Collaborative Research: Ice sheet sensitivity in a changing Arctic system - using Geologic data and modeling to test the stable Greenland Ice Sheet hypothesis
General
Organisation
Department
Project start
01.01.2015
Project end
31.12.2019
Type of project
ARMAP/NSF
Project theme
Geoscience
Project topic
Geology
Link to project website
Fieldwork / Study
Fieldwork country
Greenland (DK)
Fieldwork region
Greenland, Mid-West
Fieldwork location
Geolocation is 67.0179977417, -50.69400024414
Fieldwork start
01.01.2016
Fieldwork end
31.12.2016
SAR information
Fieldwork / Study
Fieldwork country
Greenland (DK)
Fieldwork region
Greenland, Mid-West
Fieldwork location
Geolocation is 67.0179977417, -50.69400024414
Fieldwork start
01.01.2017
Fieldwork end
31.12.2017
SAR information
Fieldwork / Study
Fieldwork country
Greenland (DK)
Fieldwork region
Greenland, Mid-West
Fieldwork location
Geolocation is 64.1833, -51.75
Fieldwork start
01.01.2017
Fieldwork end
31.12.2017
SAR information
Fieldwork / Study
Fieldwork country
Greenland (DK)
Fieldwork region
Greenland, Mid-West
Fieldwork location
Geolocation is 69.2166667, -51.1
Fieldwork start
01.01.2018
Fieldwork end
31.12.2018
SAR information
Fieldwork / Study
Fieldwork country
Greenland (DK)
Fieldwork region
Greenland, Mid-West
Fieldwork location
Geolocation is 67.0179977417, -50.69400024414
Fieldwork start
01.01.2018
Fieldwork end
31.12.2018
SAR information
Log in to view contact information and more
Project details
02.09.2020
Science / project plan
.
Science / project summary
There is enough water in the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) that, were it to melt, it would raise sea level in most coastal cities significantly with huge consequences for society. In the face of accelerated ice sheet contribution to sea level rise, it remains uncertain how the GrIS will adjust to a warming Arctic, declining sea ice and related changing precipitation patterns. The scientific community is currently undecided between a model of a dynamic GrIS that becomes greatly reduced during warm periods and a model where it is relatively stable, even through periods warmer than today. This project addresses the idea that increased arctic precipitation offsets GrIS mass loss during times of elevated temperature. The researchers will test this by contributing significant new information on arctic system change and related GrIS dynamics during past and ongoing warm periods, and employing an ice sheet modeling effort synthesizing all new data aimed at both past and future GrIS simulations. The researchers explicitly combine multiple scientific disciplines to provide a better understanding of how key arctic system components such as precipitation, temperature, sea-ice cover and GrIS mass balance are interconnected. The results will be of fundamental relevance to the fates of the arctic system, the GrIS and global sea level rise. The project will train six graduate students and one post-doctoral researcher. The cross-cutting research program is paralleled by the scope of the outreach plan, to develop a variety of deliverables, including development of an iBook and public outreach events. In addition the team will participate in public outreach events in Buffalo and New York City, where the public and scientists interact in a casual setting. Finally, this work has synergies with ongoing missions at NASA and other programs within the NSF. Due to recent advances in numerical ice sheet models and new sub-ice topography of Greenland, combined with finely-tuned field approaches and geochronologic techniques, the time is ripe for a coordinated, cross-disciplinary effort focusing on cryosphere variability in a warming Arctic; the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and sea ice constitute the largest, and most critical components of the arctic cryosphere. The hypothesis that increased arctic precipitation can counterbalance GrIS mass loss during times of elevated temperatures stems from recent findings suggesting that it may be more stable than expected during interglacials. The researchers will generate new GrIS margin reconstructions during and since the mid-Holocene Thermal Maximum (9,000 to 5,000 years ago), with a powerful approach that combines lake sediment stratigraphy with new sub-ice topography and novel high-sensitivity cosmogenic isotope methods; develop new Holocene climate reconstructions of moisture, temperature and sea ice conditions from lake and ocean sediments and an advanced synthesis of existing arctic ice core and other paleoclimate data; and employ numerical ice sheet modeling fueled by ice margin and climate reconstructions to test a range of climatic and dynamic controls on GrIS change. If the idea is supported, then it would suggest a relatively stable GrIS during warm periods. If, however, this project provides evidence that the GrIS retreated considerably during the warmer-than-present mid-Holocene and in turn, that the GrIS has reacted more sensitively to temperature than to precipitation change, the results would support a tightly coupled ice sheet size-temperature link and in turn, a much greater near-term GrIS contribution to sea level rise.
Title | Project start | End date | Organisation | Department | Project study region |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GEUS Fjeldskredsscreening 2020 | 01.01.2020 | 31.12.2020 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
Hidden habitats - what lurks beneath the Greenland seas? | 15.07.2020 | 24.07.2020 | Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) | Greenland Climate Research Centre | Greenland, South-West |
A 1.4 million year record of black carbon and biomass burning in the eastern Arctic from the Lake El'gygytgyn and other sediment cores (P2C2) | 01.01.2018 | 31.12.2021 | Desert Research Institute | Desert Research Institute, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences | |
Cosmogenic surface exposure dating of Arctic NW Laurentide ice-sheet deglaciation: implications for abrupt climate change | 01.01.2019 | 31.12.2019 | Oregon State University | Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences | |
MOSAiC ACA / MOSAIC IceBird | 12.03.2020 | 10.09.2020 | Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI) | Arctic Ocean | |
Space Weather in Greenland | 01.06.2020 | 30.09.2020 | Technical University of Denmark (DTU) | DTU Space | Greenland, North-East |
Paleochronometry as a control problem for recovering holocene climate variations over the Greenland Ice Sheet | 01.01.2019 | 31.12.2022 | University of Texas at Austin | University of Texas at Austin, Department | |
UNAS | 01.05.2018 | 31.12.2019 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
Dimension Stone project | 17.01.2018 | 15.12.2019 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
GEUS Fjeldskredscreening 2019 | 01.07.2019 | 25.08.2019 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
NE Greenland 1:100,000 scale geological mapping | 01.01.2018 | 30.12.2020 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, North-East | |
NE Greenland 1:100,000 scale geological mapping | 15.07.2019 | 22.08.2019 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, North-East | |
Collaborative Research: What Controls Calving? A Greenland-wide Test of Terminus Change Mechanisms | 01.01.2019 | 31.12.2020 | University of Maine | University of Maine, Department | |
Baffin Bay Ice-Ocean-Sediment Interaction (BIOS) | 18.08.2019 | 09.09.2019 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Baffin Bay | |
Upper Neoproterozoic to lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy and palaeontology of NE-Greenland | 01.08.2019 | 12.08.2019 | University of Copenhagen | Natural History Museum of Denmark | Greenland, North-East |
Dimension stones in Greenland | 28.05.2019 | 03.06.2019 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
Measuring mantle hydrogen content to map ore-forming fluids and model plate tectonics | 01.01.2018 | 31.12.2021 | Macquarie University | Macquarie University, dept. | Greenland, Mid-West |
Collaborative Research: What Controls Calving? A Greenland-wide Test of Terminus Change Mechanisms | 01.01.2017 | 31.12.2020 | University of Idaho | University of Idaho, dept. | |
Collaborative Research: Testing the Impact of Climate Change on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Combining Past Climate Records with a Coupled Climate and Ice-Sheet Model | 01.01.2014 | 31.12.2016 | University of Massachusetts | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, dept. | |
Collaborative Research: Ice sheet sensitivity in a changing Arctic system - using Geologic data and modeling to test the stable Greenland Ice Sheet hypothesis | 01.01.2015 | 31.12.2019 | University of California | University of California, Irvine, dept. | Greenland, Mid-West |
NEEM basal ice, assessing the attributes of a cold, deep, dark ecosystem | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2014 | Montana State University | Montana State University, dept. | |
Ethane measurements in Greenland ice cores: Developing a preindustrial record | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2014 | University of California | University of California, Irvine, dept. | |
Greenland Ice Sheet Monitoring Network (GLISN) Operations | 01.01.2014 | 31.12.2020 | Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) | Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), dept. | Greenland, Mid-East |
Collaborative Research: The fingerprint of abrupt temperature events throughout Greenland during the last glacial period | 01.01.2018 | 31.12.2021 | Penn State University | Penn State University, Department | Greenland Ice Sheet |
EAGER: Exploring a community driven data-model framework for testing the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet | 01.01.2018 | 31.12.2019 | University at Buffalo | University at Buffalo, Department | |
Collaborative Research: Ice sheet sensitivity in a changing Arctic system - using Geologic data and modeling to test the stable Greenland Ice Sheet hypothesis | 01.01.2015 | 31.12.2019 | University of Montana | University of Montana, Department | Greenland, Mid-West |
Collaborative Research: Ice sheet sensitivity in a changing Arctic system - using Geologic data and modeling to test the stable Greenland Ice Sheet hypothesis | 01.01.2015 | 31.12.2019 | University at Buffalo | University at Buffalo, Department | Greenland Ice Sheet |
Neglected fluxes: Understanding the evolution of weathering as continental ice sheets retreat | 01.01.2016 | 31.12.2019 | University of Florida | University of Florida, Department of Geological Sciences | Greenland, Mid-West |
Collaborative Research: P2C2: Contributions of northern cold-climate peatlands and lakes to abrupt changes in atmospheric methane during the last deglaciation | 01.01.2013 | 31.12.2016 | Penn State University | Penn State University, Department | |
Collaborative Research: P2C2 -- Statistical estimation of past ice sheet volumes from paleo-sea level records | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2015 | Rutgers University New Brunswick | Rutgers University New Brunswick, Department | |
Collaborative Research: The fingerprint of abrupt temperature events throughout Greenland during the last glacial period | 01.01.2018 | 31.12.2021 | University of Colorado Boulder | University of Colorado Boulder, Department | Greenland Ice Sheet |
Collaborative Research: The fingerprint of abrupt temperature events throughout Greenland during the last glacial period | 01.01.2018 | 31.12.2021 | Oregon State University | Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences | Greenland Ice Sheet |
Collaborative Research: A new radiostratigraphy of the Greenland Ice Sheet and critical boundary conditions for the next generation of ice-sheet models | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2014 | University of Alaska | University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department | |
Relative velocity changes using ambient seismic noise at Okmok and Redoubt volcanoes, Alaska | 01.01.2013 | 31.12.2015 | University of Wisconsin | University of Wisconsin, Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center | |
CO2 evasion from the Greenland ice sheet | 01.01.2014 | 31.12.2016 | Northwestern University | Northwestern University, Department | Greenland, Mid-West |
Collaborative Research: P2C2: Contributions of northern cold-climate peatlands and lakes to abrupt changes in atmospheric methane during the last deglaciation | 01.01.2013 | 31.12.2016 | University of Alaska | University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department | |
Geophysical constraints on the crust and upper-mantle structure of Greenland (UPPA-GL) | 01.01.2013 | 31.12.2017 | Columbia University | Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory | Greenland, Mid-West |
Response of the Labrador Sea and south Greenland Ice Sheet to the mid-Pliocene climate optimum: sedimentary, magnetic and geochemical evidence from the Eirik Drift | 01.01.2014 | 31.12.2016 | Oregon State University | Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences | |
Collaborative Research: Testing the Impact of Climate Change on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Combining Past Climate Records with a Coupled Climate and Ice-Sheet Model | 01.01.2014 | 31.12.2016 | Oregon State University | Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences | |
Collaborative Research: Ice sheet sensitivity in a changing Arctic system - using Geologic data and modeling to test the stable Greenland Ice Sheet hypothesis | 01.01.2015 | 31.12.2019 | Columbia University | Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory | Greenland, Mid-West |
CAREER: South Greenland's Holocene Climate History Reconstructed Using Three Paleolimnological Approaches | 01.01.2015 | 31.12.2020 | Northwestern University | Northwestern University, Department | Greenland, Mid-West |
Workshop proposal: The future shape of a Greenland GNSS Observation Network | 01.01.2017 | 31.12.2017 | Dartmouth College | Dartmouth College, Department | |
Collaborative Research: Ice Core Studies Reconstructing Greenland Climate During the Eemian and Beyond | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2014 | University of Michigan | University of Michigan, Department | |
Collaborative Research: Ice Core Studies Reconstructing Greenland Climate During the Eemian and Beyond | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2014 | Oregon State University | Oregon State University, College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences | |
Collaborative Research: P2C2 -- Statistical estimation of past ice sheet volumes from paleo-sea level records | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2015 | Harvard University | Harvard University, Department | |
Collaborative Research: Ice Core Studies Reconstructing Greenland Climate During the Eemian and Beyond | 01.01.2012 | 31.12.2014 | University of Rhode Island | University of Rhode Island, Department | |
Quantifying Greenland Iceberg Melt Rates using Remotely-sensed Data | 01.01.2014 | 31.12.2016 | University of Maine | University of Maine, Department | |
Collaborative Research: What Controls Calving? A Greenland-wide Test of Terminus Change Mechanisms | 01.01.2017 | 31.12.2019 | University of Maine | University of Maine, Department | |
Upernavik - photogrammetric mapping | 27.08.2018 | 03.09.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, North-West | |
Saqqaq - photogrammetic mapping | 12.08.2018 | 26.08.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
Mapping of glacial flour in the Nuuk region | 09.08.2018 | 28.08.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
Dimension Stone project | 21.08.2018 | 04.09.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
NE Greenland 1:100 000 scale geological mapping 2018-2019 | 01.08.2018 | 27.08.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, North-East | |
UpDeep - Fieldwork 2018 | 03.07.2018 | 17.07.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
Mapping the coastal zone of North East Greenland | 25.07.2018 | 15.08.2018 | Asiaq Greenland Survey | Remote Sensing | Greenland, North-East |
Maintenance of seismic earthquake monitoring station in the GLISN network | 04.08.2017 | 04.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-East | |
Maintenance of seismic earthquake monitoring station in the GLISN network | 10.08.2017 | 10.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland Ice Sheet | |
Establishment of new seismic earthquake monitoring station in the GLISN network | 09.08.2017 | 19.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
Re-establishment of new seismic earthquake monitoring station in the GLISN network | 08.09.2017 | 10.09.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
Skaergaard | 01.08.2017 | 15.09.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-East | |
HiTech AlkCarb | 22.06.2017 | 06.07.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, South-West | |
Permian–Triassic of East and Northeast Greenland: Evaluation of play analogues for the Norwegian continental shelf | 17.07.2018 | 23.08.2018 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, North-East | |
Saqqaq | 31.07.2017 | 05.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
A new geological map (Agatdal 50K) | 14.08.2017 | 28.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
Relative sea level changes in Mestersvig | 18.04.2017 | 02.05.2017 | Aarhus University (AU) | Department of Geoscience | Greenland, North-East |
UpDeep | 24.07.2017 | 03.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West | |
Architecture and mineral potential of Karrat Group | 10.07.2017 | 03.08.2017 | Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) | Greenland, Mid-West |