Rapidly receding Arctic Canada glaciers revealing landscapes continuously ice-covered for more than 40,000 years

Simon L. Pendleton (), Gifford H. Miller, Nathaniel Lifton, Scott J. Lehman, John Southon, Sarah E. Crump and Robert S. Anderson
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Simon L. Pendleton: University of Colorado
Gifford H. Miller: University of Colorado
Nathaniel Lifton: Purdue University
Scott J. Lehman: University of Colorado
John Southon: University of California, Irvine
Sarah E. Crump: University of Colorado
Robert S. Anderson: University of Colorado

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Arctic temperatures are increasing faster than the Northern Hemisphere average due to strong positive feedbacks unique to polar regions. However, the degree to which recent Arctic warming is unprecedented remains debated. Ages of entombed plants in growth position preserved by now receding ice caps in Arctic Canada help to address this issue by placing recent conditions in a multi-millennial context. Here we show that pre-Holocene radiocarbon dates on plants collected at the margins of 30 ice caps in Arctic Canada suggest those locations were continuously ice covered for > 40 kyr, but are now ice-free. We use in situ 14C inventories in rocks from nine locations to explore the possibility of brief exposure during the warm early Holocene. Modeling the evolution of in situ 14C confirms that Holocene exposure is unlikely at all but one of the sites. Viewed in the context of temperature records from Greenland ice cores, our results suggest that summer warmth of the past century exceeds now any century in ~115,000 years.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08307-w

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