Continued stable isotope studies on the Greenland ice-sheet margin at Pâkitsoq, north-east of Jakobshavn, central West Greenland

Abstract

In close cooperation with the GGU glacier-hydrologicaI field team a small group from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Bremerhaven, West Germany, worked for four weeks in July-August 1988 on the West Greenland ice-sheet margin at Paakitsup Akuliarusersua, about 40 km northeast of Ilulissat/Jakobshavn. Previous stable isotope studies in the area by GGU (Reeh & Thomsen, 1986) have documented that ice deposited in the inland regions of the ice sheet during the last ice age is now exposed as a roughly 600 m wide band at the surfaee of the ice sheet near the ice edge (Reeh et al., 1987a). The main purpose of the AWI expedition was to perform detailed (continuous) surfaee sampling for stable isotope analysis (bIBO) through the transition from the last glacial period (Wisconsinan) to the present post-glacial period (Holocene). A comparison of such a detailed isotopic record from the surface of the ice margin with similar records from deep Greenland ice cores should tell how well the continuity of the layer sequence is preserved in the ice-margin record. This question is of crucial importance for evaluating the potential yield of the ice margin as a source of easily accessibie old ice.