Infill of tunnel valleys associated with landward-flowing ice sheets: The missing Middle Pleistocene record of the NW European rivers?

The southern termination of the Middle and Late Pleistocene Scandinavian ice sheets was repeatedly located in the southern North Sea (sNS) and adjacent, north-sloping land areas. Giant meltwater- excavated valleys (tunnel valleys) formed at the southern termination of the ice sheets and contain a hitherto enigmatic succession of northward prograding clinoforms, comprising 1000s km3 of sediment. This study analyses 3D seismic data, covering the entire sNS, and demonstrates for the first time that the formation of these tunnel valleys was separate from their infill. The infill constitutes the postglacial record of the NW European river deltas, which had so far been considered missing.