Greenland side of the Baffin Bay

In the Baffin Bay, palaeoclimate, palaeoceanography and the past development of the Greenland Ice Sheet are tightly coupled. For the northeast Baffin Bay, in which 27% of the western Greenland Ice Sheet drain, this connection has not yet been established due to the lack of data and samples. In order to model responses of the GIS to changing climatic conditions, and hence, changing oceanographic conditions, it is important to better understand the nature of these ocean-ice sheet couplings and related ice sheet dynamics in this area.

For this reason, the bathymetry working group at the AWI systematically maps the shelf and slope of the northeast Baffin Bay for seabed features associated to past Greenland Ice Sheet advances and retreats and bottom current activity. These studies are supplemented by proxy-studies done at the MARUM to date these features and events. These combined bathymetric/palaeoceanographic studies aim to provide information on the ocean circulation patterns in the northeast Baffin Bay, and thus, the palaeoceanographic influences on the northwest Greenland Ice Sheet.