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Evidence from north‐west Iceland's shelf and fjords is used to develop a scenario for environmental change during the last 36 cal Ky. The retreat history of the Iceland Ice Cap during the last deglaciation is delineated through lithofacies studies, carbon analyses and magnetic susceptibility, and studies of ice‐rafted debris (IRD) in sediment cores. Sedimentological data from lake Efstadalsvatn, Vestfirdir peninsula, trace the glacier retreat on land. In two of the high resolution shelf cores we detect near continuous IRD accumulation from 36 to 11 cal Kya. However, IRD is absent in the cores from ca. 22 to 19 cal Kya, possibly indicating more extensive landfast sea ice conditions. All cores show intensified IRD during the Younger Dryas chronozone; the fjord cores show a continuous IRD record until 10 cal Kya. Magnetic susceptibility and carbon analyses from Efstadalsvatn reveal the disappearance of local ice in the basin just before 10.5 cal Kya. No IRD was detected in the sediment cores during 10 to Ø4 cal Kya. Some indication of cooling occurs between 4 and 3 cal Kya, with a fresh input of IRD in fjord cores after 1 cal Kya.

Distribution, sediment magnetism and geochemistry of the Saksunarvatn (10 180 ± 60 cal. yr BP) tephra in marine, lake, and terrestrial sediments, northwest Iceland.ABSTRACT: In 1997, seismic surveys in the troughs off northwest and north Iceland indicated the presence of a major, regional sub-bottom reflector that can be traced over large areas of the shelf. Cores taken in 1997, and later in 1999 on the IMAGES V cruise, penetrated through the reflector. In core MD99-2269 in Húnaflóaáll, this reflector is shown to be represented by a basaltic tephra with a geochemical signature and radiocarbon age correlative with the North Atlantic-wide Saksunarvatn tephra. We trace this tephra throughout northwest Iceland in a series of marine and lake cores, as well as in terrestrial sediments; it forms a layer 1 to 25 cm thick of fine-to mediumgrained basaltic volcanic shards. The base of the tephra unit is always sharp but visual inspection and other measurements (carbonate and total organic carbon weight %) indicate a more diffuse upper boundary associated with bioturbation and with sediment reworking. Off northwest Iceland the Saksunarvatn tephra has distinct sediment magnetic properties. This is evident as a dramatic reduction in magnetic susceptibility, an increase in the frequency dependant magnetic susceptibility and 'hard' magnetisation in a −0.1T IRM backfield. Geochemical analyses from 11 sites indicate a tholeiitic basalt composition, similar to the geochemistry of a tephra found in the Greenland ice-core that dates to 10 180 ± 60 cal. yr BP, and which was correlated with the 9000 14 C yr BP Saksunarvatn tephra. We present accelerator mass spectrometry 14 C dates from the marine sites, which indicate that the ocean reservoir correction is close to ca. 400 yr at 9000 14 C yr BP off northwest Iceland.