On the existence of an East Siberian Chukchi ice sheet: New insights from the SWERUS C3 Expedition 2014

The glacial history of the vast Siberian continental shelf of the Laptev and East Siberian Seas is poorly known. Most of this shelf area is shallower than 120 m implying that it was exposed land during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as well as during older major Quaternary glaciations. The regional glacial and deglacial history of marine transgression has greatly influenced marine conditions of today's Arctic Ocean continental shelves. For example, the present extent of submarine permafrost on the shallow continental shelves is tightly linked to the glacial history, because the submarine permafrost was formed during cold conditions when sea level was low enough for the shelves to be subaerially exposed. Conversely, one explanation for lack of submarine permafrost on some shelf areas is the presence of past ice sheets. Ice sheets extending over parts of the Eastern Siberian continental shelf have been proposed …