The problem of genesis of quaternary deposits of the Barents Sea as a reflection of the overall crisis of glacial theory

Abstract

This article continues the discussion on quaternary geology and paleogeography of the vast and well-studied shelf of the Barents Sea. The object this research is the relief and quaternary formations of the Barents shelf. The data of seismic-acoustic profiling and materials of engineering-geological drilling were used. Since the Barents shelf is a high-latitude area of Holocene sedimentation, the author analyzes various aspects of the quaternary sediments genesis, taking into account the geographic zoning of marine sedimentation processes and an increase in the gravitational consolidation of sediments down through the section. The genetic link between the microstructure and the degree of consolidation of clayey sediments with their seismic image was revealed, which was considered in interpretation of seismic profiling materials. Over the Barents shelf, the cover of weakly consolidated sediments of the last marine transgression is separated from the underlying morainelike or pre-quaternary sediments by a diachronous boundary of stratigraphic and sometimes angular unconformity. The transgression is not of glacioeustatic, but of tectonic nature. During the hiatus that preceded it, an erosional relief with river valleys and their tributaries was formed, the main features of which have been preserved in the northern deep-water part of the sea. The conclusion is argued that approbation of the glacial theory on the example of high-latitude Arctic shelf contradicts the facts and main provisions of glaciology, reflecting the overall crisis of this theory.