Depositional history of the North Taymyr ice‐marginal zone, Siberia—a landsystem approach

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Alexanderson, Helena, Adrielsson, Lena, Hjort, Christian, Möller, Per, Antonov, Oleg, Eriksson, Saskia, Pavlov, Maksim
• Other Authors: European Union ‘Eurasian Ice Sheets’, European Science Foundation's QUEEN., Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences., Swedish Environmental Agency., Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2002
• Subjects: Arctic; Kara Sea; Sandar; Taymyr; Ice Sheet; Taymyr Peninsula; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.677; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.677; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.677

Abstract The sediment–landform associations of the northern Taymyr Peninsula in Arctic Siberia tell a tale of ice sheets advancing from the Kara Sea shelf and inundating the peninsula, probably three times during the Weichselian. In each case the ice sheet had a margin frozen to its bed and an interior moving over a deforming bed. The North Taymyr ice‐marginal zone (NTZ) comprises ice‐marginal and supraglacial landsystems dominated by thrust‐block moraines 2–3 km wide and large‐scale deformation of sediments and ice. Large areas are still underlain by remnant glacier ice and a supraglacial landscape with numerous ice‐walled lakes and kames is forming even today. The proglacial landsystem is characterised by subaqueous (e.g. deltas) or terrestrial (e.g. sandar) environments, depending on location/altitude and time of formation. Dating results (OSL, 14 C) indicate that the NTZ was initiated ca. 80 kyr BP during the retreat of the Early Weichselian ice sheet and that it records the maximum limit of a Middle Weichselian glaciation (ca. 65 kyr BP). During both these events, proglacial lakes were dammed by the ice sheets. Part of the NTZ was occupied by a thin Late Weichselian ice sheet (20–12 kyr BP), resulting in subaerial proglacial drainage. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.