Phased occupation and retreat of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet in the southern North Sea: geomorphic and seismostratigraphic evidence of a dynamic ice lobe

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Dove, Dayton, Evans, David J.A., Lee, Jonathan R., Roberts, David H., Tappin, David R., Mellett, Claire L., Long, David, Callard, S. Louise
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2017
• Subjects: Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/517020/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/517020/1/Dove_etal_2017_NSL.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.03.006

Along the terrestrial margin of the southern North Sea, previous studies of the MIS 2 glaciation impacting eastern Britain have played a significant role in the development of principles relating to ice sheet dynamics (e.g. deformable beds), and the practice of reconstructing the style, timing, and spatial configuration of palaeo-ice sheets. These detailed terrestrially-based findings have however relied on observations made from only the outer edges of the former ice mass, as the North Sea Lobe (NSL) of the British-Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) occupied an area that is now almost entirely submarine (c.21–15 ka). Compounded by the fact that marine-acquired data have been primarily of insufficient quality and density, the configuration and behaviour of the last BIIS in the southern North Sea remains surprisingly poorly constrained. This paper presents analysis of a new, integrated set of extensive seabed geomorphological and seismo-stratigraphic observations that both advances the principles developed previously onshore (e.g. multiple advance and retreat cycles), and provides a more detailed and accurate reconstruction of the BIIS at its southern-most extent in the North Sea. A new bathymetry compilation of the region reveals a series of broad sedimentary wedges and associated moraines that represent several terminal positions of the NSL. These former still-stand ice margins (1–4) are also found to relate to newly-identified architectural patterns (shallow stacked sedimentary wedges) in the region's seismic stratigraphy (previously mapped singularly as the Bolders Bank Formation). With ground-truthing constraint provided by sediment cores, these wedges are interpreted as sub-marginal till wedges, formed by complex subglacial accretionary processes that resulted in till thickening towards the former ice-sheet margins. The newly sub-divided shallow seismic stratigraphy (at least five units) also provides an indication of the relative event chronology of the NSL. While there is a general record of south-to-north retreat, ...