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The Siljan region hosts Europe's largest impact structure. The high-relief landscape, with a central granite dome bordered by lake basins, contains an array of glacial and shore-level landforms. We investigated its deglaciation history by mapping and analysing landforms on high resolution LiDAR (light detection and ranging)-based digital surface models coupled with well-dated sediment successions from peat and lake sediment cores. The granite dome and bordering areas are characterized by streamlined terrain and ribbed moraine with a streamlined overprint. These suggest an ice-flow direction from north-northwest (NNW) with wet-based thermal conditions prior to deglaciation. During its retreat, the ice sheet was split into thinner plateau ice and thicker basin ice. Sets of low-gradient glaciofluvial erosion channels suggest intense ice-lateral meltwater drainage across gradually ice-freed slopes, while ‘down-the-slope’ erosion channels and eskers show meltwater drainage from stagnated plateau ice. Thick basin ice receded with a subaqueous margin across the deep Siljan–Orsasjön Basin c. 10,700–10,500 cal. bp. During ice recession the ingression of the Baltic Ancylus Lake led to diachronous formation of highest shoreline marks, from ~207 m in the south to ~220 m above sea level (a.s.l.) in the north. Differential uplift resulted in shallowing of the water body, which led to the isolation of the Siljan–Orsasjön Basin from the Baltic Basin at c. 9800 cal. bp. The post-isolation water body – the ‘Ancient Lake Siljan’ – was drained through the ancient Åkerö Channel with a water level at 168–169 m a.s.l. during c. 1000 years. A later rerouting of the outlet to the present course was initiated at c. 8800 cal. bp, which led to a lake-level lowering of 6–7 m to today's level of Lake Siljan (~162 m a.s.l.). This study shows the strength of an integrated methodological approach for deciphering the evolution of a complex landscape, combining highly resolved geomorphological analys

The terrestrial margins of the Middle Pleistocene ice sheets in northern central Europe were characterised by the formation of extensive ice-dammed lakes, which were controlled by the blockage of spillways by the ice margin. The largest ice-dammed lake had a volume of ∼224 km³ and formed in a late stage of the first Saalian ice advance (MIS 6) in central Germany. The failure of the ice dam in the bedrock-outlet channel triggered a major glacial lake-outburst flood. Flood-related erosional and depositional features include large-scale scours, trench-like channels, streamlined hills, giant bars and run-up deposits, indicating a wide spreading of the outburst flood in an early stage and the incision of trench-like valleys in a later stage. The incision of large valleys in the proximal flood pathway strongly impacted the regional drainage system by providing an efficient drainage network. The trench-like channels initiated by the lake-outburst flood became a crucial part of the ice-marginal drainage and subsequent fluvial system. The reconstructed outlet hydrographs imply peak discharges of 465,000–673,000 m³s −1 . The numerical simulation indicates flow depths of up to 87 m, flow velocities of up to 7 ms −1 , peaks of the bed-shear stress of 2500 Nm −2 and the inundation of large parts of northwestern Germany and the northern Netherlands. The numerical simulation of the outburst flood was conducted on both the modern digital elevation model and on palaeotopographic models, representing the palaeotopography prior to the outburst flood and during maximum flood-related incision, respectively. Distally, the outburst flood probably followed an east-west trending route through northwestern Germany and the central Netherlands into the ice-dammed lake in the southern North Sea Basin. The added water volume might have led to the overspill and drainage of the proglacial lakes in the central Netherlands and the North Sea Lake in a chain reaction, eventually opening an east-west t

Recent reconstructions suggest that the British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets coalesced and covered the central and northern North Sea from ca. 26 cal. ka BP and until ca. 19 cal. ka BP. At ca. 19 cal. ka BP the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream started to retreat and the ice sheets broke apart at ca. 18.7 cal. ka BP. This led to a drainage of an ice-dammed lake in the southern North Sea northwards via the Norwegian Channel into the SE Nordic Seas. In this paper we combine information from high resolution TOPAS profiles, bathymetric records and shallow borings to study the ice-dammed lake outburst, a common deglaciation process but which rarely has been evidenced in such a detail from the marine realm. A 12 m deep and 3 km wide incision at the northeastern part of the Dogger Bank is suggested to represent the point where the ice-dammed lake breached. The glacial lake outburst flood, which had an estimated peak discharge of 9.8 x 10(4)-2.9 x 10(5) m(3)/s and lasted for about 5-15 months, flowed between the withdrawing British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets following the crest of the Ling Bank northwards. Along this path, about 300 km downstream of the break-through point, an up to 10 m thick sediment package with a prograding-aggrading sedimentation pattern, typical for ice-dammed lake outburst deposits, has been deposited. This sediment package was deposited in a high-energy environment, immediately following extensive erosion of the underlying till unit of Last Glacial Maximum age. An oxygen isotope anomaly and an associated ultra-rapidly deposited meltwater plume on the Norwegian continental margin, dated to ca. 18.7 cal. ka BP, also witness this lake outburst. The ice-dammed lake outburst flood occurred when evidence suggest a sea level at least 110 m lower than at present in the region. As the sea level rose, following the melting of the Last Glacial Maximum ice sheet, the Ling Bank Delta developed on top the outburst deposits. The delta, indicating a sea le

Recent reconstructions suggest that the British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets coalesced and covered the central and northern North Sea from ca. 26 cal. ka BP and until ca. 19 cal. ka BP. At ca. 19 cal. ka BP the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream started to retreat and the ice sheets broke apart at ca. 18.7 cal. ka BP. This led to a drainage of an ice-dammed lake in the southern North Sea northwards via the Norwegian Channel into the SE Nordic Seas. In this paper we combine information from high resolution TOPAS profiles, bathymetric records and shallow borings to study the ice-dammed lake outburst, a common deglaciation process but which rarely has been evidenced in such a detail from the marine realm. A 12 m deep and 3 km wide incision at the northeastern part of the Dogger Bank is suggested to represent the point where the ice-dammed lake breached. The glacial lake outburst flood, which had an estimated peak discharge of 9.8 x 10(4)-2.9 x 10(5) m(3)/s and lasted for about 5-15 months, flowed between the withdrawing British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets following the crest of the Ling Bank northwards. Along this path, about 300 km downstream of the break-through point, an up to 10 m thick sediment package with a prograding-aggrading sedimentation pattern, typical for ice-dammed lake outburst deposits, has been deposited. This sediment package was deposited in a high-energy environment, immediately following extensive erosion of the underlying till unit of Last Glacial Maximum age. An oxygen isotope anomaly and an associated ultra-rapidly deposited meltwater plume on the Norwegian continental margin, dated to ca. 18.7 cal. ka BP, also witness this lake outburst. The ice-dammed lake outburst flood occurred when evidence suggest a sea level at least 110 m lower than at present in the region. As the sea level rose, following the melting of the Last Glacial Maximum ice sheet, the Ling Bank Delta developed on top the outburst deposits. The delta, indicating a sea le

A comprehensive palaeogeographic reconstruction of ice sheets and related proglacial lake systems for the older Saalian glaciation in northern central Europe is presented, which is based on the integration of palaeo-ice flow data, till provenance, facies analysis, geomorphology and new luminescence ages of ice-marginal deposits. Three major ice advances with different ice-advance directions and source areas are indicated by palaeo-ice flow directions and till provenance. The first ice advance was characterised by a southwards directed ice flow and a dominance of clasts derived from southern Sweden. The second ice advance was initially characterised by an ice flow towards the southwest. Clasts are mainly derived from southern and central Sweden. The latest stage in the study area (third ice advance) was characterised by ice streaming (Hondsrug ice stream) in the west and a re-advance in the east. Clasts of this stage are mainly derived from eastern Fennoscandia. Numerical ages for the first ice advance are sparse, but may indicate a correlation with MIS 8 or early MIS 6. New pIRIR290 luminescence ages of ice-marginal deposits attributed to the second ice advance range from 175 ± 10 to 156 ± 24 ka and correlate with MIS 6. The ice sheets repeatedly blocked the main river-drainage pathways and led to the formation of extensive ice-dammed lakes. The formation of proglacial lakes was mainly controlled by ice-damming of river valleys and major bedrock spillways; therefore the lake levels and extends were very similar throughout the repeated ice advances. During deglaciation the lakes commonly increased in size and eventually drained successively towards the west and northwest into the Lower Rhine Embayment and the North Sea. Catastrophic lake-drainage events occurred when large overspill channels were suddenly opened. Ice-streaming at the end of the older Saalian glaciation was probably triggered by major lake-drainage events.

Ice-dammed lakes drain frequently in Greenland, but the impacts of these events differ between sites. Here we study the quasi-cyclic behavior of the ~40 km2 Lake Tininnilik in west Greenland and its impact on ice flow and crustal deformation. Data reveal rapid drainage of 1.83 ± 0.17 km3 of water in less than 7 days in 2010, leading to a speedup of the damming glacier, and an instantaneous modeled elastic bedrock uplift of 18.6 ± 0.1 mm confirmed by an independent lakeside GPS record. Since ice-dammed lakes are common on Greenland, our results highlight the importance of including other sources of surface loading in addition to ice mass change, when assessing glacial isostatic adjustment or elastic rebound using geodetic data. Moreover, the results illustrates a linkage between subglacial discharge and ice surface velocity, important for assessing ice flux, and thus mass balance, in a future warming climate.

A prominent lake formed when glaciers descending from the Kodar Range blocked the River Vitim in central Transbaikalia, Siberia. Glacial Lake Vitim, evidenced by palaeoshorelines and deltas, covered 23,500 km2 and held a volume of ~3000 km3. We infer that a large canyon in the area of the postulated ice dam served as a spillway during an outburst flood that drained through the rivers Vitim and Lena into the Arctic Ocean. The inferred outburst flood, of a magnitude comparable to the largest known floods on Earth, possibly explains a freshwater spike at ~13 cal ka BP inferred from Arctic Ocean sediments.