Present day and paleo-geographic coordinates, thicknesses and isopach area of the Early Eocene +19 ash layer (Table 1)

23 layers of altered volcanic ash (bentonites) originating from the North Atlantic Igneous Province have been recorded in early Eocene deposits of the Austrian Alps, about 1,900 km away from the source area. The Austrian bentonites are distal equivalents of the ''main ash-phase'' in Denmark and the North Sea basin. We have calculated the total eruption volume of this series as 21,000 km**3, which occurred in 600,000 years. The most powerful single eruption of this series took place 54.0 million years ago (Ma) and ejected ca. 1,200 km**3 of ash material, which makes it one of the largest basaltic pyroclastic eruptions in geological history. The clustering of eruptions must have significantly affected the incoming solar radiation in the early Eocene by the continuous production of stratospheric dust and aerosol clouds. This hypothesis is corroborated by oxygen isotope values, which indicate a global decrease of sea surface temperatures between 1 and 2 C during this major phase of explosive volcanism.

Using ground-penetrating radar, topography and classification of vegetation to model the sediment and active layer thickness in a periglacial lake catchment, Western Greenland, link to shapefiles

The geometries of a catchment constitute the basis for distributed physically based numerical modeling of different geoscientific disciplines. In this paper results from ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements, in terms of a 3D model of total sediment thickness and active layer thickness in a periglacial catchment in western Greenland, is presented. Using the topography, thickness and distribution of sediments is calculated. Vegetation classification and GPR measurements are used to scale active layer thickness from local measurements to catchment scale models. Annual maximum active layer thickness varies from 0.3 m in wetlands to 2.0 m in barren areas and areas of exposed bedrock. Maximum sediment thickness is estimated to be 12.3 m in the major valleys of the catchment. A method to correlate surface vegetation with active layer thickness is also presented. By using relatively simple methods, such as probing and vegetation classification, it is possible to upscale local point measurements to catchment scale models, in areas where the upper subsurface is relatively homogenous. The resulting spatial model of active layer thickness can be used in combination with the sediment model as a geometrical input to further studies of subsurface mass-transport and hydrological flow paths in the periglacial catchment through numerical modelling.