Mid- to Late Pleistocene Ice Drift in the Western Arctic Ocean: Evidence for a Different Circulation in the Past

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Bischof, Jens F., Darby, Dennis A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1997
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; Fram Strait; Iceberg*; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5322.74; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.277.5322.74

The provenance of ice-rafted debris (IRD) in four Arctic sediment cores implies that icebergs from the northwestern Laurentide ice sheets drifted across the western Arctic Ocean along the 180°–0° meridian toward Fram Strait during mid- to late Pleistocene deglaciations within the last 700,000 years. This iceberg drift was different from the present-day Beaufort Gyre circulation and resembled a dislocated transpolar drift (TPD). Sea ice mainly followed the iceberg trajectories but also frequently drifted from the Russian shelves eastward into the Amerasian Basin.