Seismic and Side-Scan Sonar Investigations of Recent Sedimentation in an Ice-Proximal Glacimarine Setting, Kongsfjorden, North-West Spitsbergen.

The sediments and rates of deposition adjacent to the margins of tidewater glaciers have been described from a range of glacimarine settings, including south-east Alaska, Baffin Island and Svalbard [e.g. Elverhoi et al., 1980; Syvitski et al.,1987; Powell and Molnia, 1989]. One purpose of these studies is to present evidence from modern glacier-influenced environments, where the glaciological setting is either observable or relatively readily inferred [Dowdeswell and Scourse, 1990]. This information can then be utilised in the interpretation of Quaternary and older glacimarine sediments, where the depositional setting must be inferred on the basis of seismic stratigraphy and sedimentary facies.