Collaborative Research: Reconstructing the Past 20,000 Years of Glacial and Sea-Level History For Severnaya Zemlya, Russia 80 North

Investigator: David J. Lubinski   (Principal Investigator current)

Abstract
Abstract OPP-99-11982 Lubinski Ohio State University Forman University of Illinois at Chicago OPP-00-01885

This is a collaborative project by Principal Investigators from Ohio State University and University of Illinois at Chicago to clarify the heavily debated northern extent of the Kara Sea Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) around 20 thousand years ago. Uncertainty in the configuration of this major ice sheet and the adjoining Barents Sea Ice Sheet has made it difficult to create reliable boundary conditions for global climate model simulations.  A successful solution to this problem must involve focussed geomorphic, stratigraphic, and geochronologic studies of Severnaya Zemlya.

The Principal Investigators will evaluate the limits and timing of glacial and deglacial events and associated changes in relative sea level on Severnaya Zemlya since the LGM.  A collaborative American-Russian-Swedish field program will focus on two key areas where earlier researchers found rich deposits of glacial, marine, and terrestrial deposits associated with the last glacial/interglacial cycle.  The researchers will: 1) determine the magnitude and timing of the LGM glacial-isostatic response; 2) define the age and timing of LGM glaciation and deglaciation; and 3) assess the flow direction of the LGM.  They will determine if the LGM was a 10-20 km-scale expansion of existing ice caps, at least one km-thick ice sheet, or an intermediate complex.

The Principal Investigators will collaborate with the glaciological and Earth-rheological modeling communities to improve their understanding of climatic, sea-level and intrinsic glaciologic controls on LGM glaciation in the High Arctic.  To help reconstruct ice-sheet thickness and thinning rates, they will also provide their glacioisostatic data to the Earth-rheological modeling community.