Late Quaternary environmental history of central Prins Karls Forland, western Svalbard

This paper presents the results from stratigraphic and geomorphologic inves tigations in the Poolepynten area, Prins Karls Forland, western Svalbard. F ield mapping, soil profile development and C-14 dating reveal the existence of at least two generations of raised beach deposits. Well-developed raise d beaches rise to the Late Weichselian marine limit at 36 m a.s.l. Disconti nuous pre-Late Weichselian beach deposits rise from the Late Weichselian ma rine limit to approximately 65 m a.s.l. Expansion of local glaciers in the area, during the Late Weichselian is indicated by a till that locally overl ies pre-late Weichselian raised beach deposits. Stratigraphic data from coa stal sections reveal two shallow marine units deposited during part of oxyg en isotope stage 5. The two shallow marine units are separated by a subglac ially deposited till that indicates an ice advance from Prins Karls Forland into the Forlandsundet basin some time during the latter part of stage 5. Discontinuous glaciofluvial deposits and a cobble-boulder lag could relate to a Late Weichselian local glacial advance across the coastal site. Late W eichselian/early Holocene beach deposits cap the sedimentary succession. Pa laeotemperature estimates derived from amino acid ratios in subfossil marin e molluscs indicate that the area has not been submerged or covered by warm based glacier ice for significant periods of time during the time interval ca. 70 ka to 10 ka.