Shifting sediment depocenters track ice-margin retreat in Baffin Bay

Abstract

Reconstructing the depositional history of Baffin Bay allows insights into the deglacial retreat of the Laurentide, Innuitian, and Greenland ice sheets from their maximum extent during the Last Glacial Maximum. Here, we present radiocarbon-controlled sedimentation rates from Baffin Bay based on 79 sediment cores to assess spatio-temporal variabilities in sediment deposition since the Last Glacial Maximum. This comprehensive dataset reveals that until ~15,000 years ago the deep basin and slopes were the dominant active sediment depocenters along most margins of Baffin Bay, suggesting prolonged ice-margin stability near the shelf edge, much longer than previously suggested. Between 13,000-11,000 years ago, most depocenters shifted quickly from the slope to the inner shelf, evidencing a very rapid landward ice-sheet retreat. The sedimentation rate-based mean erosion rates (0.17 and 0.08 millimeters/year) derived from the West Greenland Shelf underscore the high erosion capacity of the western Greenland Ice Sheet draining into Baffin Bay.