Late Quaternary sediment yields from the Isfjorden drainage area (7327 km2), a high arctic region on Svalbard characterized by an alpine landscape, have been reconstructed by using seismic stratigraphy supported by sediment core analysis. The sediments that accumulated in the fjord during and since deglaciation can be divided into three stratigraphic units. The volumes of these units were determined and converted into sediment yield rates averaged over the drainage basin. During deglaciation, 13 to 10 ka, the sediment yield was ~860 tons(t)/km2/yr. In the early Holocene it decreased to 190 t/km2/yr, and then increased to 390t/km2/yr during the late Holocene Little Ice Age. When normalized to the approximate glacierized area, these rates correspond to a sediment yield of ~800 t/km2/yr . Sediment yield from non-glacierized parts of the drainage is estimated to be 35 t/km2/yr. At times when ice advanced to the shelf edge, sediment was scoured from the fjord and deposited on the outer shelf and in a well-defined deep sea fan. Between 200 ka and 13 ka, 328 km3 of sediment accumulated here, corresponding to a mean sediment yield rate of 335 t/km2/yr. This is broadly consistent with calculations based on the above rates of sediment yield in glacierized and non-glacierized areas, and on estimates, based on glacial geology, of the temporal variation in degree of glacierization over the past 200 kyr. These figures indicate that much of the glacigenic sediment on the shelf and slope was eroded from the uplands of Svalbard by small glaciers during interstadials and interglacials. The sediments were temporarily stored in the fjord prior to redeposition on the shelf and slope during ice sheet advance. Taken into consideration, such redisposition of pre-eroded material will reduce estimates of primary ice sheet erosion rate.
