Within this research, volumes and areas of these ice dammed lakes have been estimated using modern topography, elevations of the former lake surfaces and the geographic position of the damming ice margin. This project is collaboration between University of Bergen, LGGE CNRS-UJF Grenoble, and Stockholm University.

The climatic impact of the lakes was simulated using an atmospheric general circulation model that explicitly account for the surface mass balance of the ice sheet. The simulations show that the summer cooling mechanism from proglacial lakes accelerated ice sheet growth and delayed ice sheet decay in Eurasia and probably also in North America.

“Map showing the locations of the proglacial lakes, the ice damming margin 90 000 years ago, and the hypothesized drainage routes (Figure modified from Mangerud et al., 2001).”

Calculated areas of the reconstructed ice dammed lakes in northern Russia. The lake areas are compared with glacial Lake Agassiz that existed in North America during the last glaciation as well as with modern sizes of the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria (Mangerud et al., 2001)

Contact information:
Martin Jakobsson | martin.jakobsson@geo.su.se

References
Krinner, G., Mangerud, M., Jakobsson, M., Crucifix, M., Ritz, C., Svendsen, J.I., and Genthon, C., 2004, Enhancement of ice sheet growth in Eurasia owing to adjacent ice-dammed lakes, Nature, v. 427, p. 429–432.

Mangerud, J., Jakobsson, M , Alexanderson, H., Astakov, V., Clarke, G., Henriksen, M., Hjort, C, Krinner, G., Lunkka, J.P., Moller, P., Murray, A., Nikolskaya, O., Saarnisto, M., and Svendsen, J.I., 2004, Ice-dammed lakes and rerouting of the drainage of Northern Eurasia during the last glaciation, Quaternay Science Reviews special QUEEN volume, Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 23, p. 1313–1332.

Mangerud, J., Astakov, V., Jakobsson, M. and Svendsen, J. I., 2001, Huge Ice-Age lakes in Russia, Journal of Quaternary Science, v. 16, no. 9, p. 773–777.