Achievement

Laura Levy, IGERT trainee in Earth Sciences, completed a study initiated during the 2009 IGERT Greenland Field Seminar session and has a manuscript in review with IGERT faculty (Kelly, Earth Sciences; Virginia, Ecology). Using cosmogenic isotopes (Be10), Levy determined the ages of the Ørkendalen moraines, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland as 6,800 years. Her results have important implications for constraining the extent of the southwestern margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Holocene. Understanding fluctuations in the ice sheet margin is useful for determining the response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to climate conditions both warmer and colder than at present and for developing accurate ice sheet models. Levy demonstrated the field techniques required for this type of surface age dating research to her IGERT peers during the Greenland Field Seminar.