Glacial geomorphology of the Central Arctic Ocean: the Chukchi Borderland and the Lomonosov RidgeShow others and affiliations
Responsible organisation
2008 (English)In: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, ISSN 1096-9831, Vol. 33, p. 526–545-Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The last decade of geophysical seafloor mapping in the Arctic Ocean from nuclear submarines and icebreakers reveals a wide variety of glaciogenic geomorphic features at water depths reaching 1000 m. These findings provide new and intriguing insights into the Quaternary glacial history of the Northern Hemisphere. Here we integrate multi- and single beam bathymetric data, chirp sonar profiles and sidescan images from the Chukchi Borderland and Lomonosov Ridge to perform a comparative morphological seafloor study. This investigation aims to elucidate the nature and provenance of ice masses that impacted the Arctic Ocean sea floor during the Quaternary. Mapped glaciogenic bedforms include iceberg keel scours, most abundant at water depths shallower than ~350–400 m, flutes and megascale glacial lineations extending as deep as ~1000 m below the present sea level, small drumlinlike features and morainic ridges and grounding-zone wedges. The combination of these features indicates that very large glacial ice masses extended into the central Arctic Ocean from surrounding North American and Eurasian ice sheets several times during the Quaternary. Ice shelves occupied large parts of the Arctic Ocean during glacial maxima and ice rises were formed over the Chukchi Borderland and portions of the Lomonosov Ridge. More geophysical and sediment core data combined with modeling experiments are needed to reconstruct the timing and patterns of these events.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2008. Vol. 33, p. 526–545-
Keywords [en]
Arctic Ocean, seafloor morphology, geophysical mapping, ice shelves, icebergs, glaciogenic bedforms, Pleistocene, SWEDARCTIC 1996, SWEDARCTIC 2005, HOTRAX, Oden 1996, Arctic Ocean 1996
National Category
Natural Sciences
Research subject
SWEDARCTIC 1996, Arctic Ocean 1996; SWEDARCTIC 2005, Beringia 2005
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:polar:diva-854DOI: 10.1002/esp.1667OAI: oai:DiVA.org:polar-854DiVA, id: diva2:568988
Note
Source: Polardok by Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
Published online in Wiley InterScience
2012-11-152012-11-152016-11-25