The ice sheets stretched over an area as large as Scandinavia

Oct 1, 2013 20:51 GMT  ·  By
Researchers say the Arctic Ocean housed several generations of massive ice sheets
   Researchers say the Arctic Ocean housed several generations of massive ice sheets

Thousands of years ago, ice sheets measuring more than one kilometer (0.6 miles) in thickness formed in the Arctic Ocean's fairly shallow regions, scientists working with the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research argue in a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The researchers say that, according to evidence as hand, the Arctic Ocean housed at least four generations of such massive ice sheets over the past 800,000 years.

The ice sheets formed during various ice ages. Some were as much as 1.2 kilometers (0/75 miles) thick, and stretched over an area as large as Scandinavia.

“With the exception of the last ice age 21,000 years ago, ice sheets formed repeatedly in the shallow areas of the Arctic Ocean.”

“These sheets were at least 1200 metres thick and presumably covered an area as large as Scandinavia,” geologist Dr. Frank Niessen with the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research says, as cited by Science News.

The researchers now wish to carry out further investigations and pin down the exact climate conditions that caused these ice sheets to form.

What's more, they wish to figure out how the ice sheet's presence in these waters altered the appearance of the Arctic Ocean's bottom by scraping over it.