Glacial history of the Northeast Greenland continental shelf and adjacent waters revealed by hydro-acoustic data

Abstract

During the last glacial maximum, 26,500-19,000 years before present, the entire Greenland Ice Sheet extended onto the continental shelf that today is covered by the ocean. However, its extent on the shelf is still not resolved. The bathymetry of the shelf reveals morphologic remnants that have been created by this extensive ice sheet. These remnants, also referred to as submarine glacial landforms, allow us to infer the extent of the past Greenland Ice Sheet as well as giving information of its ice stream pathways and its retreat behavior in the succession of the last ice age. In this thesis, data that have been acquired since the 1980s in the waters offshore Northeast Greenland have been investigated for submarine glacial landforms that are used to derive the setting of the past ice sheet system.