Last deglaciation of the North Sea region
Abstract
Extensive off shore data suggest that Pleistocene ice sheets reached the shelf edge on many occasions in the North Sea region. Even still fragmentary, a better understanding of the last glaciation and deglaciation of the North Sea region is starting to emerge from both marine and onshore data. During the time interval between 39 and 29 cal ka, periods with ameliorated climate (including the Ålesund, Sandnes and Tolsta interstadials) alternated with periods of restricted glaciation in Scotland and western Norway. Between 29 and 25 cal ka maximum Weichselian glaciation of the region occurred, with the Fennoscandian and British ice sheets coalescing in the central North Sea. Decoupling of the ice sheets had most likely occurred at 25 cal ka, with development of a marine embayment in the northern North Sea. Between 21 and 18 cal ka glacial ice expanded westwards from Scandinavia onto the North Sea Plateau, in the Tampen readvance. The last major expansion of glacial ice into the offshore areas was between 17.5 and 15.5 cal ka. At this time ice expanded from Norway onto the Måløy Plateau and across Caithness and Orkney to east of Shetland. The Norwegian Channel Ice Stream, one of the major paleo icestreams draining into the eastern Atlantic, was periodically active between 29 and 18 cal ka BP. Some of the key sites used for the reconstruction of the last deglaciation will be presented, and the implication of this history for possible ice dammed lakes and influence on ocean circulation will be discussed.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFMPP23D..03S
- Keywords:
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- 0726 CRYOSPHERE / Ice sheets;
- 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 3002 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS / Continental shelf and slope processes;
- 4926 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY / Glacial