| Title | Evidence for an extensive ice shelf in northern Baffin Bay during the Last Glacial Maximum |
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| Author | Couette, P -O; Lajeunesse, P; Ghienne, J -F ; Dorschel, B; Gebhardt, C;
Hebbeln, D; Brouard, E |
| Source | Communications Earth & Environment vol. 3, issue 1, 2022 p. 1-12, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00559-7  Open Access |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2022 |
| Alt Series | Natural Resources Canada, Contribution Series 20220453 |
| Publisher | Nature |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; digital; on-line |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Nunavut; Northern offshore region |
| NTS | 16; 26; 36; 27; 37; 28; 38; 48 |
| Area | Baffin Island; Baffin Bay |
| Lat/Long WENS | -85.0000 -55.0000 75.0000 65.0000 |
| Subjects | surficial geology/geomorphology; ice; glaciology; ice sheets; ice flow; deglaciation; Laurentide Ice Sheet; Innuitian Ice Sheet; Greenland Ice Sheet |
| Illustrations | location maps; bathymetric profiles; 3-D images; lithologic logs |
| Released | 2022 12 01 |
| Abstract | The glaciological significance of ice shelves is relatively well established for the stability of modern ice sheets of Antarctica. Past ice shelves of the Arctic, however, are poorly documented while
their role for the stability of former ice sheets remains mostly unknown. Here we present swath bathymetry data and seismostratigraphic profiles that reveal a large moraine system extending along the continental slope off Baffin Island, demonstrating
that a 500-m thick ice shelf covered northern Baffin Bay during the last glacial episode. We suggest that this ice shelf had a profound impact on the stability of a series of major ice streams that drained the interior of the Laurentide, Innuitian
and Greenland ice sheets. Climate warming and global sea-level rise in the early stage of deglaciation possibly contributed to a large-scale break-up of the ice shelf, which led to the destabilisation and reorganisation of tributary ice streams from
these three ice sheets. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The importance of ice shelves for the stability of present-day ice sheets such as Antarctica is well established. However, pre-historic record of ice
shelves in the Arctic is poorly documented. Here we present bathymetry and sub-seafloor profiles in Western Baffin Bay, that indicate the existence of a 500-m thick ice shelf in northern Baffin Bay during the last glacial episode. We suggest that
this ice shelf had a profound impact on the stability of glaciers that drained the ice sheets around Baffin Bay at that time. Climate warming and global sea-level rise in the early stage of deglaciation possibly contributed to a large-scale break-up
of the ice shelf, which led to the destabilisation and reorganisation of glaciers from these ice sheets. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 331280 |
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