A GIS database and Map of Marine and Terrestrial Glacial Features Related to Mid- to Late-Pleistocene Arctic Ocean Glaciation

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

The Arctic is now at the frontline of climate change as surface air temperatures warm twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Unprecedented reductions in sea ice cover are pushing the Arctic into unknown conditions. Among the most critical components of the cryosphere are high-latitude glaciers, which hold more than 99% of the world’s fresh water. These glaciers are inherently unstable and thus sensitive to climate change. We can look to how glacial systems responded to climate change in the past to better understand future glacier dynamics and to constrain future projections of glacial contributions to sea level rise. Evidence is building in support of a thick ice-sheet that spanned the Arctic Ocean, possibly multiple times, during the past 130,000 years. This project aims to bring together a diverse array of geologic evidence from the Arctic Ocean and the surrounding coastal plains, to explore the timing and extent of Arctic Ocean glaciation during the mid- to late-Pleistocene. This research will help us better understand whether an Arctic Ocean wide ice sheet existed in the past, which will in turn help us better understand future ice sheet changes. Ice sheets and ice shelves at high latitudes are of particular interest in understanding future glacier dynamics because geologic records suggest that they may advance and retreat out-of-phase with glaciers at mid-latitudes due to moisture limitations in full glacial conditions. As such, high-latitude glaciation may display non-intuitive behavior in response to climate change. The main objective of the project is to improve our understanding of the extent of glaciation in the western Arctic Ocean during the mid to late Pleistocene and to identify the main sources of ice that contributed to ice-sheet build up. The project will build a geographic information system database of previously collected geologic evidence of Arctic Ocean glaciation in the Beaufort-Chukchi region, allowing researchers to test the hypothesis that glaciation was extensive in the western Arctic Ocean at several points during the Pleistocene. Existing datasets that will be synthesized from data archives, publications and reports include (1) marine survey data from hull mounted chirp and multibeam sonars collected by numerous scientific cruises to the region, (2) marine sediment cores, and (3) terrestrial records of glacial erratic boulders and ancient raised beach ridges. Results from this research will improve our understanding of how high-latitude ice sheets can behave during periods of climatic change. This project will support one MSc student and a female early career PI. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.