An international palaeo-environmental project at Paakitsoq, West Greenland

Abstract

The easily accessible ice at Paakitsoq offers a favourable opportunity to study the major climatic events that occurred during the last glacial cycle, since large samples of ice with a limited age-range can be obtained. In this sense the ice margin record is an alternative to the deep ice-core records where the number of environmental parameters that can be studied is limited by the amount of ice available, each parameter requiring a certain amount of ice for its analysis (Reeh et al., 1993). This possibility has attracted the attention of scientists working with environmental parameters requiring large ice samples. A Danish, American, Canadian and German joint project was therefore initiated, and in April 1994 a programme of retrieving ice samples for studies of pollen, dust, chemistry, textures, fabric and visual stratigraphy was carried out. Furthermore, measurements of mass balance, ice velocity and deformation were made. In addition to the possibility of studying the variation of environmental parameters over a full glacial cycle, the project will also support the establishment of a better chronology along the Paakitsoq profile.