2-STEP DEGLACIATION OF THE SOUTHEASTERN BARENTS SEA

Marine geologic evidence from the western Barents Sea shelf leaves lit tle doubt that the area was covered by grounded ice during the last gl aciation, but the pattern and timing of the subsequent deglaciation we re not well determined, Here we reconstruct the timing and mechanism o f ice-sheet retreat as constrained by seismic stratigraphy and litho-s tratigraphy and accelerator-mass-spectrometer C-14 dating of foraminif era and mollusc shells in sediment borings from the southeastern Baren ts Sea, similar to 1000 km from the western shelf edge and former ice- sheet margin, The deposition of ice-proximal glaciomarine sediments up on till began at or shortly before 12.7 ka, indicating that the ice-sh eet retreat-which most likely commenced along the,western margin of th e Barents Sea shelf at 15-14.5 ka-reached the southeastern part of the shelf in less than or equal to 2 ka, The subsequent accumulation of g laciomarine sediments took place in two distinct pulses (similar to-12 .7-12.1 ka and similar to 10.5-9.4 ka) separated by an interval of non deposition lasting greater than or equal to 1.5 ka, The two pulses of sedimentation were coeval with periods of increasing surface-water and air temperatures in the northern Atlantic region and accelerated eust atic sea-level rise, suggesting that the remaining retreat of the Bare nts Shelf ice sheet was paced by these factors.