Quaternary glaciations in southern Fennoscandia: evidence from southwestern Norway and the northern North Sea region

Timing of massive ‘Fleuve Manche’ discharges over the last 350kyr: insights into the European ice-sheet oscillations and the European drainage network from MIS 10 to 2

“…Because Late Weichselian ice sheets never reached the English Channel area (Ehlers and Gibbard, 2004), we conclude that the Rhine-Thames drainage, which was a conduit for sediment-laden meltwater from the BIIS, FIS and the Alpine glaciers, flowed via the Dover Strait into the Bay of Biscay at the end of the last glacial period, confirming previous proposals by Gibbard (1988) and Busschers et al (2007). Coalescence of the BIIS and FIS in the North Sea basin is proposed for the last glacial period (Sejrup et al, 1994;Sejrup et al, 2000;Carr et al, 2006;Graham et al, 2007;Bradwell et al, 2008;Sejrup et al, in press) and we assume that the southwards-directed drainage pattern described originates from this glacial configuration. The significant increase of terrigenous flux detected at ca.…”

“…This pattern, combined with the retreat of the ice sheet in the northern North Sea from ca. 25 ka (Sejrup et al, 2000;Bradwell et al, 2008;Sejrup et al, in press), supports the hypothesis of Bradwell et al (2008) concerning the decoupling of the BIIS and FIS from the north, and interpreted by the authors as a result of rising sea-level. In the light of our results, and in agreement with the chronology proposed by Carr et al (2006), we propose, therefore, that the BIIS and FIS were confluent in the central North Sea up to ca.…”

“…Gibbard, 1995;Meijer and Preece, 1995;Van Vliet-Lanoë et al, 2000;Gupta et al, 2007;Busschers et al, 2008), it is now generally accepted that the North Sea fluvial systems have been on several occasions diverted southwards into the English Channel since the onset of extensive continental glaciations. The invasions of ice masses in the Northern European Lowlands over the last about 600 kyr Ehlers and Gibbard, 2007) strongly modified the fluvial directions of the central European rivers, and forced the present-day Elbe, Rhine and Thames rivers to flow southwards during periods of coalescence of the Fennoscandian (FIS) and British-Irish (BIIS) ice sheets in the North Sea basin (Gibbard, 1988;Sejrup et al, 2000). Numerous studies have attempted palaeogeographical reconstructions of drainage directions of the major European rivers (Gibbard, 1988;Bridgland and D'Olier, 1995;Bridgland, 2002;Busschers et al, 2007;Busschers et al, 2008) and of invasions of continental ice in the North Sea basin during glacial periods (Zagwijn, 1973;Ehlers, 1990;Sejrup et al, 2000;Busschers et al, 2008;Sejrup et al, in press).…”

“…The invasions of ice masses in the Northern European Lowlands over the last about 600 kyr Ehlers and Gibbard, 2007) strongly modified the fluvial directions of the central European rivers, and forced the present-day Elbe, Rhine and Thames rivers to flow southwards during periods of coalescence of the Fennoscandian (FIS) and British-Irish (BIIS) ice sheets in the North Sea basin (Gibbard, 1988;Sejrup et al, 2000). Numerous studies have attempted palaeogeographical reconstructions of drainage directions of the major European rivers (Gibbard, 1988;Bridgland and D'Olier, 1995;Bridgland, 2002;Busschers et al, 2007;Busschers et al, 2008) and of invasions of continental ice in the North Sea basin during glacial periods (Zagwijn, 1973;Ehlers, 1990;Sejrup et al, 2000;Busschers et al, 2008;Sejrup et al, in press). However, the combined erosional effects of the successive alternating ice-advances and sea-level variations have caused scarcity of long-term shallow marine and continental sequences (e.g.…”

Expansion of subarctic water masses in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans and implications for mid‐Pleistocene ice sheet growth

“…There is evidence, nevertheless, for advance of the Scandinavian ice sheet at around 1.1 Ma [Sejrup et al, 2000] and significant increases in IRD in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas after 1.0 Ma [Fronval and Jansen, 1996;Ruddiman et al, 1986]. Mean global ice volume, however, underwent a later stepwise increase during the intense glacial cooling of MIS 22 (0.9 Ma), the proposed onset of the MPT [Mudelsee and Schulz, 1997].…”