Magnetostratigraphy of Late Quaternary and Holocene Baffin Bay Sediments

English Abstract:

With the potential of recording the dynamics of the Laurentide, Innuitian and Greenland Ice Sheets during the Quaternary, Baffin Bay sediments were cored during several expeditions during the last decades. Unfortunately, the setting of robust chronostratographies in Baffin Bay proved challenging due to several factors including calcium carbonate dissolution during interglacials and the production of isotopically light brines resulting from sea-ice formation, that hampers the use of ¹⁸O stratigraphies. Here, we will look into tentative chronostratigraphies of Baffin Bay late Pleistocene and Holocene sequences mostly based on magnetic paleointensity and directional records. In conjunction with radiocarbon dating, geomagnetic field model outputs and the identification of geomagnetic excursions, they provide a chronostratigraphic framework for sedimentary accumulation in Baffin Bay to document Holocene climatic changes and ice sheet dynamics along the Laurentide, Innuitian and Greenland ice sheet margins during the last ice-age.