Late Weichselian ice-sheet flow directions in the Russian northern Barents Sea from high-resolution imagery of submarine glacial landforms

Abstract

Abstract The locations and orientations of more than 1000 late Quaternary subglacial and ice-marginal landforms, including streamlined sedimentary bed forms, glacitectonic hill-hole pairs, meltwater channels, and eskers, were mapped from blocks of multibeam data (area of 4861 km2) in the little-known Russian Barents Sea. Between Sentralbanken and Admiralty Bank, at ∼75°N, there is evidence for southward ice flow. Ice-flow indicators between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya show northeast flow into the head of St. Anna Trough. There is also evidence of southeast flow off the bank to the south of Franz Josef Land, and of flow convergence with northeast-flowing ice in Sedov Trough. Northeast flow of ice between Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land suggests that the latter archipelago was not overrun by ice flowing north from the Barents Sea and, therefore, that a subsidiary ice dome was likely on Franz Josef Land. A major ice divide was also present at ∼76°N –77°N in the Russian Barents Sea.