Scientists have discovered the massive icebergs that once drifted off the UK coast during the last ice age. A new study published in the journal Nature Communications has revealed the distinctive plow-marks these spectacular giants carved as their undersides dragged across the floor of the North Sea.
Researchers found deep, comb-like grooves hundreds of meters wide preserved in sediments beneath the present-day seafloor. These grooves are visible in seismic survey data used to locate drilling platforms in the Witch Ground Basin between Scotland and Norway.
The size of these parallel grooves allows researchers to estimate the dimensions of the icebergs responsible, which measured five to tens of kilometers in width – comparable to a medium-sized UK city like Cambridge or Norwich. The discovery provides evidence that the British and Irish Ice Sheet had ice shelves, just like Antarctica.
This finding is important for understanding ice sheet stability. Regular breakaway of tabular bergs at the leading edge of shelves helps maintain glaciers in a steady state. However, as the world warms, this process may change.
The study’s authors suggest that ancient North Sea plow-marks could offer valuable insights into how Antarctica’s ice shelves might behave in the future. Researchers are currently dating sediments to better understand the catastrophic collapse of these ice shelves during the last ice age and their potential impact on sea-level rise.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-04-massive-icebergs-roamed-coast-uk.html