Past ice flow in Wahlenbergfjorden and its implications for late Quaternary ice sheet dynamics in northeastern Svalbard Anne E. Flink a, * , Riko Noormets a , Oscar Fransner a , Kelly A. Hogan b , Matthew  ORegan c , Martin Jakobsson c a Department of Arctic Geology, University Centre in Svalbard, 9170 Longyearbyen, Norway b British Antarctic Survey, Madingley Road, High Cross, Cambridge, UK c Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden article info Article history: Received 22 February 2016 Received in revised form 20 March 2017 Accepted 21 March 2017 Keywords: Submarine glacial landforms Ice flow Deglaciation Surging glaciers Multibeam-bathymetric data abstract Wahlenbergfjorden is a fjord situated in the western part of Nordaustlandet in northern Svalbard. It leads into the 400 m deep Hinlopen Strait located between Nordaustlandet and Spitsbergen. High-resolution multibeam bathymetric and sub-bottom data, as well as sediment cores are used to study the past extent and dynamics of glaciers in Wahlenbergfjorden and western Nordaustlandet. The submarine landform assemblage in Wahlenbergfjorden consists of landforms characteristic of subglacial, ice marginal and proglacial conditions. Glacial lineations indicate that Wahlenbergfjorden was occupied by streaming ice during the LGM and most likely acted as an ice stream onset zone. Westward ice flow in the fjord merged with the ice stream in Hinlopen Strait. Absence of ice recessional landforms in outer Wahlenbergfjorden suggests relatively fast deglaciation, possibly by flotation of the glacier front in the deeper parts of the fjord. The inner part of Wahlenbergfjorden and Palanderbukta are characterized by De Geer moraines, indicating episodic retreat of a grounded glacier front. In Palanderbukta, longer still stands of the glacier terminus resulted in the formation of larger terminal moraine ridges. The inner part of Wahlenbergf- jorden was deglaciated prior to 11.3 ± 55 Cal. ka BP. The submarine landform assemblages in front of Bodleybreen, Etonbreen, Idunbreen, Frazerbreen and Aldousbreen confirm that these glaciers have surged at least once during the Holocene. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Expansion and retreat of ice sheets during Quaternary glacial- interglacial periods is recorded by a wide range of submarine landforms in the Barents Sea (e.g. Ottesen and Dowdeswell, 2009; Bjarnad ottir et al., 2012). The submarine glacial geomorphology is used to reconstruct the ice sheet configurations and dynamics in fjords as well as on the continental shelf (Ottesen et al., 2007, 2008a; Robinson and Dowdeswell, 2011; Andreassen et al., 2008; Ottesen and Dowdeswell, 2009; Ruther et al., 2011). Marine geophysical data confirm that the entire Barents Sea area was covered by a grounded ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (Solheim et al., 1990; Svendsen et al., 2004; Dowdeswell et al., 2010). According to glacial isostatic adjustment reconstructions based on terrestrial data, the Svalbard Barents Sea Ice Sheet (SBSIS) was centered on Kong Karls Land in northeastern Svalbard (Ing olfsson et al., 1995; Lambeck, 1995; Landvik et al., 1998; Svendsen et al., 2004; Ing olfsson and Landvik, 2013). Recently published submarine landform records, suggest that a local ice dome was located in the southern Hinlopen Strait area (Dowdeswell et al., 2010; Hogan et al., 2010a). It is therefore likely that the SBSIS consisted of more than one local dome during atleast periods of the last glacial cycle (Dowdeswell et al., 2010; Hormes et al., 2013; Ing olfsson and Landvik, 2013). The timing and dy- namics of these domes is, however, unknown. During LGM, the western sector of the SBIS was divided into fast-flowing ice streams separated by inter-ice stream areas dominated by slow-flowing ice (Ottesen and Dowdeswell, 2009). The ice-sheet configuration and dynamics in eastern Svalbard are less well-known, mainly because of the relative inaccessibility of the area due to more persistent sea-ice cover. Recent work south and east of Nordaustlanded and in the Kvitøya Trough have * Corresponding author. University Centre in Svalbard, PO Box 156, 9171 Long- yearbyen, Norway. E-mail address: AnneF@unis.no (A.E. Flink). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.03.021 0277-3791/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary Science Reviews 163 (2017) 162e179