Marine sedimentary record of Meltwater Pulse 1a in the NW Barents Sea continental margin

The upper continental slope of the Storfjorden-
Kveithola Trough Mouth Fans (NW Barents Sea) contains
a several m-thick late Pleistocene sequence of plumites
composed of laminated mud interbedded with sand/silt
layers. Radiocarbon ages revealed that deposition occurred
during about 130 years at a very high sedimentation rate of
3.4 cm a-1, at about 7 km from the present shelf break.
Palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses confirm the
existence of a prominent, short-living sedimentary event.
The plumites appear laterally continuous and were correlated
with the sedimentary sequences described west of
Svalbard and neighboring glacial depositional systems
representing a major event at regional scale appointed to
correspond to the deep-sea sedimentary record of Meltwater
Pulse-1a. We also present new sedimentological and
geochemical insights, and multi-beam data adding information
on the palaeoenvironmental characteristics during
MWP-1a and ice sheet decay in the NW Barents Sea.