A persistent Norwegian Atlantic Current through the Pleistocene glacials

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Newton, Andrew, Huuse, Mads, Brocklehurst, Simon
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: North Atlantic Current; North Atlantic Deep Water; 3D Seismic 38 Reflection; Mid-Norwegian Margin; Iceberg Scours; Seismic geomorphology; Arctic; Iceberg*; Nordic Seas; north atlantic current; North Atlantic; Norwegian Sea
• Online Access: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/publications/0912b4b4-dc23-4a8e-98a2-255138f26151; https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077819

Changes in ocean‐circulation regimes in the northern North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas may affect not only the Arctic but potentially hemispheric or even global climate. Therefore, unraveling the long‐term evolution of the North Atlantic Current‐Norwegian Atlantic Current system through the Pleistocene glaciations could yield useful information and climatological context for understanding contemporary changes. In this work, ~50,000 km 2 of 3‐D seismic reflection data are used to investigate the Pleistocene stratigraphy for evidence of paleo‐oceanographic regimes on the mid‐Norwegian margin since 2.58 Ma. Across 33 semicontinuous regional paleo‐seafloor surfaces ~17,500 iceberg scours have been mapped. This mapping greatly expands our spatiotemporal understanding of currents and iceberg presence in the eastern Nordic Seas. The scours display a dominant southwest‐northeast trend that complements previous sedimentological and numerical modeling studies that suggest northward‐flowing currents in the Norwegian Sea during the Pleistocene. This paleo‐oceanographic study suggests that through many of the Pleistocene glaciations, the location of surface ocean currents in the Norwegian Sea and, by extension, the eastern North Atlantic, were broadly similar to the present.