A buried late MIS 3 shoreline in northern Norway - implications for ice extent and volume

Abstract

Buried beach gravel in northern Norway represents a late Middle Weichselian\/Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 shoreline and indicates a significant late MIS 3 ice retreat. An age of c. 50-31 cal ka BP, or most likely c. 35-33 cal ka BP, obtained on shells, stratigraphical evidence and comparisons between local and global sea-level data, indicate a local\/regional glacioisostatic depression which was about 50-70% of that of the Younger Dryas interval. This suggests a late MIS 3 ice thickness\/volume similar to or less than during the last part of the Preboreal, during which only minor or isolated remnants of the inland ice remained.