Abstract Fjords have long been recognized for their value as sites of sediment deposition, recording past climatic conditions. Recently, Arctic fjords have been recognized as the critical gateway through which oceanic waters can impact on the stability of glaciers. Arctic fjords are also used as idealized locations to study ice-influenced physical, biological and geochemical processes. In all cases a clear understanding of the physical oceanographic environment is required to interpret and predict related impacts and linkages. In this review we consider the characteristic elements of Arctic fjords and the important dynamical processes. We show how the intense seasonality of these regions is reflected in the varying stratification of the fjords. In particular, we show that sea ice has a central role in terms of the fjord salinity which ultimately influences the exchange with oceanic waters. When the fjord is ice free, wind forcing from the intense down-fjord katabatic winds gives rise to rapidly changing cross-fjord gradients, upwelling and strong surface circulations. The stratification and dimensions of Arctic fjords mean that they are often classed as ‘broad’ fjords where rotational effects are important in their circulation. We refer to the link between the physical oceanographic conditions and the related depositional records throughout.

Abstract Canada's western continental shelf can be broadly divided into three geographical regions: Salish Sea, Pacific North Coast and Vancouver Island Shelf. Each region's physiography has been uniquely impacted by a history of glaciation, tectonism, oceanography and sea-level change. Retreat of the Fraser Glaciation started from the Pacific towards the mainland of British Columbia first in the north on Haida Gwaii (16 14 C ka BP) then outer Vancouver Island (14 14 C ka BP), and generally progressed east with ice persisting on the Fraser lowland and northern British Columbia mainland, and possibly the central interbasin coast, until after 10 14 C ka BP. Retreat on the Pacific North Coast was rapid, while downwasting and stagnation occurred in the Salish Sea. Sea levels responded to this deglacial history, with submergence of most of the Salish Sea by over 250 m before 12 14 C ka BP then falling to approximately 100 m where it remained until approximately 10 14 C ka BP, and emergence of the Vancouver Island Shelf with the development of a forebulge. In contrast, the Pacific North Coast crustal loading of the British Columbia mainland and development of a peripheral forebulge towards Haida Gwaii resulted in submergence of the mainland by 120 m and emergence of the western basin by more than 120 m, with regional variation throughout. Holocene sedimentation is primarily restricted to the coastal inlets and fjords, except for the southern Salish Sea off the Fraser River.

Abstract Extensional structures characterize significant parts of the North Atlantic Caledonides. Silurian extensional deformation took place, particularly in the heated crust in the southern Greenland Caledonides, but the majority of the mapped extensional structures are Devonian (403–380 Ma). They formed by reactivation of low-angle Caledonian thrusts and by the formation of hinterland-dipping shear zones, of which the largest system is located in SW Norway and related to exhumation of the subducted margin of Baltica. The Devonian extension was concentrated to the central and southern part of the Caledonides, with maximum extension occurring in the area between the Western Gneiss Region of SW Norway and the Fjord Region of East Greenland. Kinematic data indicate that the main tectonic transport direction was toward the hinterland, and this pattern suggests that the main Devonian extension/transtension in the southern part of the North Atlantic region was postcontractional while strike-slip motions and possibly transpression occurred farther north. Late Devonian to enigmatic Early Carboniferous ages from UHP metamorphic assemblages in NE Greenland suggest that intracontinental subduction was going on in NE Greenland at a time when extensional deformation governed the rest of the orogenic belt.

Two major Neoproterozoic sedimentary basins that probably formed in response to an early pulse of Iapetan rifting along the Laurentian margin are well exposed in the East Greenland Caledonides. The Hekla Sund Basin is exposed at the northern termination of the East Greenland Caledonides, and it is represented by the Rivieradal and Hagen Fjord Groups, which attain a cumulative thickness of 8–11 km. The evolution of this basin reflects deposition during active rifting and a postrift thermal equilibration stage. The Eleonore Bay Basin of East Greenland includes the deposits of the Eleonore Bay Supergroup of early Neoproterozoic age overlain by Cryogenian (mid-Neoproterozoic) glacial deposits of the Tillite Group, which have a combined thickness in excess of 14 km. Four stages of basin evolution may be distinguished based on paleogeographic reorganizations of the shelf and a change from siliciclastic to carbonate deposition, and the final stage was dominated by glacigenic deposition. Major regional stratigraphic breaks seem to be absent, as is other evidence of rift-related sedimentation, suggesting deposition in one or a series of connected ensialic basins. A comparison with other Neoproterozoic basins along the Laurentian margin of the Iapetus Ocean shows similarities between the Eleonore Bay Basin and coeval deposits on Svalbard and the Central Highlands of Scotland. The development of an extensive carbonate platform during the later stages of both the Eleonore Bay and Hekla Sund Basins testifies to a period of tectonic stability prior to onset of Iapetus rifting. The extent of this carbonate platform may have been even larger, since similar successions are present in the Caledonides of Scotland and Ireland.

Abstract We present a combination of fjord bathymetry and shallow seismic data from Kongsfjorden and Krossfjorden, Svalbard, to characterize and analyse change in the fjord coastal environment physiography and the glaciosedimentary processes since the Last Glacial Maximum. Swath bathymetry reveals a series of several styles of landform, frequently superimposed upon each other, permitting the reconstruction of the relative timings of deposition of each landform with the oldest successively overlain and cross-cut by younger landforms and erosional processes. Large transverse ridges interpreted as recessional moraines are overlain by streamlined lineations formed subglacially during a subsequent ice advance. A complex of recessional morainal ridges occurring within the central fjord are incised by glacial lineations and meltwater channels from younger glacial events.