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Postgraduate Unit of Micropalaeontology, Department of Geological Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Detailed investigation of Late Quaternary sequences in southwest Sweden via shallow cored boreholes provides an excellent record of sedimentological patterns and the biological history of the area during regional deglaciation. Climatic amelioration and consequent deglaciation led to the Baltic region being dominated by the Baltic Ice Lake, a major physiographic feature which is estimated to have become undammed at c. 10 200 years BP, discharging some 104 km3 of freshwater south and west into the Skagerrak and North Sea Basin. Such an event should be easily traced in the marine environment, but away from the immediate onshore area convincing records have yet to be found. The freshwater influx affected the upper part of the water column in the North Sea Basin and should be detectable via an isotopic signature, but good quality cores with planktonic organisms have not yet provided such a record. The effects of Baltic Ice Lake discharge into the North Sea Basin may well be overprinted by contemporary major oceanographic changes in the northeast Atlantic, especially the initiation of the Norwegian Current, and by meltwater input from adjacent land areas.
