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Using high-resolution bathymetric and shallow seismic data from the North Sea, we have mapped hitherto unknown glacial landforms that connect and resolve longstanding gaps in the Quaternary geological history of the basin. We use these data combined with published information and dates from sediment cores to reconstruct the extent of the Fennoscandian and British Ice Sheets (FIS and BIS) in the North Sea during the last phases of the last glacial stage. It is concluded that the BIS occupied a much larger part of the North Sea than previously suggested and that North Sea ice underwent a dramatic disintegration ~18,500 yr ago. This was triggered by grounding-line retreat of the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream, which debuttressed adjacent ice masses, and led to an unzipping of the BIS and FIS accompanied by drainage of a large ice-dammed lake. Our reconstruction of events provides an opportunity to improve understanding and modeling of the disintegration of marine-based ice sheets, and the complex interplay between ocean circulation and the cryosphere.

The Norwegian Channel between Skagerrak, in the southeast, and the continental margin of the northern North Sea, in the northwest, is the result of processes related to repeated ice stream activity through the last 1.1 m yr. In such periods the Skagerrak Trough (700 m deep) has acted as a confluence area for glacial ice from southeastern Norway, southern Sweden and parts of the Baltic. Possibly related to the threshold in the Norwegian Channel off Jæren (250 m deep), the ice stream, on a number of occasions over the last 400 ka, inundated the coastal lowlands and left an imprint of NW‐oriented ice directional features (drumlins, stone orientations in tills and striations). Marine interstadial sediments found up to 200 m a.s.l. on Jæren have been suggested to reflect glacial isostasy related to the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream (NCIS). In the channel itself, the ice stream activity is evidenced by mega‐scale glacial lineations on till surfaces. As a result of subsidence, the most complete sedimentary records of early phases of the NCIS are preserved close to the continental margin in the North Sea Fan region. The strongest evidence for ice stream erosion during the last glacial phase is found in the Skagerrak. On the continental slope the ice stream activity is evidenced by the large North Sea Fan, which is mainly a result of deposition of glacial‐fed debris flows. Northwards of the North Sea Fan, rapid deposition of meltwater plume deposits, possibly related to the NCIS, is detected as far north as the Vøring Plateau. The NCIS system offers a unique possibility to study ice stream related processes and the impact the ice stream development had on open ocean sedimentation and circulation.