History of ice sheets surrounding Baffin Bay and its link with oceanic conditions since MIS3

Abstract

Baffin Bay provides the ideal setting for studying the past interaction between the marine realm and the cryosphere. It was an important, but often overlooked, conduit for meltwater into the Labrador Sea and North Atlantic: a key site for deep-water formation and thus climate modulation. Marine sediment archives capture evidence of both ice sheet behaviour and oceanic conditions. Using two sediment cores collected from central Baffin Bay, with good preservation of biogenic carbonate, allowed for the construction of a robust, radiocarbon-dated chronology, as well as multi-proxy paleoceanographic reconstructions. Results indicate several periods of ice-sheet instability (termed Baffin Bay Detrital Carbonate Events, BBDCs) that have no clear phase-relationship with abrupt climatic changes seen over the last ca. 50 kyr BP. During the last deglacial period, these events do not appear to have been directly triggered by changing oceanic conditions. Results highlight the need for understanding the region response of ice-sheets to abrupt climatic changes and complex phase-relationships between the ocean and the cryosphere.