Mid- to Late Pleistocene Ice Drift in the Western Arctic Ocean: Evidence for a Different Circulation in the Past

Abstract

The provenance of ice-rafted debris (IRD) in four Arctic sediment cores implies that icebergs from the northwestern Laurentide ice sheets drifted across the western Arctic Ocean along the 180°–0° meridian toward Fram Strait during mid- to late Pleistocene deglaciations within the last 700,000 years. This iceberg drift was different from the present-day Beaufort Gyre circulation and resembled a dislocated transpolar drift (TPD). Sea ice mainly followed the iceberg trajectories but also frequently drifted from the Russian shelves eastward into the Amerasian Basin.