Abstract
Glacial landforms and sediments exposed sub-aerially have been the subject of description, analysis and interpretation for more than a century (e.g. De Laski 1864; De Geer 1889). Indeed, such features provided important initial observations informing Louis Agassiz's ideas that ice was a key instrument in sculpting the landscape and that glaciers and ice sheets had extended to mid-latitudes during the past, implying that Earth's climate must have changed considerably through time (Agassiz 1840). It is only in the last few decades that attention has begun to focus on the marine evidence for the past growth and decay of ice sheets that is recorded in submarine landforms and sediments preserved on high-latitude continental margins. This interest has been driven, in part, by the recognition that sediments deposited below wave-base are often well preserved in the Quaternary geological record, and may be less subject to erosion and reworking than their terrestrial counterparts. In addition, new marine-geophysical technologies have enabled increasingly high-resolution imaging and penetration of the high-latitude seafloor, most notably using multibeam swath-bathymetric and three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection methods, and modern ice-strengthened and ice-breaking research vessels have allowed the effective deployment of these increasingly sophisticated instruments in the often ice-infested waters of the Arctic and Antarctic seas. The geological record from high-latitude continental margins is now recognized to provide key information on former ice-sheet extent, the direction and nature of past ice flow and dynamics, and a well-preserved window on the detailed form and composition of former ice-sheet beds (e.g. Ottesen et al. 2005; Anderson et al. 2014; Jakobsson et al. 2014). The geometry and distribution of submarine glacial landforms on the seafloor, and the underlying glacial-sedimentary stratigraphic record with which they are associated, is the topic of this volume. The aims and purpose of the Atlas are: (1) to …
Highlights
Today, the glacier-influenced marine environment includes about 20% of the world’s oceans (Fig. 1)
Glaciers reach the sea in settings that range from grounded tidewater glaciers at fjord heads in Patagonia and SE Alaska to extensive water bodies beneath the huge floating ice shelves of Antarctica
The lowest latitude in which modern tidewater glaciers occur is in the fjords of Chilean Patagonia at 488 S, where water temperatures may be almost 108C (e.g. Boyd et al 2008; Dowdeswell & Vasquez 2013)
Summary
The glacier-influenced marine environment includes about 20% of the world’s oceans (Fig. 1). Hayes et al 1976; Wilson et al 2000; Broecker 2002; Galeotti et al 2016), implies that high-latitude continental margins have been affected by glacier and ice-sheet growth and decay many times over the past few million years. These glacial –interglacial cycles, with a dominant periodicity of about 100 ka, are observed in isotopic records from ice sheets and marine sediments through the Quaternary (e.g. EPICA Community Members 2004; Lowe & Walker 2014). Under full-glacial conditions, these ice sheets advanced to the shelf edge, and ice which is at present restricted to the mountains and fjords on the archipelagos of Svalbard and the Russian and Canadian Arctic thickened and advanced across highlatitude continental shelves (e.g. Svendsen et al 2004; England et al 2006; Hughes et al 2016)
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