Late Devensian ice-marginal features in the central North Sea - processes and chronology

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: Sejrup, Hans Petter, Hjelstuen, Berit Oline, Nygård, Atle, Haflidason, Haflidi, Mardal, Ivar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: Norway; Tampen; Fennoscandian; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/38237/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/38237/1/Sejrup.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12090

Palaeoglaciological reconstructions of the North Sea sector of the last British Ice Sheet have, as other shelf areas, suffered from a lack of dates directly related to ice-front positions. In the present study new high-resolution TOPAS seismic data, bathymetric records and sediment core data from the Witch Ground Basin, central North Sea, were compiled. This compilation made it possible to map out three ice-marginal positions, partly through identification of terminal moraines and partly through location of glacial-fed debrisflows. The interfingering of the distal parts of the glacial-fed debrisflows with continuous marine sedimentation enabled the development of a chronology for glacial events based on previously published and some new radiocarbon dates on marine molluscs and foraminifera. From these data it is suggested that after the central Witch Ground Basin was deglaciated at c. 27 cal. ka BP, the eastern part was inundated by glacial ice from the east in the Tampen advance at c. 21 cal. ka BP. Subsequently, the basin was inundated by ice from northeast during the Fladen 1 (c. 17.5 cal. ka BP) and the Fladen 2 (16.2 cal. ka BP) events. It should be emphasized that the Fladen 1 and 2 events, individually, may represent dynamics of relatively small lobes of glacial ice at the margin of the British Ice Sheet and that the climatic significance of these may be questioned. However, the Fladen Events probably correlate in time with the Clogher Head and Killard Point re-advances previously documented from Ireland and the Bremanger event from off western Norway, suggesting that the British and Fennoscandian ice sheets both had major advances in their northwestern parts, close to the northwestern European seaboard, at this time.