LIMITS ON THE AREAL EXTENT OF THE BARENTS SEA-ICE SHEET IN LATE WEICHSELIAN TIME

Observations of Lateglacial and Holocene sea levels from the Barents S ea region provide constraints on the grounded ice sheet during Late We ichselian time. Ice sheets that were restricted primarily to the Svalb ard islands and the immediate shallow sea floor are inadequate to expl ain the observed age-height relations across the region. Instead, the ice sheet extended out to the edge of the shelf and attained a maximum thickness of the order of 3000 m over the central region of the Baren ts Sea. Ice volumes to the east of Novaya Zemlya have been small compa red to the ice over the Barents Sea. The raised shoreline information from western Spitsbergen implies that retreat of ice over this area wa s initially slow until about 13,000 yr B.P. following which the remain ing deglaciation appears to have been rapid.