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1 Sonderforshungsbereich 313, Universität Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, D-2300 Kiel 1, West Germany
2 Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Stilleweg 2, D-3000 Hannover 51, West Germany
3 Geomar, Forschungszentrum für Marine Geowissenschaften, Wischhofstr. 1-3, D-2300 Kiel 14, West Germany
Sixteen long sediment cores from the eastern Arctic Ocean, the Fram Strait and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, documenting 200 000 years of sedimentation, were studied for their qualitative dropstone composition (>500 µm-fraction). In sediments from oxygen isotope stages 1–5, coal particles are usually subordinate components of the coarse fraction. In contrast to younger deposits, coal content in oxygen isotope stage 6 (186-128 ka) varies between 20% and 65 0n the eastern Arctic Ocean and the Fram Strait and between 5% and 20 0n the Norwegian Sea. Southward decreasing coal content and similarities in maturity and petrography of the coals indicate that the coal was transported by iceberg or sea ice rafting more than 1000 km to the south. It is suggested that during intervals of oxygen-isotope stage 6 drifting ice carried abundant coal fragments from the eastern Arctic Ocean southward through the Fram Strait into the eastern Norwegian Sea. Thus, surface circulation was then opposite to that of today.
