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Extent and Melting History of the Late Weichselian Ice Sheet, the Barents-Kara Continental Margin

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Ice in the Climate System

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 12))

Abstract

The Barents-Kara continental margin of Eurasia was glaciated by the Kara ice dome during the last glacial maximum. Judging from end moraines, oriented ice-shoved features, glacial grooves, and other ice-motion indicators, the ice dome, centered on the Kara-Sea continental shelf, merged with the Scandinavian ice dome and spread out in all directions, invading the Barents Sea, the adjacent northern Russian Plain, and the northern coastal areas of the Siberian mainland.

A major advance of the Kara ice dome occurred after 28 ka BP, resulting in the formation of the Mansi and Yenisei ice-dammed lakes. Based on dated sediments from the lakes, an ice-dome chronology was established. The ice-sheet melting history was much more prolonged than presently recognized. Two readvances punctuated the ice retreat, one corresponding to the Younger Dryas (11–10.2 ka BP), and another to the Boreal-age (8.5–8 ka BP) intervals. During the first, the Kara ice invaded the lower reaches of the Pechora and Mezen Rivers, intruded into the White Sea, and impinged upon the Kola Peninsula from the northeast. During the second, the Kara ice dome, still occupying the whole Kara Sea, was revitalized and formed the Markhida moraine in the Pechora River basin, and the Admiralty Shoal moraine in the eastern Barents Sea.

During the LGM, the Kara ice dome covered an area of about 6 million km2 and was the largest glacier of Northern Eurasia; during Younger Dryas and Boreal times, its extent was about 4 and 1.8 million km2, respectively. It is likely that a considerable part of late-glacial and Boreal-time excess ice implied by Fairbanks’ sea-level curve was contained in the residual ice domes of northern Eurasia.

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  1. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science, 29 Staromonetny Street, 109017, Moscow, Russia

    Mikhail G. Grosswald

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, M5S 1A7, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    W. Richard Peltier

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Grosswald, M.G. (1993). Extent and Melting History of the Late Weichselian Ice Sheet, the Barents-Kara Continental Margin. In: Peltier, W.R. (eds) Ice in the Climate System. NATO ASI Series, vol 12. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85016-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85016-5_1

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