Linking Land and Sea at the Faroe Islands: Mapping and Understanding North Atlantic Changes (LINK)
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Research Team:
Hanne H. Christiansen; Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Lis E. Mortensen, Faroese Museum of Natural History, Faroe Islands
Tove Nielsen, GEUS, Copenhagen, Denmark
Trine L. Rasmussen, Department of Quaternary Geology, University of Lund, Sweden
Ole Humlum, UNIS, Department of Geology, Svalbard, Norway
The Faroe Islands have a total land area of 1397 km2 and are situated between 61o20’N - 62o24’N and 6o15’W and 7o41’W. The land area is distributed on 18 individual islands, the largest of which is 374 km2. From the southernmost to the northernmost point there is a maximum distance of 113 km, while the maximum east-west distance is 75 km. The distance to Scotland is about 350 km, to Norway about 675 km and there is about 450 km to Iceland. The total number of inhabitants is almost 46.000, of which about 16.000 lives in the capital, Tórshavn.
Existing meteorological knowledge emphasizes the high sensitivity of the North Atlantic region towards climatic and oceanographic changes. In this respect, the Faroe Islands has a unique position in the midst of the North Atlantic Current, which is responsible for the present mild climate in both W Europe and on the Faroe Islands. The warm water is cooled during winter times in the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and convected to deep water. This flows southward over the Greenland-Scotland Ridges and contributes to North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), which is considered of global climatic importance. The Faroe Islands thus lies in a perfect position to undertake a project on Late Quaternary climatic change, because any change in circulation of North Atlantic surface water or in generation of deep water is apt to have significant and immediate impact on the local Faroese climate.
The purpose of the LINK project is to study the timing and interactions between Late Weichselian and Holocene climatic change in the Faroese region of the North Atlantic, such as documented by terrestrial and marine records.
The study region is the land area of the Faroe Islands and the surrounding shelf and slope. The project consist of three individual research themes, which is coupled together in an overall synthesis, thereby emphasizing the mapping, monitoring and modeling research approach of the project:
THEME 1: Mapping the distribution and timing of Late Quaternary glacial and periglacial terrestrial phenomena. This forms the base for subsequent modeling of former glacier mass balance characteristics and permafrost-related activity, enabling an assessment of past temperatures, precipitation and wind regime (Humlum, 1997).
THEME 2: Mapping of drowned coastlines and submarine glacial landscapes on the shelf and slope areas, delimiting the Weichselian offshore extension of glaciers. Investigations on the Paleocirculation of deep and surface water by sediment core studies and mapping of iceberg plough marks. Results from theme 1 and 2 will be directly compared and used in further analyses in a mutually supportive way.
THEME 3: An investigation of the modern relationship between meteorology, periglacial phenomena, ground temperatures, soil types and main vegetation types. A high-altitude meteorological station has been established. This provides a background for interpreting mapping results obtained by Theme 1, and for understanding current landscape trends (such as soil erosion) in the larger context of Holocene variations. Finally, this theme will establish a platform for detecting effects of future climate change.
Results obtained by the proposed project will be correlated with results obtained by other projects within the North Atlantic region and adjoining land areas, and with tropical and Southern Hemisphere records. These correlations will provide both a regional North Atlantic and global aspect to our study and enable us to learn about timing, effects and regional extent of climate- and ocean circulation changes.
The multidisciplinary approach with coupling of the terrestrial glaciation history with the marine record in fjords and shelves and to deep sea records, will offer a unique opportunity to learn about timing and nature of regional climate change impacts as well as small-scale climate perturbations; both seen against ocean circulation changes. Key study areas with both terrestrial and marine research will be selected, based on our previous terrestrial studies on glacial and periglacial phenomena (Christiansen, 1998, Humlum et al., 1996, Humlum and Christiansen, 1998a, 1998b), and on our studies of the marine environment (Nielsen and van Weering, 1998, Nielsen et al., 1998, Rasmussen et al., 1996a, b, c, 1997, 1998, van Weering et al., 1998a,b). This knowledge base in combination with new analyses of existing near shore acoustic and seismic data will be used to find the most suitable study sites. The proposed project is presumably one of the first ever to emphasize such a broad perspective on past climate change, and new scientific angles and results are expected as outcome.
References
Christiansen, H.H. 1998: Highland aeolian deposits in the Faroe Islands. Fróðskaparrit, 46, xx-xx.
Humlum, O., Christiansen, H.H., Svensson, H. and Mortensen, L.E. 1996: Moraine Systems in the Faroe Islands: Glaciological and Climatological Implications. Danish Journal of Geography, 96, 21-31.
Humlum, O. and Christiansen, H. H. 1998a: Mountain Climate and Periglacial Phenomena in the Faroe Islands, SE North Atlantic Ocean. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 9, 189-211.
Humlum, O. and Christiansen, H. H. 1998b: Late Holocene Climatic Forcing of Geomorphic Activity in the Faroe Islands, North Atlantic Ocean. Fróðskaparrit, 46, 119-140.
Nielsen, T. and van Weering, T.C.E. 1998. Seismic Stratigraphy and Sedimentary Processes at the Norwegian Sea Margin northeast of the Faroe Islands. Marine Geology, 152, 141-157.
Nielsen, T., van Weering, T.C.E. and Andersen, M.S. 1998. Cenozoic changes in the sedimentary regime on the northeastern Faroes margin. In: Stoker, M., Evans, D., and Cramp, R., Geological Processes on Continental Margins: Sedimentation, Mass-Wasting and Stability. Geological Society Special Publications 129, pp. 167-17.
Rasmussen, T.L., van Weering, T.C.E. and Labeyrie, L. 1996a. High resolution stratigraphy of the Faroe-Shetland Channel and its relation to North Atlantic paleoceanography: the last 87 ka. Marine Geology, 131, 75-88.
Rasmussen, T.L., Thomsen, E., Labeyrie, L. and van Weering, T.C.E. 1996b. Circulation changes in the Faroe-Shetland Channel correlating with cold events during the last glacial period (58-10 ka). Geology, 24, 937-940.
Rasmussen, T.L., Thomsen, E., van Weering, T.C.E. and Labeyrie, L. 1996c. Rapid changes in surface and deep water conditions at the Faroe Margin during the last 58,000 years. Paleoceanography, 11, 757-771.
Rasmussen, T.L., van Weering, T.C.E. and Labeyrie, L. 1997. Climatic instability, ice sheets and ocean dynamics at high northern latitudes during the last glacial period (58-10 ka BP). Quaternary Science Reviews, 16, 71-80.
Rasmussen, T.L., Thomsen, E. and van Weering, T.C.E. 1998. Cyclic changes in sedimentation on the Faroe Drift 53-9 kyr BP related to climate variations. In: Stoker, M., Evans, D., and Cramp, R., Geological Processes on Continental Margins: Sedimentation, Mass-Wasting and Stability. Geological Society Special Publications 129, pp. 255-267.
van Weering, T.C.E., Nielsen, T., Kenyon, N.H., Akentieva, A.K. and Kuijpers, A. 1998a. Large Submarine slides at the NE Faroe continental margin. In: Stoker, M., Evans, D., and Cramp, R., Geological Processes on Continental Margins: Sedimentation, Mass-Wasting and Stability. Geological Society Special Publications 129, pp. 5-17.
van Weering, T.C.E., Nielsen, T., Kenyon, N.H., Akentieva, A.K. and Kuijpers, A. 1998b. Sediments and sedimentation at the NE Faroe Continental Margin. Marine Geology, in press.
Latest update: 5. April 2005.