Evidence indicates a thick ice sheet, not annual sea ice and icebergs, covered the Arctic Ocean at some point during the last 140,000 years. Now, University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists will be looking for more geologic proof of the ice sheet’s existence, sources, behavior and extent. UAF Geophysical Institute scientists will focus on the Beaufort and Chukchi seas region, both offshore and onshore. They hope to discover the extent of glaciation and improve understanding of the timing of glacial advances and retreats. Those cycles are thought to have occurred approximately 140,000 to 70,000 years ago, a period known as the mid-to late Pleistocene Epoch. The researchers will build a geographic information system database of existing marine and terrestrial geologic evidence that could relate to a 1-kilometer thick glacier in the Beaufort-Chukchi region. Researchers will use that database to test the hypothesis that glaciation was extensive in the western Arctic Ocean at several points during the late Pleistocene.
