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A glacio-isostatic facies model and amino acid stratigraphy for late Quaternary events in Spitsbergen and the Arctic

Nature volume 298, pages 437–441 (1982)Cite this article

Abstract

Strong early Holocene crustal uplift over the Spitsbergen archipelago reflects disappearance of an ice mass centred just north-east of the archipelago and which decayed rapidly just after 10,000 BP after a maximum extension between 12,600 and 10,000 BP. From the lithofacies distributions associated with these events a glacio-isostatic facies model can be defined which, combined with analyses of amino acid racemization, provides a valuable stratigraphic method for correlating pre-Holocene glacio-isostatic events. These are correlated with events in Greenland, and both are contrasted with Weichselian glacial events at the southern margins of the two great Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and with contemporary water mass changes in the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea. The geographical variation in glacier response through time is explained by three principal climatic circulation patterns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7IJ, UK

    G. S. Boulton, C. T. Baldwin, B. Horsefield, N. Eyles, P. N. Chroston & T. E. Day

  2. Institute of Geological Sciences, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3LA, UK

    J. D. Peacock

  3. Department of Geography, Ulster College, North Ireland Polytechnic, Newton Abbey, County Antrim, BT37 0QB, UK

    A. M. McCabe

  4. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Colorado, 80302, USA

    G. Miller

  5. Department of Geography, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AJ, UK

    J. Jarvis

  6. Department of Geography, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 2AH, UK

    P. Worsley

  7. Department of Botany, Cambridge University, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DY, UK

    P. Gibbard

  8. Department of Geophysics, Carnegie Institute, Washington, DC 20005, USA

    P. E. Hare

  9. Department of Geology, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    V. von Brunn

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  1. G. S. Boulton
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  2. C. T. Baldwin
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  4. A. M. McCabe
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  5. G. Miller
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  6. J. Jarvis
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  7. B. Horsefield
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  8. P. Worsley
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  9. N. Eyles
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  10. P. N. Chroston
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  11. T. E. Day
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  13. P. E. Hare
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  14. V. von Brunn
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Boulton, G., Baldwin, C., Peacock, J. et al. A glacio-isostatic facies model and amino acid stratigraphy for late Quaternary events in Spitsbergen and the Arctic. Nature 298, 437–441 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298437a0

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