The Development of the Baltic Sea Basin During the Last 130 ka - The Baltic Sea Basin - page 79

Fig. 4.2
Paleoreconstructions
for the LGM at ca. 20 ka BP.
The paleotopography and
water depths are shown by the
color coding. Ice thickness
contours are 200 m. The
positive relative sea-level
contours are indicated in
orange , and negative contours
in red , with contour intervals
of 150 m (Lambeck et al.
2010 )
further development during the subsequent MIS 5 stadials and interstadials is largely
unknown. It is indicated, however, that two early Weichselian glacial advances (MIS
5d and MIS 5b) may only have reached as far south as ca. 60.5 ◦ N and thus did not
affect the central and southern BSB (Robertsson et al. 2005 ) .
Several paleoclimatic records, both terrestrial and marine, from the north Atlantic
margin (e.g., Rasmussen et al. 1997 , Dickson et al. 2008 , Grimm et al. 2006 ,
Wohlfarth et al. 2008 ) display the same high climate variability during the last
glacial (MIS 4-MIS 2) as recorded in Greenland ice cores from, e.g., GRIP and
GISP 2 (Johnsen et al. 1992 , Grootes et al. 1993 ) . The Weichselian ice sheet, which
covered the Baltic basin, was the largest ice sheet in Eurasia and together with the
Wisconsinan ice sheet in North America contributed to this high degree of vari-
ability. It can be assumed that by advances and retreats, releases of icebergs and
freshwater, and shifting sea ice conditions, these ice sheets recurrently impacted the
North Atlantic thermohaline circulation and thereby also the climate of NW Europe.
The Baltic glacial history is only fragmentarily known, but it appears that a
first Baltic glacial event occurred during MIS 4 as recorded in sediments from