence of regional environmental conditions (e.g., dust source area, snow cover extent) on atmospheric dust deposition. This study further demonstrates how valuable records of regional-scale paleoenvironmental changes can be developed from small circum-Arctic ice caps, even those affected by considerable melt.

Keywords

ice corespaleoclimateeolian dustHoloceneArctic
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 2000 , pp. 62 - 69
Copyright
University of Washington

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