A key source area and constraints an entrainment for basin-scale sediment transport by Arctic sea ice

Combining field measurements, remote sensing and numerical modelling, a key site for ice entrainment and basinwide dispersal of sediments by sea ice has been identified near the New Siberian Islands. The total ice-bound sediment export of 18.5 x 10(6) t for an entrainment event documented in 1994/95 is of the same order of magnitude as annual sediment supply to the deep sea sector of the Eurasian Arctic and the Greenland Sea. Satellite imagery and ancillary data indicate that ice advection from this source may play an important role in sedimentation downstream in the Transpolar Drift.