The glacial North Sea Fan, southern Norwegian Margin: architecture and evolution from the upper continental slope to the deep-sea basin

High-resolution seismic data have been used to study the ice-stream-fed North Sea Fan, deposited from approximately Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12 and onwards. Located at the outlet of the Norwegian Channel on the SE Nordic Seas continental slope, the 110,000 km2 fan is dominated by glacigenic debris flows and slide debrites. The fan is divided in two provinces by the volcanic Møre Marginal High. The proximal province has been characterised by alternation between deposition and erosion, while the distal province has been dominated by deposition. From ∼MIS 12 until the present the fan has received ≥32,000 km3 of sediments. Age constraints on fan stratigraphy provided by core investigations indicate that the Fennoscandian ice sheet advanced to the shelf edge during MIS 2, 6, 8, 10 and probably 12. The fan experienced megaslides in late ∼MIS 6, 9 and during ∼MIS 11-12.