Weichselian land-sea interactions: Western Norway-Norwegian sea

Abstract

Six major Weichselian glacier expansions (including the Younger Dryas) are recorded in western Norway. Three of the advances reached the continental shelf while the others were restricted to the coastal areas. During the Upper Weichselian glacial maximum (18–20 ka) there was an ice-free corridor between the British and the Scandinavian ice sheets in the northern North Sea. More or less complete deglaciation of southern Norway seems to have happened some time around 90 and 70 ka. Large parts of the Norwegian Sea were at least seasonally open with influx of Atlantic surface water in periods through Isotope Substage 5d to Stage 4. Possibly also during a short time interval close to the 2/3 boundary a small area in the southeastern Norwegian Sea was ice-free. All these influxes of Atlantic water seem to correlate to periods with interstadial conditions in western Norway. During times with the most extensive continental glaciations there are no traces of any influx of Atlantic surface water. The western Norwegian glacial record and the Norwegian Sea surface circulation record seem to vary with a ca. 20 ka cycle during the Weichselian. This indicates a dominance of the precessional orbital forcing between the ca. 100 ka interglacial-glacial-interglacial cycle.