For the first time, the Holocene history of the Serp-i-Molot tidewater glacier at the eastern side of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, Kara Sea, has been reconstructed based on AMS 14 C dating and multiproxy analyses (lithology, mineralogy, geochemistry and microfossils) of glaciomarine sediments from the Tsivol'ki Fjord. Three main phases of the Holocene evolution of the fjord environment are identified. During the early phase, c. 10.6 to 4.6 cal. ka BP, the glacier front was located close to the fjord mouth. The middle phase, c. 4.6 to 0.9 cal. ka BP, was characterized by frontal glacier retreat and shallowing of the fjord owing to glacio-isostatic uplift of the North Island of Novaya Zemlya. The late phase, from 0.9AE0.1 cal. ka BP until present, reflects the stabilization of the glacier front in the inner fjord. The absence of major Neoglacial advances of the Serp-i-Molot glacier is explained by the local climate of the Kara Sea and Novaya Zemlya, which prevents the penetration of moist air flow from the North Atlantic.

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Three main sedimentary sequences are briefly characterized in geochemical terms. Metalliferous sediments have lower average contents of Fe, Mn, and combined microelements, and higher average contents of Ti and Al, than other recent and ancient metalliferous sediments of the Pacific Ocean. We propose the history of hydrothermal activity in the eastern equatorial Pacific for the last 17 m.y.