Land/ocean correlations during the last interglacial/glacial transition, Baffin Bay, northwestern North Atlantic: A review

Evidence from terrestrial sections, ice cores, and marine cores are reviewed and used to develop a scenario for environmental change in the area of the extreme northwest North Atlantic during marine isotope stages 5 and 4. The critical physical link between the landbased glacial chronology and marine events in Baffin Bay is the presence of carbonate rich drift along the Baffin Bay coast of Bylot Island and a detrital carbonate facies (Facies B) in Baffin Bay sediments. Cores from Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea can be dated by means of oxygen isotope variations and by peaks in the abundance of volcanic glass shards. One occurrence of Facies B is dated between late stage 5 and stage 4 and we correlate this event with the Eclipse Glaciation of Bylot Island and the Ayr Lake stade of the Foxe Glaciation of Baffin Island (= Kogalu aminozone). In contrast on West Greenland, amino acid racemization evidence suggests that the Greenland Ice Sheet developed throughout stage 4 and reached a maximum in stage 3 (Svartenhuk advance >40 ka). The oxygen isotope record in the Devon Island Ice Cap (northwest Baffin Bay) indicates that Baffin Bay was largely open during marine isotope stage 5. Analyses of shallow water molluscan and foraminiferal assemblages, deep-water foraminifera, pollen from Iand sections and deep-sea cores, and dinoflagellates from marine cores indicate that interglacial conditions prevailed during much of the stage glaciation.     

Terrigenous sand in Labrador Sea hemipelagic sediments and paleoglacial events on Baffin Island over the last 100,00 years

Eight Labrador Sea piston cores with faunal and ash-zone stratigraphies correlated to deep-sea oxygen isotope stages were used to compute Labrador Sea terrigenous sand input rates (mg/cm²/1000 years) during the last 100,000 years. Sources of the sand in Labrador Sea cores are likely to be ice-rafting, turbid glacial meltwater inflow or deflation and wind erosion of unvegetated landscapes in the wake of retreating continental ice sheets. High levels of sand input to the Labrador Sea are therefore undoubtedly glacier-related while low levels of sand input are not. Comparison of the history of Labrador Sea sand input with the chronology of glacial and non-glacial events on Baffin Island reveals that the era of highest sand input rates, the isotopic stage 5a/4 transition, closely coincided with an episode of early Foxe glacier advance to tidewater (Ayr Lake Stade) along the outer coast of Baffin Island ca. 80,000 B.P. to 60,000 B.P. The period of lowest Labrador Sea sand input rates, late isotopic stage 3 to the present, largely corresponds to a major disconformity in the raised marine and glacigenic sediments on Baffin Island, but includes also the late Foxe/early Holocene Cockburn glacial advance (which did not reach the outer coast of the island) and the modern glacial minimum. Labrador Sea and central-subpolar North Atlantic sand input histories are reciprocally related over the last 80,000 years. Accelerated sand input in the Labrador Sea during times of reduced sand input in the North Atlantic implies: (1) major early Wisconsin glacier expansion in the circum Labrador Sea/Baffin Bay region and/or; (2) a surface circulation pattern in the North Atlantic which inhibited iceberg melting there while delivering icebergs and relatively warm surface water into the Labrador Sea. Conversely, reduced sand input in the Labrador Sea during times of accelerated sand input in the North Atlantic implies: (1) late Wisconsin glacier recession in the circum Labrador Sea/Baffin Bay region and/or; (2) a circulation pattern which carries icebergs southward and eastward away from the Labrador Sea. These implications are discussed in the light of paleoceanographic evidence for three periods - 80,000 B.P. to 57,000 B.P.; 25,000 B.P. to 13,000 B.P.; and 13,000 B.P. to 9800 B.P     

Two-step deglaciation at the oxygen isotope stage 6/5E transition: The Zeifen-Kattegat climate oscillation

Comparison of marine, lacustrine, and terrestrial records from twenty-four sites suggests the existence of a ‘Younger Dryas’-type climate oscillation just prior to the Oxygen Isotope Stage 6/5e boundary. These records include results from biostratigraphic, pedostratigraphic, and speleothem studies, as well as analyses of stable isotope compositions of marine records and ice cores. The climate oscillation is named after the warm Zeifen Interstadial and the cold Kattegat Stadial. The Zeifen Interstadial may be related to a major meltwater pulse in the Baffin Bay-Labrador Sea-Norwegian Sea region. The climate oscillation is presumably in part a result of a variation in ocean circulation, especially in the strength of the North Atlantic Drift, but changes in the atmospheric circulation also played an important role. The geographically widespread distribution of the oscillation suggests that the two-step deglaciation influenced both the northern and southern hemispheres.     

Tertiary basalts of Baffin Bay: Possible primary magma from the Mantle

New analyses show that Tertiary tholeiitic basalts from the Baffin Bay area have generally primitive characteristics. Comparison of the bulk chemical compositions of the basalts with material of known phase relations suggests that these basalts have properties intermediate between investigated natural and synthetic compositions. A discrete group of these basalts coincides in projection with the composition of the liquid produced by the partial melting of garnet periodotite at 30 kb. The compositions in this group are believed to be parental to the other rocks in the province principally through a mechanism of olivine fractionation. Eclogite fractionation is invoked to account for the chemical differences between the two suites of basalts in Baffin Bay.     

Palaeo-ice streams in the Foxe/Baffin sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet

In this paper, we describe mapping of palaeo-ice streams in the Foxe/Baffin sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet by means of geomorphological interpretation of high-resolution satellite images. Our interpretations were guided by a glaciological inversion scheme, aided by digital elevation models, publicly available sonar surveys and field studies. As a result, we produced a map depicting the location, geometry and relative temporal changes of palaeo-ice streams and analysed their palaeoglaciological implications for the Foxe/Baffin sector. We conclude that in the period between the Last Glacial Maximum and approximately 7.0 kyr BP, the Foxe/Baffin sector was largely drained by topographically controlled outlet glaciers and ice streams, which were organized in a relatively stable pattern. During this time, large areas of Melville Peninsula and central Baffin Island were subject to cold-based conditions. Between 7.0 and 6.0 kyr BP, the Foxe/Baffin sector collapsed catastrophically in the Foxe Basin, after which its remnant portion became confined to Baffin Island. During this collapse, rapid successions of small transient ice streams occurred along wide, loosely defined topographical corridors in two sectors of Baffin Island. The presently available landform archive on emerged land is not sufficient to conclusively support the existence of fully scaled ice streams along the whole length of Hudson Strait. As an alternative solution, we propose that topographically controlled ice streams might have occurred along the deepest parts of Hudson Strait, with attendant cold-based ice zones on marginal areas and islands at the head of the strait.     

The stratigraphy of the Quaternary Clyde Foreland Formation, Baffin Island, illustrated by the distribution of benthic foraminifera

The Clyde Foreland Formation is defined as comprising unconsolidated or only slightly consolidated deposits, varying in grain size from very coarse boulder gravel to clay, situated between the outermost part of Clyde Inlet and the coastal mountains west-northwest of Kogalu River on the northeast coast of Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. They outcrop in an up to 40 m high almost straight-lined coastal cliff facing Baffin Bay and are composed of mainly marine deposits interbedded with glacigenic layers. Investigation of assemblages of fossil foraminifera revealed three main stratigraphical units of the marine deposits, viz., the hlandiella zone, being the youngest, the Cibicides rotundatus zone, and the Nonion tallahattensis zone, being the oldest. The hlandiella zone is supposed to be upper Pleistocene of age, comprising a large Mid-Wisconsinian (Mid-Weichselian) interstadial, and an interglacial that can be correlated with the Sangamonian (Eemian) interglacial. The Cibicides rotundatus zone may comprise Illinoian interstadial deposits as well as deposits of Yarmouthian (Holsteinian) interglacial age. The Nonion tallahattensis zone represents an older (Aftonian?) mild interval.     

Late Quaternary paleoclimatology and paleooceanography of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay: an alternative viewpoint

Previous interpretations of Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay sediment cores were hampered by failure to recognize that the presence of small (62–149 μm) specimens of 'subpolar' planktic foraminifera in high-latitude marine sediments is primarily a function of the geochemistry of the water column and/or sediments rather than an indicator of environmental conditions in overlying surface waters. Assuming this rationale is correct, foraminiferal data from core HU75–42 indicate that surface conditions in the Labrador Sea were characterized by polar waters, with probable year-round sea-ice cover, throughout most of the period from isotope stage 5a to Termination I. The single exception to this sustained cold history for the eastern Labrador Sea was a transient pulse that apparently brought relatively warm, subpolar waters to the eastern Labrador Sea for a short (probably < 600 years) interval at the isotope stage 5a/4 transition.     

Sterols in sediments from Baffin Bay,Texas

Laminated sediments in Baffin Bay, Texas, consist of alternate layers of blue-green algal remains and terrigenous muds. These sediments resemble stromatolites and contain stenols and stannols. The relatively rare C-27, C-28 and C-29 Δ²²-5α-stenols and the commonly found Δ⁵ and Δ^5.22 sterols and stannols are present in the Baffin Bay sediments.     

The incised valley of Baffin Bay,Texas: a tale of two climates

Baffin Bay, Texas is the flooded Last Glacial Maximum incised valley of the Los Olmos, San Fernando and Petronila Creeks along the north‐western Gulf of Mexico. Cores up to 17 m in length and high‐resolution seismic profiles were used to study the history of Baffin Bay over the last 10 kyr and to document the unusual depositional environments within the valley fill. The deposits of the Baffin Bay incised valley record two major and two minor events. Around 8·0 ka, the estuarine environments backstepped more than 15 km in response to an increase in the rate of sea‐level rise. Around 5·5 ka, these estuarine environments changed from environments similar to other estuaries of the northern Gulf of Mexico to the unusual suite of environments found today. Another minor flooding event occurred around 4·8 ka in which several internal spits were flooded. Some time after 4·0 ka, the upper‐bay mud‐flats experienced a progradational event. Because of its semi‐arid climate and isolation from the Gulf of Mexico, five depositional environments not found in the other incised‐valley fills of the northern Gulf of Mexico are found today within Baffin Bay. These deposits include well‐laminated carbonate and siliciclastic open‐bay muds, ooid beaches, shelly internal spits and barrier islands, serpulid worm‐tube reefs and prograding upper‐bay mud‐flats. Based on these unusual deposits, and other characteristics of Baffin Bay, five criteria are suggested to help identify incised valleys that filled in arid and semi‐arid climates. These criteria include the presence of: (i) hypersaline‐tolerant fauna; (ii) aeolian deposits; and (iii) carbonate and/or evaporite deposits; and the absence of: (iv) peat or other organic‐rich deposits in the upper bay and bay‐margin areas; and (v) well‐developed fluvially dominated bayhead deltas.     

A multi-proxy lacustrine record of Holocene climate change on northeastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada

Reconstructions of past environmental changes are critical for understanding the natural variability of Earth's climate system and for providing a context for present and future global change. Radiocarbon-dated lake sediments from Lake CF3, northeastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada, are used to reconstruct past environmental conditions over the last 11,200 years. Numerous proxies, including chironomid-inferred July air temperatures, diatom-inferred lakewater pH, and sediment organic matter, reveal a pronounced Holocene thermal maximum as much as 5°C warmer than historic summer temperatures from 10,000 to 8500 cal yr B.P. Following rapid cooling 8500 cal yr B.P., Lake CF3 proxies indicate cooling through the late Holocene. At many sites in northeastern Canada, the Holocene thermal maximum occurred later than at Lake CF3; this late onset of Holocene warmth is generally attributed to the impacts of the decaying Laurentide Ice Sheet on early Holocene temperatures in northeastern Canada. However, the lacustrine proxies in Lake CF3 apparently responded to insolation-driven warmth, despite the proximity of Lake CF3 to the Laurentide Ice Sheet and its meltwater. The magnitude and timing of the Holocene thermal maximum at Lake CF3 indicate that temperatures and environmental conditions at this site are highly sensitive to changes in radiative forcing.     

Past and present glaciological responses to climate in eastern Baffin Island

Much of Baffin Island is close to the modern glaciation limit and climatic changes within the last decade are already being reflected in snow cover extent. Statistical analysis of glacierized and ice-free corries indicates that changes in direct solar radiation due to astronomical factors are inadequate to account for glacierization of those at present ice-free. These and other sources of evidence demonstrate the need for augmented winter snowfall in order to increase the extent of glacierization. The pattern of glacial history in this area is for maximum ice extent during the early glacial phase (>68,000, <137,000 BP), folfxlowed by a reduction in ice volume during the cold pleniglacial (>24,000, < 68,000 BP) and then a limited late glacial advance (the Cockburn Stade, ca. 8,000 BP) due to increased precipitation. The Barnes Ice Cap did not disappear in the Holocene as it did in the last interglacial. The area is highly suitable for long-term monitoring of climatic change and glacial response.     

Deglacial and Holocene conditions in northernmost Baffin Bay: sediments, foraminifera, diatoms and stable isotopes

A multiproxy study of palaeoceanographic and climatic changes in northernmost Baffin Bay shows that major environmental changes have occurred since the deglaciation of the area at about 12 500 cal. yr BP. The interpretation is based on sedimentology, benthic and planktonic foraminifera and their isotopic composition, as well as diatom assemblages in the sedimentary records at two core sites, one located in the deeper central part of northernmost Baffin Bay and one in a separate trough closer to the Greenland coast. A revised chronology for the two records is established on the basis of 15 previously published AMS ¹⁴C age determinations. A basal diamicton is overlain by laminated, fossil-free sediments. Our data from the early part of the fossiliferous record (12 300–11 300 cal. yr BP), which is also initially laminated, indicate extensive seasonal sea-ice cover and brine release. There is indication of a cooling event between 11 300 and 10 900 cal. yr BP, and maximum Atlantic Water influence occurred between 10 900 and 8200 cal. yr BP (no sediment recovery between 8200 and 7300 cal. yr BP). A gradual, but fluctuating, increase in sea-ice cover is seen after 7300 cal. yr BP. Sea-ice diatoms were particularly abundant in the central part of northernmost Baffin Bay, presumably due to the inflow of Polar waters from the Arctic Ocean, and less sea ice occurred at the near-coastal site, which was under continuous influence of the West Greenland Current. Our data from the deep, central part show a fluctuating degree of upwelling after c . 7300 cal. yr BP, culminating between 4000 and 3050 cal. yr BP. There was a gradual increase in the influence of cold bottom waters from the Arctic Ocean after about 3050 cal. yr BP, when agglutinated foraminifera became abundant. A superimposed short-term change in the sea-surface proxies is correlated with the Little Ice Age cooling.     

The relationship between E- and N-type magmas in the Baffin Bay Lavas

The picritic lavas of Baffin Island represent one of the most primitive Phanerozoic volcanic suites in the world with MgO contents ranging from 22 wt% (29 Mg, cation unit = Mg/100 cations) for olivine-rich lavas to 11 wt% (16 Mg) for olivine-poor lavas. Two magma types can be recognized on the basis of trace element and isotopic geochemistry. N-type magma, which dominates the high-MgO lavas, has depleted LREE patterns [(La/Sm)_N0.6–0.7] typical of N-MORB, K/Ti<0.05, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr <0.7032. E-type magma, which dominates the lower MgO lavas, has flat to slightly enriched LREE patterns [(La/Sm)_N1.1–1.2] typical of E-MORB, K/Ti>0.5 and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ranging between 0.7032–0.7039. These two magma types are, however, virtually indistinguishable in terms of major clements and many other trace elements. The E and N-type samples are intermixed throughout the volcanic succession, indicating that both types of magma erupted contemporaneously. Although the compositional spectrum observed for major and highly incompatible elements is consistent with olivine fractionation, crystal fractionation cannot account for the difference in the LREE between E-type and N-type lavas. Crustal contamination involving a lower crust composition cannot reproduce the more magnesian E-type lavas.and can only repoduce the lowest (La/Sm)_N ratios of the E-type lavas if high degrees of assimilation (50%) have occurred. Partial melting models can reasonably account for the distinct (La/Sm)_N ratios and the similar Zr/Y values of the two magma types, but fail to reproduce the observed abundances or REE, Sr, Y and Zr. Compositionally different mantle sources are required to explain the two distinct magma types observed in Baffin Island. A model in which the mantle source is a mixture of enriched plume material and depleted entrained mantle in the head of a mantle plume may explain the contemporaneous eruption of N and E-type magmas in the Baffin Bay picritic suite. The Baffin Island E-type lavas are less enriched in Sr, Y and Zr contents and have lower Zr/Y, for similar (La/Sm)_N than the other E-type lavas of the northern North Atlantic region.     

LATE QUATERNARY DETRITAL CARBONATE (DC-) LAYERS IN BAFFIN BAY MARINE SEDIMENTS (67°–74°N): CORRELATION WITH HEINRICH EVENTS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC?

Episodes of glaciation in the region north of Baffin Bay resulted in the erosion of Paleozoic carbonate outcrops in NW Greenland and the Canadian High Arctic. These events are recognized in the marine sediments of Baffin Bay (BB) as a series of detrital carbonate-rich (DC-) layers. BBDC-layers thin southward within Baffin Bay; thus, the contribution of Baffin Bay ice-rafted carbonate-rich sediments to the North Atlantic is probably slight, especially compared with sediment output from Hudson Strait during Heinrich events. We reexamine (cf. Aksu, 1981) a series of nine piston cores from the axis of Baffin Bay and across the Davis Strait sill and provide a suite of 21 AMS ¹⁴C dates on foramininfera which bracket the ages of several DC-layers. The onset of the last DC event is dated in six cores and has an age of ca. 12.4 ka. In northern and central Baffin Bay a thick DC-layer occurs at around 4 m in the cores and is dated >40 ka. There were three to six DC intervening events. The youngest BBDC event (possibly a double event) lags Heinrich event 1 (H-1) off Hudson Strait, dated at 14.5 ka, but it is coeval with the pronounced warming seen in GISP2 records from the Greenland Ice Sheet during interstadial #1. We hypothesize that BBDC episodes are coeval with major interstadial δ¹⁸O peaks from GISP2 and other Greenland ice core records and are caused by or associated with the advection of Atlantic Water into Baffin Bay (cf. Hiscott et al., 1989) and the subsequent rapid retreat of ice streams in the northern approaches to Baffin Bay.     

Combining visual and geochemical analyses to source chert on Southern Baffin Island,Arctic Canada

A combined methodological approach using visual and geochemical methods is introduced and preliminary results of a study illustrating its effectiveness to determine chert source provenance are presented. This study focuses on lithic debitage and raw chert samples collected from the interior of southern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Chert is abundant throughout this region yet it occurs as small, scattered surface nodules that are highly variable in color. Prior to this study, little was known about the provenance of this local toolstone and whether it derived from local outcrops, glacial till sheets, or both. Given the pronounced variability exhibited by this chert, we use individual attribute analysis and petrography to impose some kind of analytical order upon an otherwise random aggregation of rocks. Thereafter, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry are used to test the validity of these color categories to determine from how many geochemically distinct sources they derive. Using a standard that measures Al to a ratio of Ga/Zr, our results indicate that all of the raw chert samples derive from a single local source, while the debitage derives from four different sources, including the one that is local. We are confident that this combined methodological approach can be applied in other regions where chert variability is pronounced and source provenance is unknown. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Elsterian‐Holsteinian deposits at Kås Hoved,northern Denmark: sediments,foraminifera, ostracods,and stable isotopes

The coastal cliff section at Kås Hoved in northern Denmark represents one of the largest exposures of marine interglacial deposits in Europe. High‐resolution analyses of sediments, foraminifera, ostracods, and stable isotopes (oxygen and carbon) in glacial‐interglacial marine sediments from this section, as well as from two adjacent boreholes, are the basis for an interpretation of marine environmental and climatic change through the Late Elsterian‐Holsteinian glacial‐interglacial cycle. The overlying glacial deposits show two ice advances during the Saalian and Weichselian glaciations. The assemblages in the initial glacier‐proximal part of the marine Late Elsterian succession reveal fluctuations in the inflow of sediment‐loaded meltwater to the area. This is followed by faunal indication of glacier‐distal, open marine conditions, coinciding with a gradual climatic change from arctic to subarctic environments. Continuous marine sedimentation during the glacial‐interglacial transition is presumably a result of a large‐scale isostatic subsidence caused by the preceding extended Elsterian glaciation. The similarity of the climatic signature of the interglacial Holsteinian and Holocene assemblages in this region indicates that the Atlantic Ocean circulation was similar during these two interglacials, whereas Eemian interglacial assemblages indicate a comparatively high water temperature associated with an enhanced North Atlantic Current. The foraminiferal zones are correlated with other Elsterian‐Holsteinian sites in Denmark, as well as those in the type area for the Holsteinian interglacial in northern Germany and the southern North Sea. Correlation of the NW European Holsteinian succession with the marine isotope stages MIS 7, 9 or 11 is still unresolved.     

Temporal variability of freshwater and pore water recirculation components of submarine groundwater discharges at Baffin Bay,Texas

Submarine groundwater discharges (SGDs) are an important source of freshwater as well as nutrients and other chemicals to bays and estuaries. SGDs are particularly important for coastal bodies in arid and semi-arid regions that are not fed by perennial streams. The Baffin Bay, TX is a shallow coastal water body that is weakly connected to the Gulf of Mexico and has no major rivers or streams draining into it. A year-long submarine groundwater discharge measurement study was carried out at the Loyola Beach of the Baffin Bay during the months of July 2005–June 2006. A total of 23 synoptic SGD sampling events were carried out with most events collecting SGD data continuously over a period of 24 h at a 1-min temporal resolution using an ultrasonic seepage meter. The median SGD was noted to be 3.83 cm/d with an inter-quartile range (IQR) of 11.36 cm/d. Four sampling events had anomalously high SGD values (~27–48 cm/d) which are hypothesized to be due to the geologic heterogeneity of the sea bed and meteorological effects. Eight of the 23 sampling events had a negative average SGD flux indicating landward flow. The short-term diurnal variability of SGD was comparable or sometimes higher than the longer-term and between-events variability. No long-term trend could be inferred. In the short-term, SGD measurements showed considerable persistence and the effective sample size analysis indicated each sampling event (consisting of over 1,000 samples) yielded only a handful of statistically independent measurements of SGD. The measured SGD values exhibited both negative (hydraulically controlled) and positive (wave set-up controlled) correlations with the bay water levels. Marine controls appeared to be the most significant SGD drivers and are in turn controlled by prevailing aeolian forcings. The salinity of the SGDs were estimated from measured sonic velocities and used in conjunction with the end-member mixing models to estimate fresh (meteoric) and re-circulated pore-water fractions. The freshwater fraction of the SGD was estimated to vary between nearly 4 and 89 % with a median value of 9.96 % and an IQR of 7.16 %. Three events were noted to have abnormally high freshwater fractions (~28, 50 and 84 %) which are likely artifacts caused by bay water freshening from rainfall and plausible thermal expansion. The meteoric and pore-water partitioning was sensitive to the assumed end-member concentrations. This study provides preliminary estimates for SGDs along the South Texas coast line and is useful for calibrating groundwater flow models and understanding the relative importance of terrestrial and marine controls on SGD. However, the heterogeneous nature of the sedimentary geology of the Texas Gulf Coast implies the SGD fluxes are likely to exhibit considerable spatial variation that has not been characterized yet. Therefore, the study provides useful insights for such future data collection and monitoring activities. The measured SGD values at Baffin Bay, TX are comparable to those reported at other parts of the Gulf of Mexico.     

A 2000-yr-long multi-proxy lacustrine record from eastern Baffin Island, Arctic Canada reveals first millennium AD cold period

We generate a multi-proxy sub-centennial-scale reconstruction of environmental change during the past two millennia from Itilliq Lake, Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Our reconstruction arises from a finely subsectioned ²¹⁰Pb- and ¹⁴C-dated surface sediment core and includes measures of organic matter (e.g., chlorophyll a; carbon–nitrogen ratio) and insect (Diptera: Chironomidae) assemblages. Within the past millennium, the least productive, and by inference coldest, conditions occurred ca. AD 1700–1850, late in the Little Ice Age. The 2000-yr sediment record also reveals an episode of reduced organic matter deposition during the 6th–7th century AD; combined with the few other records comparable in resolution that span this time interval from Baffin Island, we suggest that this cold episode was experienced regionally. A comparable cold climatic episode occurred in Alaska and western Canada at this time, suggesting that the first millennium AD cold climate anomaly may have occurred throughout the Arctic. Dramatic increases in aquatic biological productivity at multiple trophic levels are indicated by increased chlorophyll a concentrations since AD 1800 and chironomid concentrations since AD 1900, both of which have risen to levels unprecedented over the past 2000 yr.     

Glacial stratigraphy of East and Central Jutland

Glaciostratigraphic investigations at one key locality (Haldum), 9 major and about 160 minor localities in East and Central Jutland, Denmark, together with laboratory work, have led to the establishment of a stratigraphy consisting of 10 till units, usually separated by meltwater deposits. The stratigraphy is in some degree supported by thermoluminescence datings. The complete sequence includes one till unit with associated meltwater deposits of Menapian age, three till units with intercalated meltwater deposits of Elsterian age, marine sediments deposited during the Holsteininan, and three till units with intercalated of Elsterian age, marine sediments deposited during the Holsteinian, and three till units with intercalated glaciofluvial sedimants of Saalian age. Eemian deposits are present above this level, and the whole sequence is capped by till and meltwater deposits related to three glacial advances during the Weichselian.     

Holocene chronostratigraphy of northeastern Baffin Bay based on radiocarbon and palaeomagnetic data

The northeastern Baffin Bay continental margin, which experiences high sediment accumulation rates, is an excellent location to study Holocene sedimentary variations. However, it is often difficult to obtain reliable chronologies of the sediment archives using traditional methods (δ¹⁸O and radiocarbon) due to specific oceanographic conditions (e.g. corrosive bottom waters). Here we propose a chronostratigraphy of three cores collected on the northwestern Greenland margin (AMD14‐204, AMD14‐210 and AMD14‐Kane2B) based on a combination of radiocarbon dating and palaeomagnetic records. Geophysical properties of discrete samples were used to verify the reliability of the palaeomagnetic records. Palaeomagnetic analyses indicate a strong and stable natural remanent magnetization carried by low coercivity ferrimagnetic minerals (magnetite) in the pseudo‐single domain grain size range. Correlation of the full palaeomagnetic vector (inclination, declination, and relative palaeointensity) was used to establish a reliable chronostratigraphical framework for two of the cores (AMD14‐204 and AMD14‐210) and to propose an original palaeomagnetic record for the previously ¹⁴C‐dated core AMD14‐Kane2B that covers most of the Holocene. Overall, this new chronostratigraphy allowed improvement of the timing of the main palaeoenvironmental changes that occurred in this area during the Holocene.