Methane seepage occurs across the western Svalbard margin at water depths ranging from < 300 m, landward from the shelf break, to > 1000 m in regions just a few kilometres from the mid-ocean ridges in the Fram Strait. The mechanisms controlling seepage remain elusive. The Vestnesa sedimentary ridge, located on oceanic crust at a depth of 1000–1700 m, hosts a perennial gas hydrate and associated free ...

The Svyatogor Ridge and surroundings, located on the sediment-covered western flank of the Northern Knipovich Ridge, host extensive gas hydrate and related fluid flow systems. The fluid flow system here manifests in the upper sedimentary sequence as gas hydrates and free gas, indicated by bottom simulating reflections (BSRs) and amplitude anomalies. Using 2D seismic lines and bathymetric data, we ...

Elongate inclusions immersed in a viscous fluid generally rotate at a rate that is different from the local angular velocity of the flow. Often, a net alignment of the inclusions develops, and the resulting shape preferred orientation of the particle ensemble can then be used as a strain marker that allows reconstruction of the fluid’s velocity field. Much of the previous work on the dynamics of ...

The Quaternary paleoenvironmental history of the Arctic Ocean remains uncertain, mainly due to the limited chronological constraints, especially beyond the 14C dating limits of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The difficulty in establishing reliable chronostratigraphies is mainly attributed to low sedimentation rates and diagenetic sediment changes, resulting in very poor preservation of ...

Submarine landslides are prevalent on the modern-day seafloor, yet an elusive problem is constraining the timing of past slope failure. We present a novel age-dating technique based on perturbations to underlying gas hydrate stability caused by slide-impacted seafloor changes. Using three-dimensional (3-D) seismic data, we mapped an irregular bottom simulating reflection (BSR) underneath a submarine ...

Quartz‐in‐garnet inclusion barometry integrated with trace element thermometry and calculated phase relations is applied to mylonitized schists of the Pinkie unit cropping out on the island of Prins Karls Forland, western part of the Svalbard Archipelago. This approach combines conventional and novel techniques and allows deciphering of the pressure–temperature (<i>P–T</i>) evolution of mylonitic ...

The present-day ocean ventilation in the Arctic Mediterranean (Nordic Seas and Arctic Ocean), via transformation of northward inflowing warm Atlantic surface water into cold deep water, affects regional climate, atmospheric circulation and carbon storage in the deep ocean. Here we study the glacial evolution of the Arctic Mediterranean circulation and its influence on glacial climate using ...

​​​​​​​We held the MagellanPlus workshop SVALCLIME “Deep-time Arctic climate archives: high-resolution coring of Svalbard's sedimentary record”, from 18 to 21 October​​​​​​​ 2022 in Longyearbyen, to discuss scientific drilling of the unique high-resolution climate archives of Neoproterozoic to Paleogene age present in the sedimentary record of Svalbard. Svalbard is globally unique in that it facilitates ...

As seismic data from the lower crust becomes more readily available, it is important to link seismic properties to the ongoing processes within lower crustal evolution. This includes high temperature, pre‐ and post‐migmatization solid state deformation as well as melt‐present deformation. We selected two tonalitic migmatites with variable former melt content (one metatexite and one diatexite) from ...

Few well‐dated records of the deglacial dynamics of the large palaeo‐ice streams of the major Northern Hemisphere ice sheets are presently available, a prerequisite for an improved understanding of the ice‐sheet response to the climate warming of this period. Here we present a transect of gravity‐core samples through Trænadjupet and Vestfjorden, northern Norway, the location of the Trænadjupet – ...