Lena Håkansson

Eurasian ice-sheet interaction in northwestern Russia throughout the late Quaternary

Sediment successions from the Kanin Peninsula and Chyoshskaya Bay in northwestern Russia contain information on the marginal behaviour of all major ice sheets centred in Scandinavia, the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea during the Eemian - Weichselian. Extensive luminescence dating of regional lithostratigraphical units, supported by biostratigraphical evidence, identifies four major ice advances at 100 - 90, 70 - 65, 55 - 45 and 20 - 18 kyr ago interbedded with lacustrine, glaciolacustrine and marine sediments. The widespread occurrence of marine tidal sediments deposited c. 65 - 60 kyr ago allows a stratigraphical division of the Middle Weichselian Barents Sea and Kara Sea ice sheets into two shelf-based glaciations separated by almost complete deglaciation. The first ice dispersal centre was in the Barents Sea and thereafter in the Kara Sea. It is possible to extract both flow patterns from ice marginal landforms inside the southward termination. Accordingly, it is proposed that the Markhida line and its western continuation are asynchronous and originate from two separate glaciations before and after the marine transgression. The marine sedimentation occurred during a eustatic sea-level rise of up to 20 m/1000 yr, i. e. the Mezen Transgression. We speculate that the rapid eustatic sea-level rise triggered a collapse of the Barents Sea Ice Sheet at the MIS ( Marine Isotope Stage) 4 to 3 transition. This is motivated by lack of an early marine highstand, the timing of events, and the marginal position of Arkhangelsk relative to open marine conditions. (Less)

Early Weichselian palaeoenvironments reconstructed from a mega‐scale thrust‐fault complex, Kanin Peninsula, northwestern Russia

A section, almost 20 km long and up to 80 m high, through alternating layers of diamict and sorted sediments is superbly exposed on the north coast of the Kanin Peninsula, northwestern Russia. The diamicts represent multiple glacial advances by the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea ice sheets during the Weichselian. The diamicts and stratigraphically older lacustrine, fluvial and shallow marine sediments have been thrust as nappes by the Barents Sea and Kara Sea ice sheets. Based on stratigraphic position, OSL dating, sea level information and pollen, it is evident that the sorted sediments were deposited in the Late Eemian-Early Weichselian. Sedimentation started in lake basins and continued in shallow marine embayments when the lakes opened to the sea. The observed transition from lacustrine to shallow marine sedimentation could represent coastal retreat during stable or rising sea level.

Coastal glaciers advanced onto Jameson Land, East Greenland during the late glacial-early Holocene Milne Land Stade

We report on 10Be and optically stimulated luminescence ages from moraines and glaciolacustrine sediments on eastern Jameson Land, East Greenland. Sampled landforms and sediment are associated with advances of outlet glaciers from the local Liverpool Land ice cap situated in the coastal Scoresby Sund region. Previous studies have tentatively correlated these advances with the Milne Land Stade moraines, which are prominent moraine sets deposited by mountain glaciers in the inner Scoresby Sund region. Recent constraints on the formation of the outer and inner of these moraines have suggested two advances of local glaciers, one prior to or during the Younger Dryas and another during the Preboreal. In this paper, we test the correlation of the Liverpool Land glacial advance with the Milne Land Stade. Our results show that outlet glaciers from the Liverpool Land ice cap reached ice-marginal positions marked by moraines in east-facing valleys on Jameson Land sometime during late glacial–early Holocene time (ca. 13–11 Kya). This confirms the correlation of these moraines with the Milne Land Stade moraines described elsewhere in the Scoresby Sund region.

Cosmogenic 10Be-ages from the Store Koldewey Island NE Greenland

Abstract. Earlier work in northeast Greenland has suggested a limited advance of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, this concept has recently been challenged by marine geological studies, indicating grounded ice on the continental shelf at this time. New 10Be‐ages from the Store Koldewey island, northeast Greenland, suggest that unscoured mountain plateaus at the outer coast were covered at least partly by cold‐based ice during the LGM. It is, however, still inconclusive whether this ice was dynamically connected to the Greenland Ice Sheet or not. Regardless of the LGM ice sheet extent, the 10Be results from Store Koldewey add to a growing body of evidence suggesting considerable antiquity of crystalline unscoured terrain near present and Pleistocene ice sheet margins.