THE QUATERNARY RECORD OF EASTERN SVALBARD - AN OVERVIEW

The eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago and the adjacent areas of the Barents Sea were subject to extensive erosion during the Late Wei chselian glaciation. Small remnants of older sediment successions have been preserved on Edgeoya, whereas a more complete succession on Kong soya contains sediments from two different ice-free periods, both prob ably older than the Early Weichselian. Ice movement indicators in the region suggest that the Late Weichselian ice radiated from a centre ea st of Kong Karls Land. On Bjornoya, on the edge of the Barents Shelf, the lack of raised shorelines or glacial striae from the east indicate s that the western parts of the ice sheet were thin during the Late We ichselian. The deglaciation of Edgeoya and Barentsoya occurred ca 10,3 00 BP as a response to calving of the marine-based portion of the ice sheet. Atlantic water, which does not much influence the coasts of eas tern Svalbard today, penetrated the northwestern Barents Sea shortly a fter the deglaciation. At that time, the coastal environment was chara cterised by extensive longshore sediment transport and deposition of s pits at the mouths of shallow palaeo-fjords.