Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T23:02:04.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Meltwater Discharge to the Skagerrak–Kattegat from the Baltic Ice Lake during the Younger Dryas Interval

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hui Jiang
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark
Nils-Olof Svensson
Affiliation:
Department of Quaternary Geology, Lund University, Tornavägen 13, S-223 63, Lund, Sweden
Svante Björck
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350, Copenhagen K, Denmark

Abstract

Diatom data from the Skagerrak–Kattegat show that large amounts of meltwater were discharged into the Kattegat–Skagerrak from the Baltic Ice Lake during the Younger Dryas interval. Strong meltwater discharge greatly freshened surface-water salinity in the Kattegat and areas along the Swedish west coast and possibly changed the directions of sea-surface salinity gradients from north–south to east–west or northwest–southeast. It resulted in a markedly stratified water column in salinity in the Kattegat, which complicates the environmental interpretation based on different types of microfossils. The meltwater influence on the large area of the Skagerrak during the Younger Dryas was, however, restricted along the Norwegian coast where it flowed into the Norwegian Sea.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bard, E., Arnold, M., Mangerud, J., Paterne, M., Labeyrie, L., Duprat, J., Mélières, M.-A., Sønstegaard, E., Duplessy, J.-C., 1994. The North Atlantic atmosphere-sea surface14 . Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 126 275287.Google Scholar
Bergsten, H., 1994. A high-resolution record of Lateglacial and early Holocene marine sediments from southwestern Sweden; with special emphasis on environmental changes close to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition and the influence of fresh water from the Baltic basin. Journal of Quaternary Science. 9 112.Google Scholar
Bergsten, H., Nordberg, K., 1992. Late Weichselian marine stratigraphy of the southern Kattegat, Scandinavia: Evidence for drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake between 12,700 and 10,300 years BP. Boreas. 21 223252.Google Scholar
Birchfield, G.E., Broecker, W.S., 1990. A salt oscillator in the glacial Atlantic? 2. A “Scale Analysis” model. Paleoceanography. 5 835843.Google Scholar
Björck, S., 1995. A review of the history of the Baltic Sea, 13.0–8.0 ka BP. Quaternary International. 27 1940.Google Scholar
Björck, S., Digerfeldt, G., 1984. Climatic changes at Pleistocene/Holocene boundary in the Middle Swedish endmoraine zone, mainly inferred from stratigraphic indications. Climatic Changes on a Yearly to Millennial Basis. Reidel, Dordrecht, p. 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Björck, S., Kromer, B., Johnsen, S., Bennike, O., Hammarlund, D., Lemdahl, G., Possnert, G., Rasmussen, T.L., Wohlfarth, B., Hammer, C.U., Spurk, M., 1996. Synchronized terrestrial–atmospheric deglacial records around the North Atlantic. Science. 274 11551160.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., 1990. Salinity history of the Northern Atlantic during the last deglaciation. Paleoceanography. 5 459468.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Peteet, D.M., Rind, D., 1986. Does the ocean–atmosphere have more than one stable mode of operation. Nature. 315 2126.Google Scholar
Conradsen, K., Heier-Nielsen, S., 1995. Holocene paleoceanography and paleoenvironments of the Skagerrak-Kattegat, Scandinavia. Paleoceanography. 10 801813.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Clausen, H.B., Gundestrup, N., Hammer, C.U., Johnsen, S.F., Kristinsdottir, P.M., Reeh, N., 1982. A new Greenland deep ice core. Science. 218 12731277.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., White, J.W.C., Johnsen, S.F., 1989. The abrupt termination of the Younger Dryas climate event. Nature. 339 532533.Google Scholar
Duplessy, J.C., Labeyrie, L.D., Paterne, M., 1996. North Atlantic sea surface condition during the Younger Dryas cold event. Andrew, J.T., Austin, W.E.N., Bergsten, H., Jennings, A.E., Late Glacial Palaeoceanography of North Atlantic Margins. Geological Society, London, 167175.Google Scholar
Fonselius, S.H., Oceanographic Report Series 38. 1990.Google Scholar
Fält, L.-M., 1982. Late Quaternary Sea-Floor Deposits off the Swedish West Coast. University of Göteborg and Chalmers University of TechnologyDepartment of Geology.Google Scholar
Jiang, H., 1996. Diatoms from the surface sediments of the Skagerrak and the Kattegat and their relationship to the spatial changes of environmental variables. Journal of Biogeography. 23 129137.Google Scholar
Jiang, H., Björck, S., Knudsen, K.L., 1997. A palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic record of the last 11,00014 . The Holocene. 7 301310.Google Scholar
Jiang, H., Klingberg, F., 1996. The transition from the Younger Dryas to the Preboreal: A case study from the Kattegat, Scandinavia. Boreas. 25 271281.Google Scholar
Jiang, H., Nordberg, K., 1996. Late Weichselian environmental changes of the southern Kattegat, Scandinavia, inferred from diatom records. Andrew, J.T., Austin, W.E.N., Bergsten, H., Jennings, A.E., Late Glacial Palaeoceanography of North Atlantic Margins. Geological Society, London, 245260.Google Scholar
Knudsen, K.L., Conradsen, K., Heier-Nielsen, S., Seidenkrantz, M.-S., 1996. Palaeoenvironments in the Skagerrak-Kattegat basin in the eastern North Sea during the last deglaciation. Boreas. 25 6577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuijpers, A., Dennegård, B., Albinsson, Y., Jensen, A., 1992. Sediment transport pathways in the Skagerrak and Kattegat as indicated by sediment chernobyl radioactivity and heavy metal concentrations. Dennegård, B., Kuijpers, A., Marine Geological Environmental Investigations in the Skagerrak and Northern Kattegat. University of GöteborgDepartment of Marine Geology 127.Google Scholar
Lehman, S.J., Keigwin, L.D., 1992. Sudden changes in North Atlantic circulation during the last deglaciation. Nature. 356 757762.Google Scholar
Miller, U., 1982. Diatoms. Olausson, E., The Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary in South-Western Sweden. 187210.Google Scholar
Nordberg, K., 1991. Oceanography in the Kattegat and Skagerrak over the past 8000 years. Paleoceanography. 6 461485.Google Scholar
Risberg, J., Sandgren, P., Andrén, E., 1996. Early Holocene shore displacement and evidence of irregular isostatic uplift northwest of Lake Vänern, west Sweden. Journal of Paleolimnology. 15 4763.Google Scholar
Rodhe, J., 1992. Studies of Currents and Mixing in the Skagerrak. University of GöteborgDepartment of Oceanography.Google Scholar
Snoeijs, P., 1993. Intercalibration and Distribution of Diatom Species in the Baltic Sea. Opulus Press, Uppsala. Google Scholar
Stabell, B., 1985. Diatoms in Upper Quaternary Skagerrak sediments. Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift. 65 9195.Google Scholar
Stigebrandt, A., 1983. A model for exchange of water and salt between the Baltic and the Skagerrak. Journal of Physical Oceanography. 13 411427.Google Scholar
Svansson, A, 1975, Physical and Chemical Oceanography of the Skagerrak and the Kattegat. I. Open Sea Conditions, Institute of Marine Research. Fishery Board of Sweden.Google Scholar