Michael Houmark-Nielsen

Twelve palaeogeographical reconstructions illustrate environmental changes at the southwest rim of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet 40–15 kyr BP. Synchronised land, sea and glacier configurations are based on the lithostratigraphy of tills and intertill sediments. Dating is provided by optically stimulated luminescence and calibrated accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon.An interstadial sequence ca. 40–30 kyr BP with boreo‐arctic proglacial fjords and subarctic flora and occasional glaciation in the Baltic was succeeded by a Last Glacial Maximum sequence ca. 30–20 kyr BP, with the closure of fjords and subsequent ice streams in glacial lake basins in Kattegat and the Baltic. Steadily flowing ice from Sweden bordered the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream. A deglaciation sequence ca. 20–15 kyr BP indicates the transgression of arctic waters, retreat of the Swedish ice and advance of Baltic ice streams succeeded by a return to interstadial conditions.When ameliorated ice‐free conditions prevailed in maritime regions, glaciers advanced through the Baltic and when interstadial regimes dominated the Baltic, glaciers expanded off the Norwegian coast. The largest glacier extent was reached in the North Sea around 29 kyr BP, about 22 kyr BP in Denmark and ca. 18 kyr BP in the Baltic. Our model provides new data for future numerical and qualitative landform‐based models. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An extensive set of proxy‐data was acquired from eastern and central Denmark in order to study the dynamic behaviour of the southwestern margin of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet. We examine the last three glacier advances of the Late Weichselian: the Main advance from central Sweden, representing the maximum ice extent at this time (c. 21–20 ka BP), and the two succeeding Baltic advances (c. 18–15 ka BP). Directional properties from tills and glaciotectonic overprints are used to reveal large‐scale flowline patterns. Together with the geomorphological outline of ice margins, flowlines were successively more fan‐shaped, indicating that the dependence of the subglacial topography increases as ice advances become younger. It is suggested that while the ice thickness decreases, more lobate configurations of ice margins are created as a result. Clast‐compositional data derived from the fine‐gravel fraction in tills are used to reconstruct dispersal patterns of erratic material. The dispersal patterns during the three advances show a gradually diminishing influence of local Pre‐Quaternary bedrocks and older glacial deposits, and progressively longer transport distances of far‐travelled erratics. We speculate that the principal factor governing this development is a successively decreasing interaction between the ice and its bed, which influences the concentration of erratics, debris comminution processes and the basal ice velocity. We envisage the Main advance from central Sweden as a slow‐flowing inter‐stream ice body with high bed interaction compared to the succeeding Baltic advances, which we regard to have been rapid flowing ice streams with limited bed interaction.

An extensive set of proxy-data was acquired from eastern and central Denmark in order to study the dynamic behaviour of the southwestern margin of the last Scandinavian Ice Sheet. We examine the last three glacier advances of the Late Weichselian: the Main advance from central Sweden, representing the maximum ice extent at this time (c. 21-20 ka BP), and the two succeeding Baltic advances (c. 18-15 ka BP). Directional properties from tills and glaciotectonic overprints are used to reveal large-scale flowline patterns. Together with the geomorphological outline of ice margins, flowlines were successively more fan-shaped, indicating that the dependence of the subglacial topography increases as ice advances become younger. It is suggested that while the ice thickness decreases. more lobate configurations of ice margins are created as a result. Clast-compositional data derived from the fine-gravel fraction in tills are used to reconstruct dispersal patterns of erratic material. The dispersal patterns during the three advances show a gradually diminishing influence of local Pre-Quaternary bedrocks and older glacial deposits, and progressively longer transport distances of far-travelled erratics. We speculate that the principal factor governing this development is a successively decreasing interaction between the ice and its bed, which influences the concentration of erratics. debris comminution processes and the basal ice velocity. We envisage the Main advance from central Sweden as a slow-flowing inter-stream ice body with high bed interaction compared to the succeeding Baltic advances, which we regard to have been rapid flowing ice streams with limited bed interaction

At the end of the Middle Weichselian (30–25 ka BP) a glacier advance from southern Norway, termed the Kattegat Ice Stream, covered northern Denmark, the Kattegat Sea floor and the Swedish West Coast during onset of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) at the southwest margin of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. The lithostratigraphic unit deposited by the ice stream is the till of the Kattegat Formation (Kattegat till). Because morphological features have been erased by later glacial events, stratigraphic control and timing are decisive. The former ice stream is identified by the dispersal of Oslo indicator erratics from southern Norway and by glaciodynamic structures combined with glaciotectonic deformation of subtill sediments. Ice movement was generally from northerly directions and the flow pattern is fan‐shaped in marginal areas. To the east, the Kattegat Ice Stream was flanked by passive glaciers in southern Sweden and its distribution was probably governed by the presence of low permeability and highly deformable marine and lacustrine deposits. When glaciers from southern Norway blocked the Norwegian Channel, former marine basins in the Skagerrak and Kattegat experienced glaciolacustrine conditions around 31–29 ka BP. The Kattegat Ice Stream became active some time between 29 ka BP and 26 ka BP, when glaciers from the Oslo region penetrated deep into the shallow depression occupied by the Kattegat Ice Lake. Deglaciation and an interlude with periglacial and glaciolacustrine sedimentation lasted until c. 24–22 ka BP and were succeeded by the Main Glacier Advance from central Sweden reaching the limit of Late Weichselian glaciations in Denmark around 22–20 ka BP, the peak of the LGM. This was followed by deglaciation and marine inundation in the Kattegat and Skagerrak around 17 ka BP.

Open sections along Kongsfjodhallet, the north-western coast Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, exhibit marine and glacigenic sediments of Early to Late Plestocene age. Glaciatio, deglaciation and subsequent isostatic rebound caused the formation of three sedimentary successions (A, B and C) that comprise till grading upward into glaciomarine mud, followed by shell-bearing sand, and finally littoral sand and gravel. Six major lithostratigraphic units are recognized. Succession C comprises units 1 and 2, which were deposited during an Early Pleistocene glaciation, followed by deglaciation and subsequent beach progradation. Succession B is divisible into units 3 and 4 and reflects glaciation and eventual emergence as a result of isostatic response. The youngest succesion (A) comprises units 5 and 6, and reflects fiord glaciation followed by a regression during an Early Weichselian glaciation-deglaciation episode. Ice-free conditions may have prevailed untill the Late Weichselian, when a glaciation, confined to the fiord trough, covered parts of Kongsfjordhallet. Deglaciation and isostatic rebound are recorded by Holocene marine terraces up to ca 40 m a. s. l. Marine and glacial events from Kongsfjordhallet are compared with stratigraphic evidence from adjacent regions and it is suggested that the Late Weichselian ice configuration was of a more restricted nature than proposed by previous authors. Glaciers. draining through the larger ford troughs reached the shelf break. while at the same time other parts of western Svalbard could have experienced restricted glaciation.