This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Siegert, M. J. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Quantitative reconstructions of the last glaciation of the Barents Sea: a review of ice-sheet modelling problems

Centre for Glaciology, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK

Reconstructions of the Late Weichselian ice sheet within the Barents Sea have varied from complete coverage of a large (3 km thick) grounded ice mass, to a situation in which glacier extent was restricted to the Svalbard coast. Recently obtained geological data indicate that 1) glaciation of the Barents Sea occurred after 25 000 years ago; 2) the ice sheet was at its maximum extent at around 20 000 years ago; 3) the maximum-sized ice sheet covered the entire Barents Shelf; and 4) ice-sheet decay began at about 16 500 years ago. The ice sheet was, consequently, one of the last to grow and first to decay during the last glacial. However, this recently derived chronology of glacial events has reintroduced problems concerning the thickness distribution of the maximum- sized ice sheet, and the glaciological processes by which rapid glaciation and ice decay happened. In particular, the situation in which regional glaciation of Bjomoya occurred at the same time as grounded ice (and ice-stream activity) within the relatively deep Bjørnøyrenna is yet to be understood fully. This article provides a review of reconstructions of the last Barents ice mass, and compares these models with geological and palaeoceanographic information from the area in order to provide a summary of what is presently known, and to indicate explicitly what is not known, about the Late Weichselian Barents Sea ice sheet.

Key Words: Barents Sea • Late Weichselian • glaciation • ice-sheet.

Progress in Physical Geography, Vol. 21, No. 2, 200-229 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/030913339702100202


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?