HR: 08:45h
AN: PP31A-04    [PDF]
TI: Modelling Eurasian Iceberg Tracks, Sedimentation Rates and Meltwater Inputs to the Norwegian-Greenland Sea in the Late Weichselian
AU: * Death, R M
EM: ros.death@bris.ac.uk
AF: Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University Road, Bristol, BS8 1SS United Kingdom
AU: Siegert, M J
EM: M.J.Siegert@bristol.ac.uk
AF: Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University Road, Bristol, BS8 1SS United Kingdom
AU: Bigg, G R
EM: grant.bigg@sheffield.ac.uk
AF: University Of Sheffield, Department of Geography, University Of Sheffield, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN United Kingdom
AU: Wadley, M
EM: m.wadley@uea.ac.uk
AF: University of East Anglia, Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ United Kingdom
AB: Modelling iceberg discharge from ice sheets is critical to evaluating their role in perturbing the state of the oceans during glacial periods. We model the iceberg flow paths, sediment discharge and meltwater supply to the Norwegian-Greenland Sea during the last glaciation in order to identify how the break-up of the Eurasian Ice Sheet affected the ocean. Results from a numerical ice sheet model, an atmospheric general circulation model, and an ocean model are used to provide iceberg production rate, wind field and surface current pattern inputs to an iceberg trajectory model. The model then determines how icebergs issued by the Eurasian Ice Sheet flow across the ocean and eventually melt out. Calculations are made for several periods during the last deglaciation, including an LGM run, a Holocene (modern) run, and several time periods in between. The results show the time-dependent spatial evolution of iceberg tracks across the northern ocean. Importantly, the model indicates the rate and distribution of meltwater to this potentially important region of the North Atlantic. Sedimentation results are compared with IRD records in order to evaluate the likelihood of various model scenarios.
DE: 1635 Oceans (4203)
DE: 1827 Glaciology (1863)
DE: 3022 Marine sediments--processes and transport
DE: 4512 Currents
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting