Nicolas E. Young
Allie Balter-Kennedy
Karlee Prince
Caleb K. Walcott-George
Brandon L. Graham
Joanna Charton
Jason P. Briner
Joerg M. Shaefer
Jacob T. Anderson
2025
<p><span>The lack of geological constraints on past ice-sheet change in marine-based sectors of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) following the Last Glacial Maximum limits our ability to assess (1) the drivers of ice-sheet change, and (2) the performance of ice-sheet models that are benchmarked against the paleo-record of GrIS change. Here, we provide new in situ </span><span class="inline-formula"><sup>10</sup></span><span>Be surface exposure chronologies of ice-sheet margin retreat from the outer Scoresby Sund and Storstrømmen Glacier regions in eastern and northeastern Greenland, respectively. Ice retreated from Rathbone Island, east of Scoresby Sund, by </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 14.1 ka, recording some of the earliest documentations of terrestrial deglaciation in Greenland. The mouth of Scoresby Sund deglaciated by </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 13.2 ka, and retreated at an average rate of </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 43 m yr</span><span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span><span> between 13.2 and 9.7 ka. Storstrømmen Glacier retreated from the outer coast to within </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 3 km of the modern ice margin between </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 12.7 and 8.6 ka at an average rate of </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 28 m yr</span><span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span><span>. Retreat then slowed or reached a stillstand as ice retreated </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 3 km between </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 8.6 ka to the modern ice margin at </span><span class="inline-formula">∼</span><span> 8.0 ka. These retreat rates are consistent with late glacial and Holocene estimates for marine-terminating outlet glaciers across East Greenland, and comparable to modern retreat rates observed at the largest ice streams in northeastern, and northwestern Greenland.</span></p>
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10.5194/cp-21-2263-2025
en
European Geosciences Union
East Greenland Ice Sheet retreat history from Scoresby Sund and Storstrømmen Glacier during the last deglaciation
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