Stable isotope stratigraphy and paleoceanography during the Last Deglaciation on the continental shelf off Troms, northern Norway

Abstract

A stable oxygen and carbon isotope stratigraphy is established for a Late Weichselian/Holocene glaciomarine/marine sequence in Andfjorden and Malangsdjupet on the continental shelf off Troms, Northern Norway. The stratigraphy demonstrates that the global signals, Termination I B and possibly also I A (upper parts), are present and radiocarbon date to 10.3–9.7 kyr B.P. and >14–13.5 kyr B.P., respectively. A temperature increase of 5°–6°C and possibly a small salinity increase occurred during Term. I. A near‐glacial environment between 13 and 14 kyr B.P. was characterized by poorly ventilated bottom waters followed by a meltwater pulse at circa 13 kyr B.P. During the beginning intrusion of Atlantic Water between 13 and 10 kyr B.P., the bottom water was characterized by somewhat fluctuating temperatures and salinities. Temperatures close to those of the present were established around 9.7 kyr B.P. and seem to have been rather stable since.