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Late Quaternary marine-based Kara Sea ice sheets: a review of terrestrial stratigraphic data highlighting their formation |
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| Authors: | Ólafur Ingólfsson Per Möller & Hanna Lokrantz |
| Institution: | Department of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Askja 233, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland; GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, SE-22362 Lund, Sweden; Geological Survey of Sweden, Villavägen 18, Box 670, SE-75128 Uppsala, Sweden |
| Abstract: | Reconstructions of the Late Quaternary glacial history of the Kara Sea area show repeated build-up of ice-sheet domes over the shallow epicontinental Kara Sea. Inferred ice divides were situated over the central Kara Sea, and the ice sheet repeatedly inundated the surrounding coastal areas of western Siberia. Geological fingerprinting of the Kara Sea ice sheet include end moraine zones, raised beaches, tills, glaciotectonic deformations and coarsening-upward sediment sequences, reflecting isostatic rebound cycles. This paper reviews evidence from several areas along the perimeter of the Kara Sea, suggesting that peripheral sites were critical for the initiation of the large Kara Sea ice sheet. Ice-sheet inception progressed with the formation of local ice caps that later coalesced on the adjacent shelf with globally falling sea levels, eventually merging and growing into a large ice dome. |
| Keywords: | Kara Sea Late Quaternary marine-based ice sheet western Siberia |