Last Glacial - Present Glacial Activity in East Greenland Fjords Inferred from Swath Bathymetry and High-Resolution Seismic Data

Abstract:

Swath bathymetry and high-resolution penetration echo sounder (chirp) data from fjords and sounds between Kong Oscars Fjord and Bredefjord, East Greenland, reveal glacial landforms and sedimentary processes that can be used to infer glacial activity from the last glacial to the present.

Relatively straight, linear features oriented parallel to the fjord axes, as well as beyond the mouths of some fjords, are interpreted to be glacial lineations providing evidence of fast-flowing grounded ice draining the eastern parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the last glacial. In some areas, the glacial lineations are the only preserved glacigenic landfjorms (e.g. beyond the mouth of Bredefjord). However, in other areas, they are covered with multiple transverse ridges interpreted to be small terminal moraines (e.g. in Youngsund). Whereas the absence of such moraines is suggested to represent a rapid ice retreat due to lift-up and disintegration during parts of the deglaciation, their presence reflects that multiple halts and/or re-advances interrupted the retreat.

Acoustically stratified sediment sequences dominate the fjord-fill stratigraphies (up to 180 ms two-way travel time). These deposits are suggested to reflect repeatedly changing lithological compositions in a glacimarine environment where deposition mainly occurred from suspension fall-out, in addition to ice rafting from icebergs calving off from tidewater glaciers, and sea ice. The stratified deposits form often relatively uniform drapes indicating that the tidewater glaciers were mainly located near the fjord heads since the last deglaciation. However, acoustically transparent bodies with irregular geometries, intercalated within the stratified deposits, occur in some of the inner fjords. These are suggested to be glacigenic sediment wedges (debris-flow lobes) that formed during relatively recent advances of tidewater glaciers (e.g. in Nordfjord and Moskusoksefjord).