Evidence for Eocene–Oligocene glaciation in the landscape of the East Greenland margin

International audienceAssessing the onset and extent of Northern Hemisphere glaciation is required to understandCenozoic climate change and its impact on topography. While the onset of accelerated Cenozoicerosion is generally associated with the Quaternary at mid-latitudes, some high-latitudepassive margins may have undergone earlier glaciation starting at 38–30 Ma or even 45 Ma.Here we document a rapid phase of exhumation in the East Greenland margin between 68°Nand 76°N starting at 30 ± 5 Ma. The timing is coincident with the dramatic worldwide fall ofsurface temperature at the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Our inference is based on apatitefission track and apatite helium data. We suggest that a transition from an Eocene fluvial toan Oligocene glacial-dominated landscape triggered a period of enhanced erosion. This studyprovides the first onshore potential evidence of the onset of continental ice in East Greenlandmargin at the Eocene-Oligocene transition (ca. 34 Ma), contemporaneously with the onset ofAntarctica glaciation and erosion. Our interpretation is consistent with that based on the oldestice-rafted debris found in the sedimentary records offshore East Greenland and impliesthat East Greenland exhibits the oldest onshore record of Cenozoic glacial erosion on Earth