Seafloor evidence for glaciation, northernmost Baffin Bay

Abstract

Shaped seafloor features were recorded at three localities on C.S.S. Hudson Cruise 91-039, to northernmost Baffin Bay. They resemble glacially sculptured bedrock hills, varying from 2.5 to 3.0 km in length, with relief of 70 to >90 m, and they occur in water depths of 200 to 400 m. These well developed features occur to the west-southwest, east and north of Carey Øer, an isolated group of islands which bears strong evidence of having been overridden by glacial ice and on top of which marine shells in till are >40 000 years old. The sculptured features at each of the three sites are asymmetric, with well developed stoss and lee sides. Their shapes and orientations are consistent with the hypothesis of a southward-flowing Smith Sound Ice Stream expanding into northernmost Baffin Bay. The Smith Sound Ice Stream is believed to have existed most recently at the Late Wisconsinan glacial maximum, but southward-flowing ice reaching as far as Carey Øer at this time appears to be at variance with evidence assembled in the Dundas area, Greenland, which suggests a limited advance of ice during the Wolstenholme Fjord Stade.