An Antarctic‐style ice sheet in the northern hemisphere: Toward a new global glacial theory

Abstract

New studies suggest that two superlarge ice sheets, composed of a number of terrestrial and marine ice sheets interconnected by floating ice shelves, formed in the northern hemisphere during Late Pleistocene time. The combined ice sheets (the proposed names of which are the North Atlantic or Pan‐Arctic and the North Pacific ice sheets) had areas of 30 and 10.5 million km² and volumes of 50 and 10 million km³ respectively. Combined Antarctic‐style terrestrial‐marine ice sheets of this type seem to have been typical of all former glaciations. The Eurasian Arctic was dominated by two largely marine ice sheets: the Kara and East Siberian ice sheets. The former was centered on the southern Kara Sea; it invaded both west‐central Northern Siberia and the eastern Barents Shelf and was the largest ice dome in Eurasia. The East Siberian Ice Sheet rested on the floor of the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas; its former existence has recently been proved on the basis of the glacial geomorphology of the New Siberian Islands and the surrounding sea bed. It equaled the Greenland Ice Cap in size. Both ice sheets impounded the great northern rivers, resulting in the formation of a number of proglacial lakes such as the Mansi, Yenisey, and Lena‐Vilyuy lakes. Traces of these lakes provide independent evidence of the existence of the polar ice sheets. The role played by glaciations of the Earth was global in its impact, and the new developments in glacial theory help in understanding this. At present we are witnessing a change in the paradigm of the glacial theory.