9419532 Prentice This award supports a US contribution to a collaborative project with Russian and Swedish glacial geologists to test the existence of an hypothesized Holocene ice dome centered on the Kara Sea. This hypothesized dome could account for a maximum of 17 meters of sea level rise and so the question of its existence has important implications for models of Holocene climate. However, its existence is a highly contentious question. The goal of the project is to produce well constrained radiocarbon ages of the northernmost terrestrial moraine complex along the margin of the Kara Sea. The work will specifically focus on the area east of Dikson, Russia, where the Leneevaya River intersects the northern Taimyr moraine. Accurate ages of the moraines are required in order to determine if an ice dome is likely to have existed in the Kara Sea region during the last ice age. If the existence of the ice dome is supported, then this work would also be key to formulating further work to fully characterize the dome. The results of this project are expected to help resolve an important and contentious question about the nature and extent of ice sheets during the last ice age.
