Evidence for an ice shelf covering the central Arctic Ocean during the penultimate glaciation

Martin Jakobsson, Johan Nilsson, Leif Anderson, Jan Backman, Göran Björk, Thomas M. Cronin, Nina Kirchner, Andrey Koshurnikov, Larry Mayer, Riko Noormets, Matthew O'Regan, Christian Stranne, Roman Ananiev, Natalia Barrientos Macho, Denis Cherniykh, Helen Coxall, Björn Eriksson, Tom Flodén, Laura Gemery, Örjan GustafssonKevin Jerram, Carina Johansson, Alexey Khortov, Rezwan Mohammad, Igor Semiletov

Arctic Seas Carbon Research Internatonal Lab

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The hypothesis of a km-thick ice shelf covering the entire Arctic Ocean during peak glacial conditions was proposed nearly half a century ago. Floating ice shelves preserve few direct traces after their disappearance, making reconstructions difficult. Seafloor imprints of ice shelves should, however, exist where ice grounded along their flow paths. Here we present new evidence of ice-shelf groundings on bathymetric highs in the central Arctic Ocean, resurrecting the concept of an ice shelf extending over the entire central Arctic Ocean during at least one previous ice age. New and previously mapped glacial landforms together reveal flow of a spatially coherent, in some regions >1-km thick, central Arctic Ocean ice shelf dated to marine isotope stage 6 (∼140ka). Bathymetric highs were likely critical in the ice-shelf development by acting as pinning points where stabilizing ice rises formed, thereby providing sufficient back stress to allow ice shelf thickening.

Original language	English
Article number	10365
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10365
Publication status	Published - 18 Jan 2016

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ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Chemistry(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

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Jakobsson, M., Nilsson, J., Anderson, L., Backman, J., Björk, G., Cronin, T. M., Kirchner, N., Koshurnikov, A., Mayer, L., Noormets, R., O'Regan, M., Stranne, C., Ananiev, R., Barrientos Macho, N., Cherniykh, D., Coxall, H., Eriksson, B., Flodén, T., Gemery, L., ... Semiletov, I. (2016). Evidence for an ice shelf covering the central Arctic Ocean during the penultimate glaciation. Nature Communications, 7, [10365]. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10365

Evidence for an ice shelf covering the central Arctic Ocean during the penultimate glaciation. / Jakobsson, Martin; Nilsson, Johan; Anderson, Leif; Backman, Jan; Björk, Göran; Cronin, Thomas M.; Kirchner, Nina; Koshurnikov, Andrey; Mayer, Larry; Noormets, Riko; O'Regan, Matthew; Stranne, Christian; Ananiev, Roman; Barrientos Macho, Natalia; Cherniykh, Denis; Coxall, Helen; Eriksson, Björn; Flodén, Tom; Gemery, Laura; Gustafsson, Örjan; Jerram, Kevin; Johansson, Carina; Khortov, Alexey; Mohammad, Rezwan; Semiletov, Igor.

In: Nature Communications, Vol. 7, 10365, 18.01.2016.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Jakobsson, M, Nilsson, J, Anderson, L, Backman, J, Björk, G, Cronin, TM, Kirchner, N, Koshurnikov, A, Mayer, L, Noormets, R, O'Regan, M, Stranne, C, Ananiev, R, Barrientos Macho, N, Cherniykh, D, Coxall, H, Eriksson, B, Flodén, T, Gemery, L, Gustafsson, Ö, Jerram, K, Johansson, C, Khortov, A, Mohammad, R & Semiletov, I 2016, 'Evidence for an ice shelf covering the central Arctic Ocean during the penultimate glaciation', Nature Communications, vol. 7, 10365. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10365

Jakobsson, Martin ; Nilsson, Johan ; Anderson, Leif ; Backman, Jan ; Björk, Göran ; Cronin, Thomas M. ; Kirchner, Nina ; Koshurnikov, Andrey ; Mayer, Larry ; Noormets, Riko ; O'Regan, Matthew ; Stranne, Christian ; Ananiev, Roman ; Barrientos Macho, Natalia ; Cherniykh, Denis ; Coxall, Helen ; Eriksson, Björn ; Flodén, Tom ; Gemery, Laura ; Gustafsson, Örjan ; Jerram, Kevin ; Johansson, Carina ; Khortov, Alexey ; Mohammad, Rezwan ; Semiletov, Igor. / Evidence for an ice shelf covering the central Arctic Ocean during the penultimate glaciation. In: Nature Communications. 2016 ; Vol. 7.

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abstract = "The hypothesis of a km-thick ice shelf covering the entire Arctic Ocean during peak glacial conditions was proposed nearly half a century ago. Floating ice shelves preserve few direct traces after their disappearance, making reconstructions difficult. Seafloor imprints of ice shelves should, however, exist where ice grounded along their flow paths. Here we present new evidence of ice-shelf groundings on bathymetric highs in the central Arctic Ocean, resurrecting the concept of an ice shelf extending over the entire central Arctic Ocean during at least one previous ice age. New and previously mapped glacial landforms together reveal flow of a spatially coherent, in some regions >1-km thick, central Arctic Ocean ice shelf dated to marine isotope stage 6 (∼140ka). Bathymetric highs were likely critical in the ice-shelf development by acting as pinning points where stabilizing ice rises formed, thereby providing sufficient back stress to allow ice shelf thickening.",

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AU - Gemery, Laura

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AU - Jerram, Kevin

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AU - Khortov, Alexey

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10.1038/ncomms10365