Late Quaternary Environmental and Cultural Changes in the Wollaston Forland Region, Northeast Greenland

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews proxy data from a variety of natural archives sampled in the Wollaston Forland region, central Northeast Greenland. The data are used to describe long-term environmental and climatic changes, focusing on reconstructing the Holocene conditions, particularly in the Zackenberg area. The Wollaston Forland region is completely covered by the Greenland ice sheet several times during the quaternary. During the last glacial maximum (LGM), the margin of the inland ice might have extended to the shelf break off Northeast Greenland. Deglaciation of the Wollaston Forland commenced at the outer coast in the past 11,000–12,000 years, whereas the Zackenberg area was deglaciated somewhat later, in the past 10,000 years, and it took another 3,000–4,000 years before the inner fjords of the region were deglaciated. Isostatic rebound led to the rapid emergence in the early Holocene, but in the late Holocene, low-lying coastal areas were transgressed by the sea. The chapter discusses archaeological evidence for prehistoric occupation of the region.