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.