Modelling ice‐sheet sensitivity to late weichselian environments in the svalbard‐barents sea region

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Siegert, Martin J., Dowdeswell, Julian A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1995
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Svalbard; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3390100105; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.3390100105; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.3390100105

Abstract Ice‐proximal sedimentological features from the northwestern Barents Sea suggest that this region was covered by a grounded ice sheet during the Late Weichselian. However, there is debate as to whether these sediments were deposited by the ice sheet at its maximum or a retreating ice sheet that had covered the whole Barents Sea. To examine the likelihood of total glaciation of the Late Weichselian Barents Sea, a numerical ice‐sheet model was run using a range of environmental conditions. Total glaciation of the Barents Sea, originating solely from Svalbard and the northwestern Barents Sea, was not predicted even under extreme environmental conditions. Therefore, if the Barents Sea was completely covered by a grounded Late Weichselian ice sheet, then a mechanism (not accounted for within the glaciological model) by which grounded ice could have formed rapidly within the central Barents Sea, may have been active during the last glaciation. Such mechanisms include (i) grounded ice migration from nearby ice sheets in Scandinavia and the central Barents Sea, (ii) the processes of sea‐ice‐induced ice‐shelf thickening and (iii) isostatic uplift of the central Barents Sea floor.