Pleistocene sediments of the eastern Barents Sea (Central Deep and Murmansk Bank): Communication 2. Lithological composition and formation conditions

Llithology of massive diamictons was studied in two areas of the eastern Barents Sea using cores and geophysical data. These sediments dominate in the Pleistocene section as two seismostratigraphic complexes (SSC): Upper Weichselian (SSC III) and locally distributed Lower Weichselian (SSC V). Diamictons of these complexes represent tills produced by the geological activity of the Pleistocene Novaya Zemlya and Scandinavian ice sheets. The Upper Weichselian glacial sequence is laterally heterogeneous. It includes two seismic facies represented by ordinary (overconsolidated) tills (they also constitute SSC V) and a spacious moraine of the specific type with the normally consolidated sediments (they avoided compaction by the ice load) and certain lithological specifics. The last glacial sediments were formed in a specific subglacial setting similar to the sediments under fast ice streams of Antarctica. However, the specific features allow us to define these sediments as a new (Barents Sea) facies of tills related to zones of intense basal melting of glaciers.