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1.
Models of glacio‐hydroisostatic sea‐level change have been published for the British Isles that are broadly consistent with the observational evidence, as well as with glaciological constraints. It has been argued, however, that the models fail to represent sea‐level change along the Irish Sea margins and in southern Ireland for the post‐deglaciation period. The argument rests on the interpretation of the depositional environment of the elevated ‘Irish Sea Drift’ on both sides of the Irish Sea: whether this is terrestrial or glaciomarine. The isostatic models for the British Isles are consistent with the former interpretation in that sea‐levels on either side of the Irish Sea, south of about the Isle of Man, are not predicted to have risen above present sea‐level at any time since the deglaciation of the Irish Sea. This implies that ice over both the Irish Sea and Ireland was relatively thin (ca. 600–700 m over Ireland). If the glaciomarine interpretation of the elevated Irish Sea Drift is correct, then the maximum ice thickness over central and southern Ireland would have to reach 2000 m, exceeding that over Scotland. Furthermore, for the resulting sea‐level change to be consistent with the Holocene evidence, this thick ice sheet could not have extended to the eastern side of the Irish Sea. Nor could it have been very thick at its northern and western limits. If such an ice model is extreme and incompatible with glaciological observations then the alternative is to accept the interpretation of the Irish Sea Drift as terrestrial in origin. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

2.
The glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) of the British Isles is of interest due to the constraints that can be provided on key model parameters such as the global meltwater signal, local ice sheet history and viscoelastic earth structure. A number of recent studies have modelled relative sea‐level (RSL) data from this region to constrain model parameters. As indicated in these studies, the sensitivity of these data to both local and global parameters results in a highly non‐unique problem. This study aims to address this inherent non‐uniqueness by combining a previously published British–Irish ice model that is based on the most recent geomorphological data with a new global ice sheet model that provides an accurate prediction of eustatic sea‐level change. In addition, constraints from Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of present‐day vertical land motion are considered alongside the entirety of RSL data from both Great Britain and Ireland. A model solution is found that provides a high‐quality fit to both the RSL data and the GPS data. Within the range of earth viscosity values considered, the optimal data model fits were achieved with a relatively thin lithosphere (71 km), upper mantle viscosities in the range 4–6 × 1020 Pa s and lower mantle viscosities ≥ 3 × 1022 Pa s. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

3.
Motivated to help improve the robustness of predictions of sea level rise, the BRITICE-CHRONO project advanced knowledge of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet, from 31 to 15 ka, so that it can be used as a data-rich environment to improve ice sheet modelling. The project comprised over 40 palaeoglaciologists, covering expertise in terrestrial and marine geology and geomorphology, geochronometric dating and the modelling of ice sheets and oceans. A systematic and directed campaign, organised across eight transects from the continental shelf edge to a short distance (10s of kilometres) onshore, was used to collect 914 samples which yielded 639 new ages, tripling the number of dated sites constraining the timing and rates of change of the collapsing ice sheet. This special issue synthesises these findings of ice advancing to the maximum extent and its subsequent retreat for each of the eight transects to produce definitive palaeogeographic reconstructions of ice margin positions across the marine to terrestrial transition. These results are used to understand the controls that drove or modulated ice sheet retreat. A further paper reports on how ice sheet modelling experiments and empirical data can be used in combination, and another probes the glaciological meaning of ice-rafted debris.  相似文献   

4.
The ice sheet that once covered Ireland has a long history of investigation. Much prior work focussed on localised evidence-based reconstructions and ice-marginal dynamics and chronologies, with less attention paid to an ice sheet wide view of the first order properties of the ice sheet: centres of mass, ice divide structure, ice flow geometry and behaviour and changes thereof. In this paper we focus on the latter aspect and use our new, countrywide glacial geomorphological mapping of the Irish landscape (>39 000 landforms), and our analysis of the palaeo-glaciological significance of observed landform assemblages (article Part 1), to build an ice sheet reconstruction yielding these fundamental ice sheet properties. We present a seven stage model of ice sheet evolution, from initiation to demise, in the form of palaeo-geographic maps. An early incursion of ice from Scotland likely coalesced with local ice caps and spread in a south-westerly direction 200 km across Ireland. A semi-independent Irish Ice Sheet was then established during ice sheet growth, with a branching ice divide structure whose main axis migrated up to 140 km from the west coast towards the east. Ice stream systems converging on Donegal Bay in the west and funnelling through the North Channel and Irish Sea Basin in the east emerge as major flow components of the maximum stages of glaciation. Ice cover is reconstructed as extending to the continental shelf break. The Irish Ice Sheet became autonomous (i.e. separate from the British Ice Sheet) during deglaciation and fragmented into multiple ice masses, each decaying towards the west. Final sites of demise were likely over the mountains of Donegal, Leitrim and Connemara. Patterns of growth and decay of the ice sheet are shown to be radically different: asynchronous and asymmetric in both spatial and temporal domains. We implicate collapse of the ice stream system in the North Channel – Irish Sea Basin in driving such asymmetry, since rapid collapse would sever the ties between the British and Irish Ice Sheets and drive flow configuration changes in response. Enhanced calving and flow acceleration in response to rising relative sea level is speculated to have undermined the integrity of the ice stream system, precipitating its collapse and driving the reconstructed pattern of ice sheet evolution.  相似文献   

5.
While contributing <1 m equivalent eustatic sea‐level rise the British Isles ice sheet produced glacio‐isostatic rebound in northern Britain of similar magnitude to eustatic sea‐level change, or global meltwater influx, over the last 18 000 years. The resulting spatially variable relative sea‐level changes combine with observations from far‐field locations to produce a rigorous test for quantitative models of glacial isostatic adjustment, local ice‐sheet history and global meltwater influx. After a review of the attributes of relative sea‐level observations significant for constraining large‐scale models of the isostatic adjustment process we summarise long records of relative sea‐level change from the British Isles and far‐field locations. We give an overview of different global theoretical models of the isostatic adjustment process before presenting intercomparisons of observed and predicted relative sea levels at sites in the British Isles and far‐field for a range of Earth and ice model parameters in order to demonstrate model sensitivity and the resolving power available from using evidence from the British Isles. For the first time we show a good degree of fit between relative sea‐level observations and predictions that are based upon global Earth and ice model parameters, independently derived from analysis of far‐field data, with a terrain‐corrected model of the British Isles ice sheet that includes extensive glaciation of the North Sea and western continental shelf, that does not assume isostatic equilibrium at the Last Glacial Maximum and keeps to trimline constraints of ice surface elevation. We do not attempt to identify a unique solution for the model lithosphere thickness parameter or the local‐scale detail of the ice model in order to provide a fit for all sites, but argue that the next stage should be to incorporate an ice‐sheet model that is based on quantitative, glaciological model simulations. We hope that this paper will stimulate this debate and help to integrate research in glacial geomorphology, glaciology, sea‐level change, Earth rheology and quantitative modelling. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

6.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2005,24(14-15):1673-1690
Sedimentary sequences deposited by the decaying marine margin of the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS) record isostatic depression and successive ice sheet retreat towards centres of ice dispersion. Radiocarbon dating by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) of in situ marine microfaunas that are commonly associated with these sequences constrain the timing of glacial and sea level fluctuations during the last deglaciation, enabling us to evaluate the dynamics of the BIIS and its response to North Atlantic climate change. Here we use our radiocarbon-dated stratigraphy to define six major glacial and sea level events since the Last Glacial Maximum. (1) Initial deglaciation may have occurred ⩾18.3 kyr 14C BP along the northwestern Irish coast, in agreement with a deglacial age of ∼22 36Cl kyr BP for southwestern Ireland. Ice retreated to inland centres and areas of transverse moraine began to form across the north Irish lowlands. (2) Channels cut into glaciomarine deglacial sediments along the western Irish Sea coast are graded to below present sea level, identifying a fall of relative sea level (RSL) in response to isostatic emergence of the coast. (3) Marine mud that rapidly infilled these channels records an abrupt rise in global sea level of 10–15 m ∼16.7 14C kyr BP that flooded the Irish Sea coast and may have triggered deglaciation of a marine-based margin in Donegal Bay. (4) Intertidal boulder pavements in Dundalk Bay indicate that RSL ∼15.0 14C kyr BP was similar to present. (5) A major readvance of all sectors of the BIIS occurred between 14 and 15 kyr 14C BP which overprinted subglacial transverse moraines and delivered a substantial sediment flux to tidewater ice sheet margins. This event, the Killard Point Stadial, indicates that the BIIS participated in Heinrich event 1. (6) Subsequent deposition of marine muds on drumlins 12.7 14C kyr BP indicates isostatic depression and attendant high RSL resulting from the Killard Point readvance. These events identify a dynamic BIIS during the last deglaciation, as well as significant changes in RSL that reflect a combination of isostatic loading and eustatic changes in global sea level.  相似文献   

7.
The offshore sector around Shetland remains one of the least well-studied parts of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet with several long-standing scientific issues unresolved. These key issues include (i) the dominance of a locally sourced ‘Shetland ice cap’ vs an invasive Fennoscandian Ice Sheet; (ii) the flow configuration and style of glaciation at the Last Glacial Maximum (i.e. terrestrial vs marine glaciation); (iii) the nature of confluence between the British–Irish and Fennoscandian Ice Sheets; (iv) the cause, style and rate of ice sheet separation; and (v) the wider implications of ice sheet uncoupling on the tempo of subsequent deglaciation. As part of the Britice-Chrono project, we present new geological (seabed cores), geomorphological, marine geophysical and geochronological data from the northernmost sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (north of 59.5°N) to address these questions. The study area covers ca. 95 000 km2, an area approximately the size of Ireland, and includes the islands of Shetland and the surrounding continental shelf, some of the continental slope, and the western margin of the Norwegian Channel. We collect and analyse data from onshore in Shetland and along key transects offshore, to establish the most coherent picture, so far, of former ice-sheet deglaciation in this important sector. Alongside new seabed mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a multi-proxy suite of new isotopic age assessments, including 32 cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages from glacially transported boulders and 35 radiocarbon dates from deglacial marine sediments, to develop a synoptic sector-wide reconstruction combining strong onshore and offshore geological evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. The results show widespread and significant spatial fluctuations in size, shape and flow configuration of an ice sheet/ice cap centred on, or to the east of, the Orkney–Shetland Platform, between ~30 and ~15 ka BP. At its maximum extent ca. 26–25 ka BP , this ice sheet was coalescent with the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet to the east. Between ~25 and 23 ka BP the ice sheet in this sector underwent a significant size reduction from ca. 85 000 to <50 000 km2, accompanied by several ice-margin oscillations. Soon after, connection was lost with the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet and a marine corridor opened to the east of Shetland. This triggered initial (and unstable) re-growth of a glaciologically independent Shetland Ice Cap ca. 21–20 ka BP with a strong east–west asymmetry with respect to topography. Ice mass growth was followed by rapid collapse, from an area of ca. 45 000 km2 to ca. 15 000 km2 between 19 and 18 ka BP , stabilizing at ca. 2000 km2 by ~17 ka BP. Final deglaciation of Shetland occurred ca. 17–15 ka BP , and may have involved one or more subsidiary ice centres on now-submerged parts of the continental shelf. We suggest that the unusually dynamic behaviour of the northernmost sector of the British–Irish Ice Sheet between 21 and 18 ka BP – characterized by numerous extensive ice sheet/ice mass readvances, rapid loss and flow redistributions – was driven by significant changes in ice mass geometry, ice divide location and calving flux as the glaciologically independent ice cap adjusted to new boundary conditions. We propose that this dynamism was forced to a large degree by internal (glaciological) factors specific to the strongly marine-influenced Shetland Ice Cap.  相似文献   

8.
Key external forcing factors have been proposed to explain the collapse of ice sheets, including atmospheric and ocean temperatures, subglacial topography, relative sea level and tidal amplitudes. For past ice sheets it has not hitherto been possible to separate relative sea level and tidal amplitudes from the other controls to analyse their influence on deglaciation style and rate. Here we isolate the relative sea level and tidal amplitude controls on key ice stream sectors of the last British–Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets using published glacial isostatic adjustment models, combined with a new and previously published palaeotidal models for the NE Atlantic since the Last Glacial Maximum (22 ka BP). Relative sea level and tidal amplitude data are combined into a sea surface elevation index for each ice stream sector demonstrating that these controls were potentially important drivers of deglaciation in the western British Irish Ice Sheet ice stream sectors. In contrast, the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream was characterized by falling relative sea level and small tidal amplitudes during most of the deglaciation. As these simulations provide a basis for observational field testing we propose a means of identifying the significance of sea level and tidal amplitudes in ice sheet collapse.  相似文献   

9.
Trimlines separating glacially abraded lower slopes from blockfield‐covered summits on Irish mountains have traditionally been interpreted as representing the upper limit of the last ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages obtained for samples from glacially deposited perched boulders resting on blockfield debris on the summit area of Slievenamon (721 m a.s.l.) in southern Ireland demonstrate emplacement by the last Irish Ice Sheet (IIS), implying preservation of the blockfield under cold‐based ice during the LGM, and supporting the view that trimlines throughout the British Isles represent former englacial thermal regime boundaries between a lower zone of warm‐based sliding ice and an upper zone of cold‐based ice. The youngest exposure age (22.6±1.1 or 21.0±0.9 ka, depending on the 10Be production rate employed) is statistically indistinguishable from the mean age (23.4±1.2 or 21.8±0.9 ka) obtained for two samples from ice‐abraded bedrock at high ground on Blackstairs Mountain, 51 km to the east, and with published cosmogenic 36Cl ages. Collectively, these ages imply (i) early (24–21 ka) thinning of the last IIS and emergence of high ground in SE Ireland; (ii) relatively brief (1–3 ka) glacial occupation of southernmost Ireland during the LGM; (iii) decoupling of the Irish Sea Ice Stream and ice from the Irish midlands within a similar time frame; and (iv) that the southern fringe of Ireland was deglaciated before western and northern Ireland.  相似文献   

10.
Deglacial sea‐level index points defining relative sea‐level (RSL) change are critical for testing glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) model output. Only a few observations are available from North Wales and until recently these provided a poor fit to GIA model output for the British‐Irish Ice Sheet. We present results of an integrated offshore geophysical (seismic reflection), coring (drilling rig), sedimentological, micropalaeontological (foraminifera), biostratigraphical (palynology) and geochronological (AMS 14C) investigation into a sequence of multiple peat/organic sediment horizons interbedded within a thick estuarine–marine sequence of minerogenic clay‐silts to silty sands from the NE Menai Strait, North Wales. Ten new sea‐level index points and nine new limiting dates from the Devensian Late‐glacial and early Holocene are integrated with twelve pre‐existing Holocene sea‐level index points and one limiting point from North Wales to generate a regional RSL record. This record is similar to the most recent GIA predictions for North Wales RSL change, supporting either greater ice load and later deglaciation than in the GIA predictions generated before 2004, or a modified eustatic function. There is no evidence for a mid‐Holocene highstand. Tidally corrected RSL data indicate initial breaching of the Menai Strait between 8.8 and 8.4 ka BP to form a tidal causeway, with final submergence between 5.8 and 4.6 ka BP. Final breaching converted the NE Menai Strait from a flood‐dominated estuary into a high energy ebb tidal delta with extensive tidal scouring of pre‐existing Late‐glacial and Holocene sequences. The study confirms the value of utilising offshore drilling/coring technology to recover sea‐level records which relate to intervals when rates of both eustatic and isostatic change were at their greatest, and therefore of most value for constraining GIA models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

11.
The Malin Shelf, off north-west Ireland, was an important zone of confluence for marine-based ice streams of the former British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). Legacy geophysical datasets are used to construct models of the seismic character, relative age and distribution of shelf sediments and landforms. Buried and surface landform assemblages provide evidence that during deglaciation of the Late Devensian BIIS, the region was occupied not by a single Hebrides Ice Stream as previously proposed, but by four discrete ice streams, here referred to as the Sea of the Hebrides (SHIS), Inner Hebrides, North Channel and Tory Island ice streams. Our observations of stratigraphic relationships between the deposits of these ice streams indicate physical interactions between them during shelf deglaciation. We interpret an initial dominant cross-shelf flow along the SHIS impeding cross-shelf ice flow from other ice sheet sectors. Following withdrawal of the SHIS grounding line from the shelf edge to mid-shelf bathymetric highs during deglaciation, a reconfiguration of ice sheet flow paths allowed the expansion of smaller cross-shelf ice streams draining central Scotland and north-western Ireland. This internal dynamic behaviour provides a possible physical analogue for time-transgressive flow patterns reported for outlets draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.  相似文献   

12.
This paper presents the first terrestrial age constraints from the outer continental shelf for the maximum extent of the NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet. Cosmogenic 10Be ages from eight glacially transported boulders on the island of North Rona show that the Late Devensian (Late Weichselian) British–Irish Ice Sheet overrode the island at its maximal stage and retreated c. 25 ka BP. These new dates, supported by other geological evidence, indicate that the north‐western part of the ice sheet was most extensive between 27 and 25 ka BP, reaching the outer continental shelf during the global eustatic sea‐level minimum at the Last Glacial Maximum. Copyright © 2012 British Geological Survey/Natural Environment Research Council copyright 2012. Reproduced with the permission of BGS/NERC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

13.
The glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) of the British Isles is complex due to the interplay between local and non‐local signals. A number of recent studies have modelled the GIA response of the British Isles using relative sea‐level data. This study extends these previous analyses by using output from a numerical glaciological model as input to a GIA model. This is a necessary step towards more realistic GIA models, and although there have been similar studies for the major late Pleistocene ice sheets, this is the first study to do so for the British Isles. We test three reconstructions, classed as ‘minimal’, ‘median’ and ‘maximal’ in terms of their volume at maximum extent, and find it is possible to obtain good data–model fits. The minimal reconstruction is clearly preferred by the sea‐level data. The ice reconstructions tested were not constrained by geomorphological information of past ice extent (lateral and vertical). As a consequence, the reconstructions extend further than much of this information suggests, particularly in terms of ice thickness. It is notable, however, that the reconstructions produce good fits to many sea‐level data from central, mountainous regions (e.g. Scottish highlands), which lends support to the suggestion that trimlines, often used as an constraint on the palaeo ice surface location, are in fact features formed at the transition from warm‐ to cold‐based ice and so mark a minimum constraint on the ice surface altitude. Based on data–model misfits, suggestions are made for improving the ice model reconstructions. However, in many locations, the cause of the misfit could be due to non‐local, predominantly Fennoscandian ice and so interpretation is not straightforward. As a result, we suggest that future analyses of this type consider models and observations for both Fennoscandia and the British Isles. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

14.
We present an 8000‐year history spanning 650 km of ice margin retreat for the largest marine‐terminating ice stream draining the former British–Irish Ice Sheet. Bayesian modelling of the geochronological data shows the ISIS expanded 34.0–25.3 ka, accelerating into the Celtic Sea to reach maximum limits 25.3–24.5 ka before a collapse with rapid marginal retreat to the northern Irish Sea Basin (ISB). This retreat was rapid and driven by climatic warming, sea‐level rise, mega‐tidal amplitudes and reactivation of meridional circulation in the North Atlantic. The retreat, though rapid, is uneven, with the stepped retreat pattern possibly a function of the passage of the ice stream between normal and adverse ice bed gradients and changing ice stream geometry. Initially, wide calving margins and adverse slopes encouraged rapid retreat (～550 m a?1) that slowed (～100 m a?1) at the topographic constriction and bathymetric high between southern Ireland and Wales before rates increased (～200 m a?1) across adverse bed slopes and wider and deeper basin configuration in the northern ISB. These data point to the importance of the ice bed slope and lateral extent in predicting the longer‐term (>1000 a) patterns and rates of ice‐marginal retreat during phases of rapid collapse, which has implications for the modelling of projected rapid retreat of present‐day ice streams. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

15.
During the last glaciation, most of the British Isles and the surrounding continental shelf were covered by the British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). An earlier compilation from the existing literature (BRITICE version 1) assembled the relevant glacial geomorphological evidence into a freely available GIS geodatabase and map (Clark et al. 2004: Boreas 33, 359). New high‐resolution digital elevation models, of the land and seabed, have become available casting the glacial landform record of the British Isles in a new light and highlighting the shortcomings of the V.1 BRITICE compilation. Here we present a wholesale revision of the evidence, onshore and offshore, to produce BRITICE version 2, which now also includes Ireland. All published geomorphological evidence pertinent to the behaviour of the ice sheet is included, up to the census date of December 2015. The revised GIS database contains over 170 000 geospatially referenced and attributed elements – an eightfold increase in information from the previous version. The compiled data include: drumlins, ribbed moraine, crag‐and‐tails, mega‐scale glacial lineations, glacially streamlined bedrock (grooves, roches moutonnées, whalebacks), glacial erratics, eskers, meltwater channels (subglacial, lateral, proglacial and tunnel valleys), moraines, trimlines, cirques, trough‐mouth fans and evidence defining ice‐dammed lakes. The increased volume of features necessitates different map/database products with varying levels of data generalization, namely: (i) an unfiltered GIS database containing all mapping; (ii) a filtered GIS database, resolving data conflicts and with edits to improve geo‐locational accuracy (available as GIS data and PDF maps); and (iii) a cartographically generalized map to provide an overview of the distribution and types of features at the ice‐sheet scale that can be printed at A0 paper size at a 1:1 250 000 scale. All GIS data, the maps (as PDFs) and a bibliography of all published sources are available for download from: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/staff/clark_chris/britice .  相似文献   

16.
Pleistocene ice sheets can be reconstructed through three separate approaches: (1) Evidence based on glacial geological studies, such as erratic trains, till composition, crossing striations and exposures of multiple tills/nonglacial sediments. (2) Reconstructions based on glaciological theory and observations. These can be either two- or three-dimensional models; they can be constrained by ‘known’ ice margins at specific times; or they can be ‘open-ended’ with the history of growth and retreat controlled by parameters resting entirely within the model. (3) Glacial isostatic rebound after deglaciation provides a measure of the distribution of mass (ice) across a region. A ‘best fit’ ice sheet model can be developed that closely approximates a series of relative sea level curves within an area of a former ice sheet; in addition, the model should also provide a reasonable sea level fit to relative sea level curves at sites well removed from glaciation.This paper reviews some of the results of a variety of ice sheet reconstructions and concentrates on the various attempts to reconstruct the ice sheets of the last (Wisconsin, Weischelian, Würm, Devensian) glaciation. Evidence from glacial geology suggests flow patterns at variance with simple, single-domed ice sheets over North America and Europe. In addition, reconstruction of ice sheets from glacial isostatic sea level data suggests that the ice sheets were significantly thinner than estimates based on 18 ka equilibrium ice sheets (cf. Denton and Hughes, 1981). The review indicates it is important to differentiate between ice divides, which control the directions of glacial flow, and areas of maximum ice thickness, which control the glacial isostatic rebound of the crust upon deglaciation. Recent studies from the Laurentide Ice Sheet region indicate that the center of mass was not over Hudson Bay; that a major ice divide lay east of Hudson Bay so that flow across the Hudson Bay and James Bay lowlands was from the northeast; that Hudson Bay was probably open to marine invasions two or three times during the Wisconsin Glaciation; and that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was thinner than an equilibrium reconstruction would suggest.  相似文献   

17.
In West Greenland, early and mid Holocene relative sea level (RSL) fall was replaced by late Holocene RSL rise during the Neoglacial, after 4–3 cal. ka BP (thousand calibrated years before present). Here we present the results of an isolation basin RSL study completed near to the coastal town of Sisimiut, in central West Greenland. RSL fell from 14 m above sea level at 5.7 cal. ka BP to reach a lowstand of ?4.0 m at 2.3–1.2 cal. ka BP, before rising by an equivalent amount to present. Differences in the timing and magnitude of the RSL lowstand between this and other sites in West and South Greenland record the varied interplay of local and non‐Greenland RSL processes, notably the reloading of the Earth's crust caused by a Neoglacial expansion of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) and the subsidence associated with the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet forebulge. This means that the timing of the sea level lowstand cannot be used to infer directly when the GIS advanced during the Neoglacial. The rise in Late Holocene RSL is contrary to recently reported bedrock uplift in the Sisimiut area, based on repeat GPS surveys. This indicates that a belt of peripheral subsidence around the current ice sheet margin was more extensive in the late Holocene, and that there has been a switch from subsidence to uplift at some point in the last thousand years or so. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

18.
High-resolution seismic and bathymetric data offshore southeast Ireland and LIDaR data in County Waterford are presented that partially overlap previous studies. The observed Quaternary stratigraphic succession offshore southeast Ireland (between Dungarvan and Kilmore Quay) records a sequence of depositional and erosional events that supports regional glacial models derived from nearby coastal sediment stratigraphies and landforms. A regionally widespread, acoustically massive facies interpreted as the ‘Irish Sea Till’ infills an uneven, channelized bedrock surface overlying irregular mounds and deposits in bedrock lows that are probably earlier Pleistocene diamicts. The till is truncated and overlain by a thin, stratified facies, suggesting the development of a regional palaeolake following ice recession of the Irish Sea Ice Stream. A north–south oriented seabed ridge to the north is interpreted as an esker, representing southward flowing subglacial drainage associated with a restricted ice sheet advance of the Irish Ice Sheet onto the Celtic Sea shelf. Onshore topographic data reveal streamlined bedforms that corroborate a southerly advance of ice onto the shelf across County Waterford. The combined evidence supports previous palaeoglaciological models. Significantly, for the first time, this study defines a southern limit for a Late Midlandian Irish Ice Sheet advance onto the Celtic Sea shelf. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

19.
The interplay of eustatic and isostatic factors causes complex relative sea‐level (RSL) histories, particularly in paraglacial settings. In this context the past record of RSL is important in understanding ice‐sheet history, earth rheology and resulting glacio‐isostatic adjustment. Field data to develop sea‐level reconstructions are often limited to shallow depths and uncertainty exists as to the veracity of modelled sea‐level curves. We use seismic stratigraphy, 39 vibrocores and 26 radiocarbon dates to investigate the deglacial history of Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland, and reconstruct past RSL. A typical sequence of till, glacimarine and Holocene sediments is preserved. Two sea‐level lowstands (both max. ?40 m) are recorded at c. 13.5 and 11.5k cal a bp . Each is followed by a rapid transgression and subsequent periods of RSL stability. The first transgression coincides temporally with a late stage of Meltwater Pulse 1a and the RSL stability occurred between c. 13.0 and c. 12.2k cal a bp (Younger Dryas). The second still/slowstand occurred between c. 10.3 and c. 11.5k cal a bp . Our data provide constraints on the direction and timing of RSL change during deglaciation. Application of the Depth of Closure concept adds an error term to sea‐level reconstructions based on seismic stratigraphic reconstructions.  相似文献   

20.
Studies in southern British Columbia have shown that Cordilleran Ice Sheet flow was controlled by topograph, even in full glacial time. New ice‐flow evidence from the Nass River region, northern British Columbia, however, indicates that ice was thicker there and that the continental ice‐sheet phase of glaciation was reached. Inspection of high elevation sites has revealed a suite of ice‐flow indicators (mainly striae) undetected by earlier work. These suggest that at the Last Glacial Maximum (Fraser Glaciation), ice flowed southwestward across the Nass River region from an ice divide that probably was located in the Skeena Mountain area. Comparisons with adjacent work allow this divide to be mapped over a wide area. The results suggest that maximum ice thicknesses in the northern part of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet were larger than reported previously. The location of storm tracks in full glacial time may have played an important role in the production of an ice sheet that was thicker in northern British Columbia than it was in the southern half of the province. During deglaciation, ice thinned and gradually became confined to fiords and valleys, resulting in numerous and variable ice‐flow directions at that time. Topographic control was thus exerted on ice flow only after the glacial maximum was reached, despite the significant amount of relief in this region. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

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