Palaeo-environmental studies on the Greenland ice sheet margin

Abstract

Oxygen 18 isotope studies (δ¹⁸O) of ice from the large ice sheets of the Polar regions have given rich information about climate and environmental changes during the past c. 150 000 years (150 ka), and probably much longer. This has been demonstrated by results from the deep ice-core drilling programmes on the central part of the Greenland Inland Ice (e.g. Dansgaard et al., 1982; Johnsen et al., 1992) and Antarctica (Lorius et al., 1985; Kouzel et al., 1987). However, the old ice found at depth in the central regions of the ice sheets can also be sampled and studied at the surface of the ice sheet margins, where ice of different ages is found in a sequence with the oldest ice nearest to the ice edge (Loirus & Merlivat, 1977; Reeh et al., 1987, 1991). Oxygen isotope climate research of this kind was undertaken in 1985 and 1988 at Paakitsoq near Ilulissat/Jakobshavn, West Greenland. These studies were continued and elaborated in 1992.