Topographic and glaciological controls on Holocene ice-sheet margin dynamics, central West Greenland

The retreat of the West Greenland ice sheet from its Sisimiut (Wisconsinan) glacial maximum, was punctuated by a series of stillstands or small readvances that formed numerous moraines. These landforms have been interpreted in the past as the result of short-term, regional falls in ablation-season temperatures. However, mapping of the geomorphological evidence south of Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) suggests that retreat behaviour was not primarily governed by climate, and therefore that the former ice margins are not palaeoclimatically significant. The retreat of the inherently unstable calving glaciers was arrested only at topographically-determined locations where stability could be achieved. -from Authors