Geological evidence of a catastrophic ice-dammed lake outburst in the North Sea during the last deglaciation

Recent reconstructions suggest that the British and Fennoscandian Ice sheets coaleased and covered the entire northern North Sea between 23 ka and 19 ka BP. At around 18 500 yrs BP the ice sheets broke apart and an inferred 3900 km3 ice dammed lake in the southern North Sea drained northwards via the Norwegian Channel and into the SE Nordic Seas, following the steadily widening ice corridor between the withdrawing British and Fennoscandian Ice sheets. The catastrophic outburst was followed by fluvial drainage and delta built-up in the Ling Bank area in the central North Sea. Mapping of a 5000 km2 sediment depocentre with an average thickness of 30 m at the outlet of the drainage pathway, named the Ling Bank Drainage Channel, evidence the ice-dammed lake outburst and the subsequent fluvial drainage. In this study we use sediment cores, high-resolution bathymetric records and TOPAS seismic profiles in order to detail the drainage route of the ice-dammed lake through the central North Sea and the following delta-formation in relation to the last degradation of the ice-sheets in this region.