Late quaternary sediments and chronology of the northeast Labrador Shelf (Karlsefni Trough, Saglek Bank): Links to glacial history

Core HC87033-015, an 11-m-long giant piston core from the western end of Ka rlsefni Trough, was taken only 25 km from the coast of northernmost Labrado r. The regional acoustic framework was established via a high-resolution, d eep-towed (Huntec DTS) seismic survey. We recognized four acoustic facies t hat are associated with designated and recovered major lithologic units. Th e ages of these units were determined from 13 accelerator mass spectrometry C-14 dates from marine biogenic carbonates. These results suggest that gla cial ice was present on the shelf from at least the mid-Wisconsinan and tha t the basal sequence contains reworked glacial-marine diamicton. Furthermor e, our data provide the first evidence that the northern Labrador inner she lf was ice free by ca. 11 C-14 ka. The bulk of the postglacial deposition w as around 8.2 ka and consists of increased detrital carbonate deposition. T he deposition of this detrital carbonate is age equivalent with DC-0 on the southeastern Baffin Shelf and in the North Atlantic.