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Nares Strait, a major connection between the Arctic Ocean and Baffin Bay, was blocked by coalescent Innuitian and Greenland ice sheets during the last glaciation. This paper focuses on the events and processes leading to the opening of the strait and the environmental response to establishment of the Arctic‐Atlantic throughflow. The study is based on sedimentological, mineralogical and foraminiferal analyses of radiocarbon‐dated cores 2001LSSL‐0014PCandTCfrom northern Baffin Bay. Radiocarbon dates on benthic foraminifera were calibrated with ΔR = 220±20 years. Basal compact pebbly mud is interpreted as a subglacial deposit formed by glacial overriding of unconsolidated marine sediments. It is overlain by ice‐proximal (red/grey laminated, ice‐proximal glaciomarine unit barren of foraminifera and containing >2 mm clasts interpreted as ice‐rafted debris) to ice‐distal (calcareous, grey pebbly mud with foraminifera indicative of a stratified water column with chilled Atlantic Water fauna and species associated with perennial and then seasonal sea ice cover) glacial marine sediment units. The age model indicates ice retreat into Smith Sound as early asc. 11.7 and as late asc. 11.2 cal. kaBPfollowed by progressively more distal glaciomarine conditions as the ice margin retreated toward the Kennedy Channel. We hypothesize that a distinctIRDlayer deposited between 9.3 and 9 (9.4–8.9 1σ) cal. kaBPmarks the break‐up of ice in Kennedy Channel resulting in the opening of Nares Strait as an Arctic‐Atlantic throughflow. Overlying foraminiferal assemblages indicate enhanced marine productivity consistent with entry of nutrient‐rich Arctic Surface Water. A pronounced rise in agglutinated foraminifers and sand‐sized diatoms, and loss of detrital calcite characterize the uppermost bioturbated mud, which was deposited after 4.8 (3.67–5.55 1σ) cal. kaBP. The timing of the transition is poorly resolved as it coincides with the slow sedimentation rates that ensued after the ice margins retreated onto land.
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This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2026
Retreat of the Boothia-Lancaster ice stream from its Last Glacial Maximum extent and its role in the origin of Baffin Bay Detrital Carbonate (BBDC) events 0, 1 and 2
We combine geomorphological and sediment core evidence to investigate phases of ice margin stability and instability during retreat of the Boothia Lancaster Ice Stream (BLIS) of the NE Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Sediment cores 2008029-059 PC and TWC (59CC) and 2013029-064 PC (64 PC) from Lancaster Sound and Baffin Bay, respectively, represent LGM through Holocene environments, including three Baffin Bay Detrital Carbonate (BBDC) events that have been thought to manifest calving events within Lancaster Sound. Previous mapping of glacigenic landforms shows that 64 PC lies within the LGM limit of the convergent BLIS and Tasiujaq Ice Stream (TIS) on the northeastern Baffin Island shelf, while 59CC terminates within subglacial/ice marginal sediments termed the Baffin Shelf Drift (BSD), capturing the history of BLIS retreat from 15.3 cal ka BP onward. In 64 PC, a basal sediment gravity flow deposit is overlain by dolomite-rich BBDC 2, which is re-interpreted here as a subglacial/ice marginal deposit and renamed GZ-BBDC. Both gravity flows are interpreted to have formed during retreat of the confluent TIS and BLIS from the LGM maximum extent. Overlying GZ-BBDC, in 64 PC, is a finely laminated lithofacies interpreted as an ice-shelf facies formed beneath the ice shelf fronting the confluent TIS and BLIS when it occupied a large LGM grounding zone wedge (GZW) in northern Baffin Bay. The ice-shelf facies indicates temporary stabilization of the conjoined TIS and BLIS. The overlying thin black glaciomarine diamicton records disintegration of the ice shelf and retreat of the TIS. Ice retreat over Cretaceous and younger bedrock into Lancaster Sound is recorded by dark brown diamicton and glaciomarine sediments in 59CC. The overlying tan, detrital carbonate-rich glaciomarine diamicton, BBDC 1 in 59 PC, manifests calving retreat of the BLIS onto the Paleozoic carbonate bedrock within Lancaster Sound by 15 cal ka BP. A slightly later onset of BBDC 1 in 64 PC, of ca.14.5 cal ka BP, points to the influence of local conditions such as sea ice and local iceberg calving on the distribution of IRD off of Pond Inlet. The pause in ice rafting and detrital carbonate deposition between BBDC 1 and BBDC 0 within the Younger Dryas chron likely results from BLIS readvance to Devon Island and its stabilization there until 11.6 cal ka BP. BLIS retreat into Prince Regent Inlet marks the onset of BBDC 0. These new results indicate multiple periods of instability of the BLIS, which are responsible for BBDC events identified throughout Baffin Bay.
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- PAR ID:
- 10636171
- Publisher / Repository:
- Quaternary Science Reviews
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Quaternary Science Reviews
- Volume:
- 358
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0277-3791
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 109353
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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