Seven Million Years of Glaciation in Greenland

1994/05/13 by Hans Christian Larsen, A. D. Saunders, Peter D. Clift +3 · 5 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Cenozoic #Detritus #Geography #Geological formations and processes #Geology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Glacial period #Glacier #Ice sheet #Oceanography #Paleontology #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Physical geography #Pleistocene #Quaternary #Structural basin

paper · doi:10.1126/science.264.5161.952

openalex publication_date 1994/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Glacial till, glaciomarine diamictites, and ice-rafted detritus found in marine cores collected off the shore of southeast Greenland record multiple Late Cenozoic glaciations beginning in the Late Miocene. Distinct rock assemblages and seismic stratigraphic control correlate the diamictites with glaciation of the southeast Greenland margin. Glaciers advanced to the sea during several intervals in the Pliocene and Pleistocene. North Atlantic glaciation may have nucleated in southern Greenland rather than further north because of the high mountains and the high levels of precipitation in this region.

Cited by

• The late Miocene to Pleistocene ice‐rafting history of southeast Greenland
• Mountain building and the initiation of the Greenland Ice Sheet
• Magnetostratigraphic, biostratigraphic, and stable isotope stratigraphy of an Upper Miocene drill core from the Salé Briqueterie (northwestern Morocco): A high‐resolution chronology for the Messinian stage
• High-latitude biomes and rock weathering mediate climate–carbon cycle feedbacks on eccentricity timescales
• Miocene [wikipedia]