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Current endeavors...

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Dating Greenland Ice Sheet margin change

We're using 'threshold' lake basins along the west-central Greenland Ice Sheet margin to date the arrival of the ice sheet margin during Neoglaciation. [project website]

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Seeking microtephra in Baffin Island lakes

We're looking for traces of fine-grained ash - microtephra - in lake sediments on Baffin Island.

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2K Project

The last 2000 years is of particular interest to our group as a context for current warming. [Project Website]

Reconstructing Past July Mean Temperature

We use chironomids to reconstruct Holocene and earlier summer temperatures. [link to 2007 Arctic Workshop abstract]

Reconstructing Holocene Glacier Activity

Proglacial lake sediments contain datable information on upvalley alpine glaciers. [link to 2007 Arctic Workshop poster]

Reconstructing Multiple Interglaciations
At some unique lake basins, we have cored through glacial sands to recover a stacked, in situ sequence of interglacial lake sediments. [link to GEOLOGY article]

Comparative Radiocarbon Study
Ages obtained from aquatic moss macrofossils, humic acids and chironomid head capsules in arctic lake sediments are compared to asses their utility for dating these sediments. [link to 2006 Arctic Workshop poster]

 

 
In the lake sediment lab, we analyze biological, chemical and physical properties of lake sediment to study arctic paleoclimate.
Laminations revealed in an extruded sediment core from a proglacial lake on Greenland, August 2008
Microscope photograph of chironomid head capsule teeth; patterns like this help us determine the midge assemblage back in time, which informs us of past climate conditions.
 

Graduate students Elizabeth Thomas and Jay Szymanski cut open a lake sediment core collected from a 2006 expedition to Baffin Island, Canada.