Abstract
Stable isotope analysis of surface-ice samples from three locations on the margin of the Greenland ice sheet have provided δ 18O records dating back into the Wisconsinan. The samples were collected in profiles transverse to the ice margin on a location about 40 km northeast of Jakobshavn, West Greenland, and at two locations in Warming Land, North Greenland. The Holocene/Wisconsinan transition, as detected by a large aburpt δ-shift, was found between 470 and more than 850 m from the ice edge. The magnitude of the δ-shift was about 8% and 12% in the West and North Greenland records, respectively. The West Greenland record, which is the more detailed, documents that some δ-variations in the Wisconsinan are apparently preserved in the ice margin isotopic records. By linking locations in the accumulation and ablation zones with the same observed δ-value, the surface ice of the ablation zone can be dated back to at least the Wisconsinan/Holocene transition, if the velocity of the ice motion is measured or estimated by ice flow modelling. This means that dated records of ice constituents (gas-composition, chemistry, content of microparticles, micro-meteorites, etc.) can be established by mining the easily accessible surface ice of the ablation zone.
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