CORIBAR – Ice dynamics and meltwater deposits in the NW Barents Sea

CORIBAR

Ice dynamics and meltwater deposits: coring in the Kveithola Trough, NW Barents Sea

The rate of ice-sheet retreat across polar continental shelves, ice-stream collapses and their relationships to short-term sea-level changes during deglacial periods are a matter of debate. However, if the associated catchment area and ice reservoir of an ice-stream system are locally restricted, the deposits which typically form in such an environment record sensitively these ice advance and retreat dynamics as a result of climatic variability. In this project, we want to decipher rapid climatic changes in the north-Atlantic context by

a) Reconstructing the ice-stream dynamics in the Kveithola region (NW Barents Sea);

b) Understanding the sedimentation dynamics at the neighboring continental slope in response to meltwater discharge and ice-stream history;

c) Investigating the sedimentation dynamics and depocenter formations on the associated shallow continental shelf; and

d) Reconstructing the sea-ice history with regard to changes in marine productivity and deep-water formation processes. This international initiative aims to use the seafloor drill rig MeBo for obtaining sediment cores with the for this study necessary length of up to 70 m, flanked by a sediment-acoustic and conventional coring program.

Collaboration:

Alfred-Wegener-Inst for Marine Polar Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

Inst of Marine Sciences, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

Dept of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Germany

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark

MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany

National Inst for Oceanographic and Geophysic Sciences, Trieste, Italy

Dept of Environmental and Life Sciences, Polytechnical University of Marche, Ancona, Italy

Dept of Geology, University of Tromsø, Norway