https://notendur.hi.is/~oi/AG-326%202006%20readings/Canadian%20Arctic/Dyke_QSR2002.pdf

The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum

Stable oxygen and-carbon isotope and sedimentological-paleontological investigations supported by accelerator mass spectrometry (14)C datings were carried out on cores from north of 85 degrees N in the eastern central Arctic Ocean. Significant changes in accumulation rates, provenance of ice-rafted debris (IRD), and planktic productivity over the past 80,000 years are documented. During peak glacials, i.e., oxygen isotope stages 4 and 2, the Arctic Ocean was covered by sea ice with decreased seasonal variation, limiting planktic productivity and bulk sedimentation rates. In early stage 3 and during Termination I, major deglaciations of the circum-Arctic regions caused lowered salinities and poor oxygenation of central Arctic surface waters. A meltwater spike and an associated IRD peak dated to similar to 14-12 (14)C ka can be traced over the southern Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean. This event was associated with the early and rapid deglaciation of the marine-based Barents Sea Ice Sheet. A separate Termination Ib meltwater event is most conspicuous in the central Arctic and is associated with characteristic dolomitic carbonate IRD. This lithology suggests an origin of glacial ice from northern Canada and northern Greenland where lower Paleozoic platform carbonates crop extensively out.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/97PA03409

Central Arctic surface ocean environment during the past 80,000 years

https://notendur.hi.is/oi/AG-326%202006%20readings/Canadian%20Arctic/Dyke_QSR99.pdf

Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation of devon island, arctic canada: support for an innuitian ice sheet

Reconciling records of ice streaming and ice margin retreat to produce a palaeogeographic reconstruction of the deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

The composition of Pleistocene ice-rafted debris (IRD) >250 gm was analyzed quantitatively by grain counting in five sediment cores t¾om the western central Arctic Ocean and compared with the composition of till clasts from NW Canada in order to determine the dropstone origin and to reconstruct the Pleistocene ice drillways and surface currents. The IRD composition alternates repeatedly between carbonate- and quartz-dominated assemblages, along with metamorphic and igneous rocks, clastic rocks, and some chert. The highest quartz content is found on the Alpha Ridge, while carbonate percentages are highest on the Northwind Ridge (NWR) and the Chukchi Cap. The source for the carbonates is the area around Banks and Victoria Islands and parts of northern Canada. Quartz most likely originated from the central Queen Elizabeth Islands. IRD on the southeastern Alpha Ridge is dominated by mafic crystalline rocks from northern Ellesmere Island and northern Greenland. At least six major glacial intervals are identified within the last 1 million years, during which icebergs drifted toward the west in the Beaufort Sea, straight northward in the central Arctic Ocean, and northeastward on the SE Alpha Ridge.

R.M. Koerner

Papers

Quaternary Geology of the Queen Elizabeth Islands