Submerged littoral sediments, beach ridges and wave-cut platforms off Troms, North Norway: Revisiting old questions

Reinterpretation of sea-floor morphology and modelling of Weichselian relative sea-level history on the continental shelf off Troms suggest that beach-like features and sandy basins are unlikely to have been formed primarily by littoral processes. Sea-floor sand transportation has probably been caused by bottom currents, which still flow today. Two seaward-dipping platforms, one at 50-110 m and one at 75-130 m depth on Sveinsgrunnen, Malangsgrunnen and Nordvestbanken, have previously been interpreted as wave-cut platforms. Their gradients are approximately parallel and 50 and 75 m deeper, respectively, than the extrapolated Late Weichselian North Andøy Shoreline (NAS). These platforms therefore seem to be older features, most likely formed mainly by glacial erosion and accumulation processes during the Pleistocene.