Postglacial emergence and distribution of late Weichselian ice-sheet loads in the northern Barents and Kara seas, Russia

Abstract

Reconstructions of late Weichselian glacier coverage on the continental shelves of the Russian Arctic range from a large ice sheet terminating in northern Siberia to isolated ice caps restricted to Arctic archipelagos. This disparity in glacier reconstructions reflects the lack of chronological control on glacial and deglacial landforms. We present new Holocene relative sea-level data from Franz Josef Land and northern Novaya Zemlya, Russia, that place the thickest glacier loads in the northern Barents Sea and not over Novaya Zemlya. Radiocarbon ages from shelf and terrestrial areas at the former ice-sheet margin support deglaciation of the northern Barents Sea between 13.0 and 10.3 ka, considerably later than inferred from isotopic records for the Arctic Ocean. This analysis indicates that the Barents Sea ice sheet was a dominant sea-level reservoir in northern Eurasia, and that glacier loading of Novaya Zemlya was comparatively limited during the last glaciation.

Holocene emergence and shoreline delevelling, southern Eureka Sound, High Arctic Canada

“…These sites are inferred to have sustained a thinner glacial load than at the former ice sheet centre over the northern and western Barents Sea where Type A (Quinlan and Beaumont, 1981) sea level curves are reported (Forman, 1990;Bondevik et al, 1995). It should be noted, however, that ice thicknesses over the sites which exhibit slow initial unloading may have been as much as 1500 m (Forman et al, 1995(Forman et al, , 1996.…”

The impact of glaciation, river-discharge and sea-level change on Late Quaternary environments in the southwestern Kara Sea

“…One scenario implies that the shallow Kara Sea shelf was a major ice-sheet center during glacial periods, including the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; e.g., Grosswald 1994). According to another scenario, the LGM ice was moving into the Kara Sea from the Barents Sea and/or Novaya Zemlya for an unknown extent (Forman et al 1995Svendsen et al 1999). Clarifying the configuration of ice-sheet margins in the Kara Sea is needed to provide improved boundary conditions for estimates of Eurasian ice-sheet volumes and to better understand the history of the Ob' and Yenisey river drainage, including the proposed formation of gigantic proglacial lake systems (Arkhipov et al 1995).…”

Reconstructing the retreat dynamics of the Bjørnøyrenna Ice Stream based on new 3D seismic data from the central Barents Sea

“…LGM has been estimated to 2-3 km (Forman et al, 1995;Landvik et al, 1998;Patton et al, 490 2016, in review), which is an order of magnitude greater than topographic variations around the study area in Bjørnøyrenna. For example, the elevation difference between shallow banks in the central part of the Barents Sea and Bjørnøyrenna is about 300 m (compare section 2.1), which is significantly less than the estimated LGM ice thickness and, as such, would not have provided a significant topographic barrier to ice flow.…”