Reconstructing the Limits of the Last Glaciation and Postglacial Environments in the Southeastern Barents and Southwestern Kara Seas

首席调查员将试图确定最新的巴伦茨-卡拉冰盖备受争议的东南部边缘并确定其年代。这一主要的北半球海洋冰盖的不确定形状导致了在最后一次冰盛期及之后的冰和海平面分布的全球模型中存在显著差异。一个主要问题与巴伦支省-卡拉冰盖的东南范围有关。目前尚不清楚魏克赛尔晚期的冰层是否进入了西伯利亚西部和伯克拉低地的海岸。他推测，应该在新亚泽姆利亚群岛南部和东部的巴伦支海和喀拉海的大陆架上调查冰盖的界限。首席调查员将组织一个俄美海洋学项目，从伯霍拉海和喀拉海西南部恢复受时间限制的冰盖发育和后气候环境历史的地球物理和沉积记录。目标是通过地震、侧扫和穿透声纳剖面，建立冰川边缘地带的综合特征，并在关键地点恢复长沉积岩心。在严格的年代地层控制的支持下，将分析沉积物记录的岩性、古生物和地球化学指标。他预计将确定：1)最后一次冰川的边缘位置，2)冰川达到顶峰的时间和撤退的速度，以及3)巴伦支海南部和喀拉海冰后环境演变中的重大(极端)事件。尽管他不打算对晚全新世进行详细研究，但他可以利用积累的数据来调查欧亚北极最近的气候变化。

The Principal Investigator will attempt to define and date the highly-debated southeastern margin of the latest Barents-Kara Ice Sheet. The uncertain configuration of this major Northern Hemisphere marine-based ice sheet results in striking discrepancies in global models of ice and sea-level distribution at and after the Last Glacial Maximum. A major question is related to the southeast extent of the Barents-Kara Ice Sheet. It is unclear whether Late Weichselian ice advanced onto the coasts of western Siberia and Pechora lowland. He surmises that the ice-sheet limits should be investigated on the shelf of the Barents and Kara Seas south and east of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago.The Principal Investigator will organize a Russian-American oceanographic program to retrieve geophysical and sedimentary records from the Pechora Sea and southwestern Kara Sea of time-constrained ice-sheet development and postgacial environmental history. The goal will be to build a comprehensive characterization of the glacier-marginal zone by seismic, side-scan, and penetration sonar profiling, and recover long sediment cores in key locations. Sediment records will be analyzed for lithological, paleobiological, and geochemical proxies supported by rigorous chronostratigraphic control. He anticipates identifying: 1) the marginal position of the last glaciation, 2) the timing of its culmination and the speed of retreat, and 3) major (extreme) events in the evolution of postglacial environments in the southern Barents and Kara seas. Although he does not plan to do a detailed study of the late Holocene, he can use accumulated data to investigate recent climatic change in the Eurasian Arctic.