Pleistocene raised marine deposits on Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia and implications for the presence of an East Siberian ice sheet

Abstract

Two previously undocumented Pleistocene marine transgressions on Wrangel Island, northeastern Siberia, question the presence of an East Siberian or Beringian ice sheet during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The Tundrovayan Transgression (459,000–780,000 yr B.P.) is represented by raised marine deposits and landforms 15–41 m asl located up to 18 km inland. The presence of high sea level 64,000–73,000 yr ago (the Krasny Flagian Transgression) is preserved in deposits and landforms 4–7 m asl in the Krasny Flag valley. These deposits and landforms were mapped, dated, and described using amino acid geochronology, radiocarbon, optically stimulated luminescence, electron spin resonance, oxygen isotopes, micropaleontology, paleomagnetism, and grain sizes. The marine deposits are eustatic and not isostatic in origin. All marine deposits on Wrangel Island predate the LGM, indicating that neither Wrangel Island nor the East Siberian or Chukchi Seas experienced extensive glaciation over the last 64,000 yr.