The sub-glacial imprint of the last Newfoundland Ice Sheet (~28ka-10ka yr. BP)

The sub-glacial imprint of the last Newfoundland Ice Sheet (~28ka-10ka yr. BP)”. M.McHenry and P.Dunlop Quaternary Environmental Change Research Group, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine. Former ice-sheets play a key role in palaeo-climatology by providing important proxy information on processes driving climatic change in the global system. Instability in current ice sheets has led to a need for greater understanding as to why these changes are occurring and if these trends will continue or accelerate in the future. As ice sheets are climatically controlled systems, reconstructing their former behaviour allows us to examine ice sheet response to forcing over full glacial cycles. This improves our understanding of how contemporary ice-sheets may respond to future climate trends. An effective method used in palaeo-glaciological reconstructions is the mapping and analysis of glacial landforms. This provides a spatially continuous record of former ice-sheet events and key information to reconstruct ice-sheet behaviour. The Newfoundland Ice Sheet is of particular significance due to its position on the fringes of the North Atlantic and the larger North American Laurentide Ice Sheet, which would have influenced its growth and decay patterns. This project is systematically mapping the glacial-geomorphology of Newfoundland using satellite imagery and digital elevation data. This record will be used to reconstruct the dynamic history of the former NIS and provide new information on wider ice-sheet-ocean-atmosphere interactions in this region. This research has generated a new database of ~130,000 sub-glacial landforms to form the basis of the ice sheet reconstruction. Preliminary analysis suggests this ice sheet to have been highly dynamic, with migrating ice centres and significant shifts in geometry throughout its evolution in the Late Wisconsin (28ka–10ka BP).