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An interglacial polar bear and an early Weichselian glaciation at Poolepynten, western Svalbard

Alexanderson, Helena LU ; Ingolfsson, Olafur ; Murray, Andrew S. and Dudek, Justyna (2013) In Boreas 42(3). p.532-543
Abstract
The recent discovery of a subfossil polar bear (Ursus maritimus) jawbone in the Poolepynten coastal cliff sequence, western Svalbard, and its implications for the natural history of the polar bear motivated an effort to better constrain the environmental history and age envelope of the Poolepynten sediment sequence. The focus of the present study is on the lithostratigraphy of the coastal cliffs and on re-dating the sequence using the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating technique. We report a revised lithostratigraphy and nine new OSL ages. It is concluded that the Poolepynten sequence contains evidence of four regional glaciation events, recorded in the strata as erosional unconformities or glacial deposits followed by... (More)
The recent discovery of a subfossil polar bear (Ursus maritimus) jawbone in the Poolepynten coastal cliff sequence, western Svalbard, and its implications for the natural history of the polar bear motivated an effort to better constrain the environmental history and age envelope of the Poolepynten sediment sequence. The focus of the present study is on the lithostratigraphy of the coastal cliffs and on re-dating the sequence using the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating technique. We report a revised lithostratigraphy and nine new OSL ages. It is concluded that the Poolepynten sequence contains evidence of four regional glaciation events, recorded in the strata as erosional unconformities or glacial deposits followed by shallow-marine deposition signifying transgressions and subsequent glacio-isostatic rebound and regression. Our OSL ages refine previous age determinations (14C and IRSL) and support the interpretation that the subfossil polar bear jawbone is probably of last interglacial (Eemian) age. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Boreas
volume
42
issue
3
pages
532 - 543
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
external identifiers
  • wos:000320782800004
  • scopus:84879552403
ISSN
1502-3885
DOI
10.1111/j.1502-3885.2012.00289.x
project
Glacial history of Svalbard
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
1f98fbb5-81ca-424f-9164-952d27ac0f5b (old id 3979596)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:53:16
date last changed
2022-04-27 08:29:53
@article{1f98fbb5-81ca-424f-9164-952d27ac0f5b,
  abstract     = {{The recent discovery of a subfossil polar bear (Ursus maritimus) jawbone in the Poolepynten coastal cliff sequence, western Svalbard, and its implications for the natural history of the polar bear motivated an effort to better constrain the environmental history and age envelope of the Poolepynten sediment sequence. The focus of the present study is on the lithostratigraphy of the coastal cliffs and on re-dating the sequence using the Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating technique. We report a revised lithostratigraphy and nine new OSL ages. It is concluded that the Poolepynten sequence contains evidence of four regional glaciation events, recorded in the strata as erosional unconformities or glacial deposits followed by shallow-marine deposition signifying transgressions and subsequent glacio-isostatic rebound and regression. Our OSL ages refine previous age determinations (14C and IRSL) and support the interpretation that the subfossil polar bear jawbone is probably of last interglacial (Eemian) age.}},
  author       = {{Alexanderson, Helena and Ingolfsson, Olafur and Murray, Andrew S. and Dudek, Justyna}},
  issn         = {{1502-3885}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{532--543}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{Boreas}},
  title        = {{An interglacial polar bear and an early Weichselian glaciation at Poolepynten, western Svalbard}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.2012.00289.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1502-3885.2012.00289.x}},
  volume       = {{42}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}