Here we examine the Nares Strait sea ice dynamics over the last 7000 years and their implications for the late Holocene readvance of the floating part of Petermann Glacier. We propose that the historically observed sea ice dynamics are a relatively recent feature, while most of the mid-Holocene was marked by variable sea ice conditions in Nares Strait. Nonetheless, major advances of the Petermann ice tongue were preceded by a shift towards harsher sea ice conditions in Nares Strait.

Ryder Glacier is a marine-terminating glacier in north Greenland discharging ice into the Lincoln Sea. Here we use marine sediment cores to reconstruct its retreat and advance behavior through the Holocene. We show that while Sherard Osborn Fjord has a physiography conducive to glacier and ice tongue stability, Ryder still retreated more than 40 km inland from its current position by the Middle Holocene. This highlights the sensitivity of north Greenland's marine glaciers to climate change.

In this study we present a new marine chronology of the last ~30 000 years for a sediment core retrieved from the central Arctic Ocean. Our new chronology reveals substantially faster sedimentation rates during the end of the last glacial cycle, the Last Glacial Maximum, and deglaciation than previously reported, thus implying a substantial re-interpretation of paleoceanographic reconstructions from this sector of the Arctic Ocean.

Whether an ice sheet once grew over Northeast Siberia-Beringia has been debated for decades. By comparing climate modelling with paleoclimate and glacial records from around the North Pacific, this study shows that the Laurentide-Eurasia-only ice sheet configuration fails in explaining these records, while a scenario involving the ice sheet over Northeast Siberia-Beringia succeeds. It highlights the complexity in glacial climates and urges new investigations across Northeast Siberia-Beringia.

Glacial sediments in fjords hold a key record of environmental and ice dynamic changes during ice retreat. Here we use a comprehensive geophysical survey from the Petermann Fjord system in NW Greenland to map these sediments, identify depositional processes and calculate glacial erosion rates for the retreating palaeo-Petermann ice stream. Ice streaming is the dominant control on glacial erosion rates which vary by an order of magnitude during deglaciation and are in line with modern rates.

We studied coastal sea floor terraces in parts of the Baltic Sea using various types of sonar data, sediment cores, and video. Terraces (~1 m high, > 100 m long) are widespread in depths < 15 m and are formed in glacial clay. Our study supports an origin from groundwater flow through silty layers, undermining overlying layers when discharged at the sea floor. Submarine groundwater discharge like this may be a significant source of freshwater to the Baltic Sea that needs to be studied further.

The bottom topography of the Baltic Sea is analysed using the digital depth model from the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) published in 2018. Analyses include depth distribution vs. area and seafloor depth variation on a kilometre scale. The limits for the Baltic Sea and analysed sub-basins are from HELCOM. EMODnet is compared with the previously most widely used depth model and the area of deep water exchange between the Bothnian Sea and the Northern Baltic Proper.

The thaw and degradation of subsea permafrost on the Arctic Ocean shelves is one of the key uncertainties concerning natural greenhouse gas emissions since difficult access limits the availability of observational data. In this study, we describe sediment properties and age constraints of a unique set of three subsea permafrost cores from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, as well as content, origin and degradation state of organic matter at the current thaw front.

Our study challenges the widely accepted idea that the Laurentide-Eurasian ice sheets gradually extended across North America and Northwest Eurasia, and suggests the growth of the NH ice sheets is much more complicated. We find climate feedbacks regulate the distribution of the NH ice sheets, producing swings between two distinct ice sheet configurations: the Laurentide-Eurasian and a circum-Arctic configuration, where large ice sheets existed over Northeast Siberia and the Canadian Rockies.

The ocean surface mixed layer depth (MLD) is an important parameter within several research disciplines, as variations in the MLD influence air–sea CO₂ exchange and ocean primary production. A new method is presented in which acoustic mapping of the MLD is done remotely by means of echo sounders. This method allows for observations of high-frequency variability in the MLD, as horizontal and temporal resolutions can be increased by orders of magnitude compared to traditional in situ measurements.

This study presents detailed bathymetric data along with hydrographic data at two deep passages across the Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean. The southern channel is relatively smooth with a sill depth close to 1700 m. Hydrographic data reveals an eastward flow in the southern part and opposite in the northern part. The northern passage is characterized by a narrow and steep ridge with a sill depth of 1470 m. Here, water exchange appears to occur in well-defined but irregular vertical layers.

Continuous, highly abundant and well-preserved fossil ostracodes were studied from radiocarbon-dated sediment cores collected on the Lomonosov Ridge (Arctic Ocean) that indicate varying oceanographic conditions during the last ~50 kyr. Ostracode assemblages from cores taken during the SWERUS-C3 2014 Expedition, Leg 2, reflect paleoenvironmental changes during glacial, deglacial, and interglacial transitions, including changes in sea-ice cover and Atlantic Water inflow into the Eurasian Basin.

Past glacial activity on the East Siberian continental margin is poorly known, partly due to the lack of geomorphological evidence. Here we present geophysical mapping and sediment coring data from the East Siberian shelf and slope revealing the presence of a glacially excavated cross-shelf trough reaching to the continental shelf edge north of the De Long Islands. The data provide direct evidence for extensive glacial activity on the Siberian shelf that predates the Last Glacial Maximum.

Global sea level rise during the last deglacial flooded the Siberian continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean. Sediment cores, radiocarbon dating, and microfossils show that the regional sea level in the Arctic rose rapidly from about 12 500 to 10 700 years ago. Regional sea level history on the Siberian shelf differs from the global deglacial sea level rise perhaps due to regional vertical adjustment resulting from the growth and decay of ice sheets.

The Arctic and Pacific oceans are connected by the presently ~53 m deep Bering Strait. During the last glacial period when the sea level was lower than today, the Bering Strait was exposed. Humans and animals could then migrate between Asia and North America across the formed land bridge. From analyses of sediment cores and geophysical mapping data from Herald Canyon north of the Bering Strait, we show that the land bridge was flooded about 11 000 years ago.

Recent data suggest that a 1 km thick ice shelf extended over the glacial Arctic Ocean during MIS 6, about 140 000 years ago. Here, we theoretically analyse the development and equilibrium features of such an ice shelf. The ice shelf was effectively dammed by the Fram Strait and the mean ice-shelf thickness was controlled primarily by the horizontally integrated mass balance. Our results can aid in resolving some outstanding questions of the state of the glacial Arctic Ocean.

Continental slopes north of the East Siberian Sea are assumed to hold large amounts of methane. We present pore water chemistry from the 2014 SWERUS-C3 expedition. These are among the first results generated from this vast climatically sensitive region, and they imply that abundant methane, including gas hydrates, do not characterize the East Siberian Sea slope or rise. This contradicts previous modeling and discussions, which due to the lack of data are almost entirely based assumption.

We use data collected in 2014 to show that the outflow of nutrient-rich water occurs much further to the west than has been reported in the past. We suggest that this is due to much less summer sea-ice coverage in the northwestern East Siberian Sea than in the past decades. Further, our data support a more complicated flow pattern in the region where the Mendeleev Ridge reaches the shelf compared to the general cyclonic circulation within the individual basins as suggested historically.

The eruption of the Alaskan Aniakchak volcano of 3.6 thousand years ago was one of the largest Holocene eruptions worldwide. The resulting ash is found in several Alaskan sites and as far as Newfoundland and Greenland. In this study, we found ash from the Aniakchak eruption in a marine sediment core from the western Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Combined with radiocarbon dates on mollusks, the volcanic age marker is used to calculate the marine radiocarbon reservoir age at that time.