Glacial history and sea-level change of Svalbard

Goal: Understanding the extent, timing and dynamics of the Svalbard-Barents Sea ice sheet and relative sea-level change on Svalbard during the Quaternary, particularly during the last 200 ka.

Past sea level changes reflect changes in climate, ice sheet volume and crustal movements and by reconstructing past sea level variations, inferences about all these factors can be made. The post-glacial sea level history is well known on Svalbard but relative sea levels and ice sheet extent prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are less constrained, both in time and space.
Raised littoral and marine deposits older than the Last Glacial Maximum have been documented in many places on Svalbard and reliably dated at some sites. Six or seven high relative sea-level events during the last 200 000 years have thereby been identified, but some of them are not well constrained in time. Of particular interest are deposits from Marine Isotope Stage 3 (ca 57-29 ka), an interstadial with small ice sheets and relatively high sea level. Deposits from this time are being studied both on land and in the sea to investigate how climate and sea-level change affected both terrestrial and marine environments, including glaciation, methane release and submarine slumping.