Improved Timing of Deglaciation of the Southwestern Scandinavian Ice Sheet Using 10Be Dating

Abstract:

We present 28 new ¹⁰Be ages from glacial erratic boulders to constrain Scandinavian Ice Sheet deglaciation along the major fjord system of Boknafjorden in southwest Norway. Results indicate ages in the range 20-14 ka and complement our previous findings that the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream (NCIS) had retreated some 400 km as early as ~20 ka (Svendsen et al., 2015) and further corroborate that this was followed by a second pulse of deglaciation at ~16 ka. After the immediate coast was rendered an ice-free corridor at ~20 ka, our new suite of ages identifies ~16 ka as a period of a possible culmination of re-advance, and almost certainly the onset of a subsequent period of retreat. These findings are promising for the possibility of long lake sediment archives from areas around the mouth of Boknafjorden. Additionally, by coupling our new ¹⁰Be ages of erratic boulders from sea level and from summits bordering Boknafjorden with topographic profiles and rudimentary ice-sheet profile calculations (Benn and Hulton, 2010), we are able to estimate spatial and temporal Scandinavian Ice Sheet history along both vertical and horizontal transects. Our results not only fill chronological gaps and add to a growing database of ages of deglaciation from the southwest Norway, but also provide new constraints for a three-dimensional reconstruction of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet during deglaciation.