Morphological interpretation of regional and detailed bathymetric data sets on the 2500-km-long Norwegian shelf from the North Sea (57°N) to Svalbard (80°N) has revealed a dynamic ice-fl ow pattern along the western margin of the Scandinavian and Barents/Svalbard ice sheets. About 20 crossshelf troughs with megascale glacial lineations (MSGL; elongate ridges and grooves oriented parallel to trough long axes) are interpreted as former pathways for fastfl owing ice streams. Studies of large-scale margin morphology and seismic profi les have identifi ed large submarine fans at the mouths of several major cross-shelf troughs. Less dynamic ice probably existed on shallower banks. The two largest paleo-ice streams were the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream and Bear Island Trough Ice Stream, each 150-200 km wide at the mouth. The lengths of individual MSGL vary from hundreds of meters to several tens of kilometers, and the distance between ridges varies from 0.1 to 3 km. MSGL amplitudes reach 15 m, but are commonly <10 m. The onset of MSGL and, hence, fast ice fl ow is generally close to the outer coast, at the border zone between crystalline rocks and softer sedimentary rocks. Transverse submarine ridges on various scales, commonly parallel to the shelf edge, refl ect either the maximum ice-sheet position or the recessional pattern of the ice sheet. Lateral ice-stream moraines several tens of kilometers long have also been mapped along the sides of several cross-shelf troughs, identifying the border zone between fast ice fl ow and stagnant or slow-fl owing ice on intervening banks.

[1] High-resolution swath bathymetry from the marine margins of several Svalbard tidewater glaciers shows an assemblage of submarine landforms that is probably linked to glacier surging. These landforms are essentially unmodified since their initial deposition over the past hundred years or so because they have not been subjected to subaerial erosion or periglacial activity. Swath images comprise an assemblage of superimposed landforms, allowing reconstruction of relative age of deposition: (1) large transverse ridges, interpreted as recessional moraines overridden by a subsequent ice advance; (2) a series of curvilinear streamlined bedforms orientated parallel to former ice flow, interpreted as lineations formed subglacially during rapid advance; (3) large terminal ridges, marking the farthest extent of ice at the last advance, with flow lobes immediately beyond interpreted as submarine debris flows; (4) a series of interconnected rhombohedral ridges, interpreted as a product of soft sediment squeezing into crevasses formed at the glacier bed, probably formed during immediate post-surge stagnation; and (5) a series of fairly evenly spaced small transverse ridges, interpreted as push moraines produced annually at tidewater glacier termini during retreat. A simple descriptive landsystem model for tidewater glaciers of probable surge type is derived from these observations. We also show that megascale glacial lineations can form not only beneath large ice streams, but are also produced beneath surging tidewater glaciers lying on deforming sedimentary beds.

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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.

February): Rethinking Late Weichselian ice-sheet dynamics in coastal NW Svalbard. Boreas, Vol. 34, pp. 7-24. Oslo. ISSN 0300-9483.New marine geological evidence provides a better understanding of ice-sheet dynamics along the western margin of the last Svalbard/Barents Sea Ice Sheet. A suite of glacial sediments in the Kongsfjordrenna crossshelf trough can be traced southwards to the shelf west of Prins Karls Forland. A prominent moraine system on the shelf shows minimum Late Weichselian ice extent, indicating that glacial ice also covered the coastal lowlands of northwest Svalbard. Our results suggest that the cross-shelf trough was filled by a fast-flowing ice stream, with sharp boundaries to dynamically less active ice on the adjacent shelves and strandflats. The latter glacial mode favoured the preservation of older geological records adjacent to the main pathway of the Kongsfjorden glacial system. We suggest that the same model may apply to the Late Weichselian glacier drainage along other fjords of northwest Svalbard, as well as the western margin of the Barents Ice Sheet. Such differences in glacier regime may explain the apparent contradictions between the marine and land geological record, and may also serve as a model for glaciation dynamics in other fjord regions.

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