Ice shelves in the Pleistocene Arctic Ocean inferred from glaciogenic deep-sea bedforms

It has been proposed that during Pleistocene glaciations, an ice cap of 1 kilometre or greater thickness covered the Arctic Ocean(1-3). This notion contrasts with the prevailing view that the Arctic Ocean was covered only by perennial sea ice with scattered icebergs(4-6). Detailed mapping of the ocean floor is the best means to resolve this issue. Although sea-floor imagery has been used to reconstruct the glacial history of the Antarctic shelf(7-9), little data have been collected in the Arctic Ocean because of operational constraints(10,11). The use of a geophysical mapping system during the submarine SCICEX expedition in 1999(12) provided the opportunity to perform such an investigation over a large portion of the Arctic Ocean. Here we analyse backscatter images and sub-bottom profiler records obtained during this expedition from depths as great as 1 kilometre. These records show multiple bedforms indicative of glacial scouring and moulding of sea floor, combined with large-scale erosion of submarine ridge crests. These distinct glaciogenic features demonstrate that immense, Antarctic-type ice shelves up to 1 kilometre thick and hundreds of kilometres long existed in the Arctic Ocean during Pleistocene glaciations.