A stage 7 marine interglacial record (the Grødeland Interglacial) on Jaeren, southwestern Norway; foraminiferal, stable isotopes and amino acid evidence

Foraminiferal biostratigraphy, stable isotopes and amino‐acid diagenesis have been investigated in a 125 m (+ 1 to — 124 m a.s.l.) long core from Jæren, southwestern Norway. Two marine units, the 42 m thick Grødeland Sand and the 8 m thick Sunde Sand, were found between till beds. Based on the biostratigraphic data, nine foraminiferal assemblage zones are defined. The Grødeland Sand shows a development from an ice‐proximal glacial environment in the lower part, through an arctic, possibly shallow‐water, environment, into a full interglacial open‐shelf regime (the Grødeland Interglacial). The Grødeland Interglacial sediments (zone 6 Cassidulina laevigata‐Cibicides zone) were deposited at a water depth of 20 m, in an open, high‐energy shelf environment with temperature conditions similar to those prevailing in the northern North Sea today. The interglacial sediments are followed by deposits characteristic of an arctic environment which become more ice proximal upwards. Superimposed on the Grødeland Sand is a diamicton interpreted as till. Above the till is the upper marine unit (the Sunde Sand), which in the lower part yielded a shallow‐water arctic fauna replaced upwards by an ice‐proximal facies. The upper part of the Sunde Sand is barren of foraminifera and is superimposed by an upper till. The Sunde Interstadial is defined as a climatostratigraphic event resulting in deglaciation of western Norway and deposition of the Sunde Sand. Based on amino acid geochronology and inferences from the biostratigraphy, the Grødeland Interglacial is assigned to oxygen‐isotope stage 7, whereas the Sunde Interstadial is assigned to the Early Weichselian. Combined with existing data from the North Sea region and the Norwegian Sea, it is concluded that for stage 7, in addition to stages 1 and 5e, there must have been a strong influx of Atlantic water into the Norwegian Sea north of the British Isles. This circulation created a similar north‐south gradient in water masses in the North Sea to that which occurred during the Eemian and the Holocene. In the Nordic Seas, however, the stage 7 warm influx was probably restricted to the eastern part of the basin, unlike the later warm periods. This led to the development of fully interglacial conditions in the North Sea region, even though the palaeoceanographic data from the central part of the Nordic Seas suggest relatively cooler conditions for oxygen‐isotope stage 7.