TY - JOUR

T1 - The Taimyr Peninsula and the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, Arctic Russia

T2 - a synthesis of glacial history and palaeo-environmental change during the Last Glacial cycle (MIS 5e-2)

AU - Möller, Per

AU - Alexanderson, Helena

AU - Funder, Svend Visby

AU - Hjort, Christian

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - We here suggest a glacial and climate history of the Taimyr Peninsula and Severnaya Zemlya archipelagoin arctic Siberia for the last about 150 000 years (ka). Primarily it is based on results from seven fieldseasons between 1996 and 2012, to a large extent already published in papers referred to in the text eand on data presented by Russian workers from the 1930s to our days and by German colleagues workingthere since the 1990s.Although glaciations even up here often started in the local mountains, their culminations in thisregion invariably seems to have centred on the shallow Kara Sea continental shelf e most likely due toexpanding marine ice-shelves grounding there, as a combined effect of thickening ice and eustaticallylowered sea-levels.The most extensive glaciation so far identified in this region (named the Taz glaciation) took placeduring Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6), i.e. being an equivalent to the late Saale/Illinoian glaciations. Itreached c. 400 km southeast of the Kara Sea coast, across and well beyond the Byrranga Mountain rangeand ended c. 130 ka. It was followed by the MIS 5e (Karginsky/Eemian) interglacial, with an extensivemarine transgression to 140 m above present sea level e facilitated by strong isostatic downloadingduring the preceding glaciation. During the latest (Zyryankan/Weichselian/Wisconsinan) glacial cyclefollowed a series of major glacial advances. The earliest and most extensive, culminating c. 110e100 ka(MIS 5de5e), also reached south of the Byrranga mountains and its post-glacial marine limit there was c.100 m a.s.l. The later glacial phases (around 70e60 ka and 20 ka) terminated at the North Taimyr IceMarginal Zone (NTZ), along or some distance inland from the present northwest coast of Taimyr. Theydammed glacial lakes, which caused the Taimyr River to flow southwards where to-day it flowsnorthwards into the Kara Sea. The c. 20 ka glacial phase, contemporary with the maximum (LGM)glaciation in NW Europe, was this glacial cycle's least extensive one up here e probably an effect ofprecipitation shadow caused by the major glaciations to the west. From the Kara Sea shelf this advanceonly reached c. 100 km inland, over some limited parts of NW Taimyr. The Severnaya Zemlya islandswere only locally glaciated at this time.The lowlands south of the Byrranga Mountains have been a terrestrial “Mammoth steppe” environmentduring the last c. 50 ka and periglacial permafrosted sediments here have preserved excellentinformation on its megafauna and vegetation. The latter, according to new DNA-data, had considerablymore (for grazing animals nourishing) flowering plants growing than earlier pollen-based (grassdominated) spectra have suggested.

AB - We here suggest a glacial and climate history of the Taimyr Peninsula and Severnaya Zemlya archipelagoin arctic Siberia for the last about 150 000 years (ka). Primarily it is based on results from seven fieldseasons between 1996 and 2012, to a large extent already published in papers referred to in the text eand on data presented by Russian workers from the 1930s to our days and by German colleagues workingthere since the 1990s.Although glaciations even up here often started in the local mountains, their culminations in thisregion invariably seems to have centred on the shallow Kara Sea continental shelf e most likely due toexpanding marine ice-shelves grounding there, as a combined effect of thickening ice and eustaticallylowered sea-levels.The most extensive glaciation so far identified in this region (named the Taz glaciation) took placeduring Marine Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6), i.e. being an equivalent to the late Saale/Illinoian glaciations. Itreached c. 400 km southeast of the Kara Sea coast, across and well beyond the Byrranga Mountain rangeand ended c. 130 ka. It was followed by the MIS 5e (Karginsky/Eemian) interglacial, with an extensivemarine transgression to 140 m above present sea level e facilitated by strong isostatic downloadingduring the preceding glaciation. During the latest (Zyryankan/Weichselian/Wisconsinan) glacial cyclefollowed a series of major glacial advances. The earliest and most extensive, culminating c. 110e100 ka(MIS 5de5e), also reached south of the Byrranga mountains and its post-glacial marine limit there was c.100 m a.s.l. The later glacial phases (around 70e60 ka and 20 ka) terminated at the North Taimyr IceMarginal Zone (NTZ), along or some distance inland from the present northwest coast of Taimyr. Theydammed glacial lakes, which caused the Taimyr River to flow southwards where to-day it flowsnorthwards into the Kara Sea. The c. 20 ka glacial phase, contemporary with the maximum (LGM)glaciation in NW Europe, was this glacial cycle's least extensive one up here e probably an effect ofprecipitation shadow caused by the major glaciations to the west. From the Kara Sea shelf this advanceonly reached c. 100 km inland, over some limited parts of NW Taimyr. The Severnaya Zemlya islandswere only locally glaciated at this time.The lowlands south of the Byrranga Mountains have been a terrestrial “Mammoth steppe” environmentduring the last c. 50 ka and periglacial permafrosted sediments here have preserved excellentinformation on its megafauna and vegetation. The latter, according to new DNA-data, had considerablymore (for grazing animals nourishing) flowering plants growing than earlier pollen-based (grassdominated) spectra have suggested.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Eurasian ice sheet Taimyr Glaciation history Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction Weichselian chronology

U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.10.018

DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.10.018

M3 - Review

VL - 107

SP - 149

EP - 181

JO - Quaternary Science Reviews

JF - Quaternary Science Reviews

SN - 0277-3791

ER -