Fennoscandian Ice Sheet glaciation on the Kola Peninsula and Russian Lapland

Previous reconstructions of the glacial history of the last Fennoscandian Ice sheet (FIS) in northwest Arctic Russia are limited in scope owing to a lack of empirical geomorphological and chronological data. As a result, previous reconstructions suggest the Kola Peninsula was glaciated by either the FIS, the Ponoy Ice Cap, or the Kara Sea Ice Sheet. Utilising new databases of over 245,000 mapped glacial landforms and 209 numerical ages, we present a new time-slice reconstruction of Late Weichselian (c. 40-10 ka) FIS glaciation on the Kola Peninsula and Russian Lapland.

Subglacial bedforms are used to reconstruct ice flow geometry in the region. The relative age sequence of events demonstrates an evolving ice sheet configuration, including ice sheet build-up and retreat stages, and evidence of ice streaming. Moraines and meltwater landforms are used to reconstruct ice margin positions in the region. The Kola Interlobate Complex, stretching almost 400 km, is likely to be a time-transgressive landform assemblage, which formed at an east- and northeast-migrating junction between the warm-based White Sea lobe and cold-based ice on the Kola Peninsula, probably before the Last Glacial Maximum. Reconstructed retreat ice margin positions indicate that FIS retreat is characterised by thinning, resulting in a lobate ice margin.

This new reconstruction provides a framework into which sedimentary and chronological reconstructions can be contrasted and compared. This research also provides crucial empirical data for validating numerical model simulations of the FIS, which in turn will further our understanding of ice sheet dynamics in other Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine regions.