Weichselian glacial history of the Svalbard area: correlating the marine and terrestrial records

Investigation of eight deep-sea sediment cores from the Fram Strait provides evidence of two phases with an increased input of ice-rafted detritus (IRD) during the last 130,000 years. For the Middle and Late Weichselian events, east-west trends in accumulation rates and terrestrial organic matter content in the deep-sea sediments point to Svalbard as the source area of the IRD. Both phases are clearly correlated with glacier advances on Svalbard, allowing the application of marine stratigraphy to the terrestrial field sections. Since the dating of the terrestrial record of the Weichselian glacial history of Svalbard is still uncertain, this correlation will improve the age assignments to the individual glacial events.