Comprehensive Interpretation of the Ice Sheet-Ocean Current Interaction Around the Baffin Bay

English Abstract:

Baffin Bay is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean, bounded by Greenland to the east, Ellesmere Island to the north and Baffin Island towards west, and connected to the Arctic Ocean through Nares Strait and through the Canadian Archipelago. With its location between the Greenland, Innuitian and Laurentide ice sheets, Baffin Bay is a key location in understanding the glacial history of the Arctic region. Several studies from this area have revealed that the development of the ice sheets has been tightly coupled to the oceanic circulation in this area. Existing low-resolution bathymetric data both from the Greenland and Canadian boundaries show fjords with associated cross-trough channels. Bathymetric and sediment echosounder data from RV Polarstern expeditions ARK-XXIII/3 (2008) and ARK-XXV/3 (2010) through Lancester Sound and from the Greenland side of the Baffin Bay show a high variety in glaciogenic bedforms, ranging from iceberg scours to moraines, erosional discordances and mass wasting deposits. Bathymetric data from the Canadian fjords show comparable features. In the framework of ArcTrain, a series of expeditions to Baffin Bay is planned for the next couple of years to systematically map key areas, to gain information on the past ocean circulation and hence to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of the Greenland, Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets, their similarities and differences, and leads and lags in their waxing and waning. This forms a prerequisite for modeling and predicting the future response of the Greenland ice sheet to changing climate and oceanographic conditions. The first expedition MerMet13-48 on RV Maria S. Merian is scheduled for summer 2015.