LIMITED ICE-SHEET EROSION AND COMPLEX EXPOSURE HISTORIES DERIVED FROM IN SITU COSMOGENIC 10BE, 26AL, AND 14C ON BAFFIN ISLAND, ARCTIC CANADA

Abstract

Discordant cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages derived from 10Be, 26Al, and 14C extracted from quartz in rocky summits along the eastern rim of the central Baffin Island plateau provide constraints on the efficiency of erosion by the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and on the timing and duration of ice-free conditions in the eastern Canadian Arctic. In situ 14C records the duration of exposure during the present interglaciation; any previously acquired 14C decayed below detection limits beneath thick LIS during the last glaciation. The in situ 14C exposure ages for two samples adjacent to a cold-based local ice cap are significantly less than for a nearby ice-free summit, suggesting that an expanded local ice cap shielded the ice-adjacent sites for at least 800 years, longer than the duration of the Little Ice Age. Disequilibrium between 10Be and 26Al concentrations in the same samples can be realistically explained by brief (ca. 10 kyr) intervals of exposure during peak interglacials (MIS 11, 9, 7, 5e, and 1), separated by long (ca. 50-100 kyr) intervals of complete shielding by the LIS. The lack of glacial erosion for at least the past 400 kyr suggests that the LIS was frozen to its bed across much of Baffin Island throughout the Middle and Late Quaternary. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.