Search results for "Meltwater"

An improved understanding of the Alaska Coastal Current: the application of a bivalve growth-temperature model to reconstruct freshwater-influenced p…

2011

Shells of intertidal bivalve mollusks contain sub-seasonally to interannually resolved records of temperature and salinity variations in coastal settings. Such data are essential to understand changing land-sea interactions through time, specifically atmospheric (precipitation rate, glacial meltwater, river discharge) and oceanographic circulation patterns; however, independent temperature and salinity proxies are currently not available. We established a model for reconstructing daily water temperatures with an average standard error of ∼1.3 °C based on variations in the width of lunar daily growth increments of Saxidomus gigantea from southwestern Alaska, United States. Temperature explai…

High-frequency climate fluctuations over the last deglaciation in the Alboran Sea, Western Mediterranean: Evidence from calcareous plankton assemblag…

2018

Abstract A high resolution study, with a centennial scale resolution, has been performed on the calcareous plankton assemblage (coccolithophores and planktonic foraminifera) at Ocean Drilling Program Site 976, Alboran Sea (Western Mediterranean), focusing on the interval between 20 and 9 ka, in order to reconstruct changes in surface and subsurface water dynamics and productivity. The biotic surface water proxies integrate the extremely detailed (multi-decadal scale) geochemical data set and the pollen record already available at the core, thus providing a complete paleoenvironmental/paleoceanographic reconstruction. The results highlight the sensitivity of the calcareous plankton in record…

High-elevation inter-site differences in Mount Smolikas tree-ring width data

2017

Abstract We present the longest high-elevation tree-ring width dataset in the Mediterranean reaching back to the 6th century CE. The network includes 101 living and 92 relict Pinus heldreichii Christ trees from four differently exposed sites in the 2100–2200 m a.s.l. elevation range of Mt. Smolikas in the Pindus Mountains in Greece. Though the sites were all sampled within a distance of 1550–2014  = 0.65–0.87), indicating site exposure might affect tree-ring formation. We here explore the consequence of exposure differences on the climate signals in an eastern Mediterranean treeline ecotone. Temporally stable growth/climate relationships reveal similar seasonal patterns among the four sites…

Bacterial community structure along the subtidal sandy sediment belt of a high Arctic fjord (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard Islands)

2018

Open fjords are subject to contrasting environmental conditions, owing to meltwater glacial inputs, terrestrial runoff, and marine water mass exchanges, which are exacerbated by anthropogenic and climate perturbations. Following a slope-dependent water circulation, the subtidal sandy sediment belt regulates the convergent transport of nutrients downward the fjord depths, and the effective entrapment of suspended particles and microorganisms. In this study, we aimed at testing how glacial and seawater inputs may influence the bacterial community structure of subtidal sand deposits in the Kongsfjorden. Through total and viable cell counting and an amplicon sequencing approach, we found releva…

Depositional model in subglacial cavities, Killiney Bay, Ireland. Interactions between sedimentation, deformation and glacial dynamics

2012

Subglacial meltwater drainage and sedimentary processes play a major role in ice-sheet dynamic but there is a lack of study of subglacial environment because modern ice-sheet beds remain inaccessible. Previous authors already intended to provide diagnostic criterion and recent investigations suggest that fluid pressure variations are a key factor in subglacial environment. This paper investigated the late Devensian sedimentary record in order to describe subglacial sedimentological facies associations and deformation features related to fluid overpressures. We used an integrated approach, based on stratigraphy, sedimentology and deformations styles to demonstrate a subglacial depositional m…

STOP 3: Late-glacial and early postglacial environmental processes and the history of the River Triečupīte valley and surroundings, in the foreland o…

2014

Late Pleistocene Detrital Sediment Yield of the Jura Glacier, France

2001

AbstractMeasures of present-day glacial erosion vary widely with the technique employed. This paper quantifies the glacial material trapped in a proglacial lake during the Würm glacial period. The Combe d'Ain site was occupied by a meltwater lake where all the detrital material entering it from the Jura glacier accumulated. Sediment yield is computed from three factors: (1) the size of the sediment source area, (2) the length of time the system operated, and (3) the volume of sediment trapped. The sediment budget of the lake system suggests a detrital sediment yield of 4400±1700 metric tons per square kilometer and per calendar year. This represents a denudation rate of 1.6±0.6 mm per year,…

Climate Change During the Holocene (Past 12,000 Years)

2015

This chapter summarises the climatic and environmental information that can be inferred from proxy archives over the past 12,000 years. The proxy archives from continental and lake sediments include pollen, insect remnants and isotopic data. Over the Holocene, the Baltic Sea area underwent major changes due to two interrelated factors—melting of the Fennoscandian ice sheet (causing interplay between global sea-level rise due to the meltwater and regional isostatic rebound of the earth’s crust causing a drop in relative sea level ) and changes in the orbital configuration of the Earth (triggering the glacial to interglacial transition and affecting incoming solar radiation and so controlling…

The origin and glaciodynamic significance of sandstone ridge networks from the Hirnantian glaciation of the Djado Basin (Niger)

2007

The Djado Basin (Niger) was located beneath the inner part of the Late Ordovician ice sheet. The Felar-Felar Formation consists mainly of glaciomarine deposits, associated with the major ice sheet recession within the glaciation, and is bounded by two glacial unconformities. Structures corresponding to sandstone ridges are found within the Felar-Felar Formation. Sandstone ridges are several metres high, about 10 m wide and hundreds of metres long. These structures are organized in extensive anastomosed to subpolygonal networks. The association of sandstone ridge networks with the later glacial unconformity and with other glacial evidence suggests sub-glacial conditions for their origin. San…

Sedimentological and deformational criteria for discriminating subglaciofluvial deposits from subaqueous ice-contact fan deposits: A Pleistocene exam…

2014

A pit located near Ballyhorsey, 28 km south of Dublin (eastern Ireland), displays subglacially deposited glaciofluvial sediments passing upwards into proglacial subaqueous ice-contact fan deposits. The coexistence of these two different depositional environments at the same location will help with differentiation between two very similar and easily confused glacial lithofacies. The lowermost sediments show aggrading subglacial deposits indicating a constrained accommodation space, mainly controlled by the position of an overlying ice roof during ice-bed decoupling. These sediments are characterized by vertically stacked tills with large lenses of tabular to channelized sorted sediments. The…