Late Cenozoic glacial history and evolution of the Storegga Slide area and adjacent slide flank regions, Norwegian continental margin Berit Oline Hjelstuen a, * , Hans Petter Sejrup a , Haflidi Haflidason a , Atle Nyga ˚rd a , Silvia Ceramicola b , Petter Bryn c a Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Alle ´gt 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway b Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale, Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/C, 34010 Sgonico, Trieste, Italy c Norsk Hydro ASA, N-0256 Oslo, Norway Received 6 August 2003; received in revised form 24 November 2003; accepted 15 October 2004 Abstract Acoustic data and sediment cores collected from the Storegga Slide and its adjacent slide flanks, i.e. the Vøring Plateau to the north and the North Sea Fan to the south, have been used to study the Late Cenozoic glacial history and geological development of this region. Age constrains obtained from the investigated cores show that the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet reached the shelf edge during Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 12, 10, 8, 6 and 2. Ice sheet fluctuations within each glaciation might have occurred, as is evidenced for the Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2). The first extensive ice advance is identified in the Early Pleistocene, at c. 1.1 Ma; however, between 2.6 and 0.5 Ma the ice sheets were largely restricted to the fjords and inner shelf. During each glacial maximum, glacigenic debris flows (GDFs) transported basal till, deposited at the shelf edge, into the deep sea along the entire studied margin. The most voluminous GDF sequences are found on the southern Storegga Slide flank (North Sea Fan), where the individual flows are found as far as 500 km from the shelf edge. On the Vøring Plateau glacimarine/hemipelagic sedimentation has dominated the last c. 250,000 yr. During MIS 2 such sediments were rapidly deposited, covering the upper-slope-limited GDF units in this region. Between c. 15,700 and 15,000 14 C yr BP, i.e. during the last deglaciation of the Norwegian margin, a presumed meltwater plume, released from the disintegrating Norwegian Channel Ice Stream, transported and rapidly deposited up to 20 m of fine-grained sediments in the region north of the North Sea Fan. The rapid deposition of large volumes of GDFs, glacimarine and meltwater related sediments might have influenced the stability of the slope sediments in the studied region, promoting conditions favorable for failure. Furthermore, these high sedimentation rates also partly account for the high subsidence rates observed on the Norwegian continental margin in the Late Cenozoic. q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Late Cenozoic; Continental margin; Offshore Norway; Glaciations 1. Introduction The Storegga Slide, on the Norwegian continental margin, is flanked by the Vøring Plateau to the north and the North Sea Fan to the south (Figs. 1 and 2). The flank regions have been the location for major depocentres during the Late Plio-Pleistocene, and on the Vøring Plateau these Late Cenozoic sediments define a thick prograding wedge (e.g. Hjelstuen et al., 1999). At the southern slide flank the North Sea Fan represents a huge Late Cenozoic trough mouth fan complex at the outlet of the Norwegian Channel (e.g. Nyga ˚rd et al., 2005), whereas within the Storegga Slide region itself the Late Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary succes- sion is thinner due to lower sediment supply and repeated slide events (Evans et al., 2002). The Late Plio-Pleistocene deposits define important archives for the study of changes in sedimentary processes, paleoclimate and geological development through time. Here, we summarize the seismic facies characteristics and composition of these sediments, in order to present a synthesis of our knowledge on the Late Plio-Pleistocene glacial history and geological evolution of the Storegga Slide area and adjacent slide flank regions (Fig. 2). 0264-8172/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2004.10.002 Marine and Petroleum Geology 22 (2005) 57–69 www.elsevier.com/locate/marpetgeo * Corresponding author. Tel.: C47 55 58 35 07; fax: C47 55 58 36 60. E-mail address: berit.hjelstuen@geo.uib.no (B.O. Hjelstuen).