3D sedimentary architecture showing the inception of an Ice Age. ...

• Main Authors: Løseth, H, Dowdeswell, JA, Batchelor, CL, Ottesen, D
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020
• Subjects: 37 Earth Sciences; 3709 Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; 3705 Geology; 13 Climate Action; Ice Sheet; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.53989; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/306899

Northeast Atlantic climate shifted into the Quaternary Ice Age around 2.6 M yr ago. Until now, however, the detailed changes associated with this inception of an Ice Age have remained obscure. New high-quality three-dimensional seismic data reveal a detailed geological record of buried surfaces, landforms and sedimentary architecture over vast parts of the Norwegian North Sea. Here, we show the sequence of near-coast geological events spanning the Northeast Atlantic inception of an Ice Age. We identify the location of immediate pre-glacial fluvially derived sandy systems where rivers from the Norwegian mainland built marine deltas. The stratigraphic position of a large submarine channel, formed by enhanced meltwater from initial build-up of local glaciers, is also shown. Finally, we document the transition to full ice-sheet growth over Scandinavia from the ice sheet's earliest position to the later pattern of debris-flow lobes reaching the present-day shelf edge. ...