Quaternary ice sheet limits on the continental shelf west of Ireland

• Main Authors: McCarron, Stephen, Saqab, Mudasar, Craven, Kieran, Praeg, D, Thebaudeau, Benjamin, Monteys, Xavier
• Other Authors: Department of Geography Maynooth, National University of Ireland Maynooth (Maynooth University), University College Dublin Dublin (UCD), Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), Géoazur (GEOAZUR 7329), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark, European Project: 656821,H2020,H2020-MSCA-IF-2014,SEAGAS(2016)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [SDU.STU.GM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geomorphology; [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; [SDU.STU.ST]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Stratigraphy; Ice Sheet; Iceland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02363169

International audience Recent investigations have shown that the continental shelf west of Ireland contains sedimentary landforms recording occupation by grounded, lobate ice sheet margins that extended from Ireland during at least the last glacial cycle. This paper reviews some of the offshore evidence of past glacial events available from high-resolution bathymetry, 2D/3D seismic datasets (Fig. 1), and shallow sediment cores providing information on the sedimentology, rheology and age of glacigenic stratigraphic units. The available data suggest that the continental shelf has been repeatedly occupied by tidewater ice margins characterised by ice streaming, possibly since the mid-Pleistocene transition. The offshore record provides as yet incomplete information on the extent and timing of glaciation from multiple centres of dispersal in Ireland. The dynamics of former ice sheets in Ireland, downwind of the climatically important central North Atlantic region, makes them of wider interest in the study of partially marine based ice sheet-ocean interactions in rapidly changing environments.