Abstract. A preliminary assessment of the age of the ice-exaration furrows of the Baydaratskaya Bay of the Kara Sea is presented, based on the results of 52 and 56 voyages of the R/V Akademik Nikolai Strakhov. As part of the research work, a comprehensive survey of the bottom topography was carried out with a multibeam echo sounder and a seismoacoustic profiler, as well as the selection of bottom sediment columns both directly from the gouge furrows and next to them on the “background” (initial) bottom surfaces not disturbed by ice gouging. Three large ice-cutting furrows with a visible depth of up to 2.5–3 m were tested, the filling thickness of which with sediments reaches up to 0.7–2 m. Two furrows are located at a sea depth of 23–25 m and one furrow at a depth of 36–40 m Sedimentation rates over the last 100–120 years were obtained from the last furrow using the non-equilibrium 210Pb method. Based on this, as well as data on the thickness of the filling of the furrows with sediments, the age of all three gouge furrows is dated to the last Little Ice Age.

Keywords: ice-exaration scars, cores of bottom sediment, bottom topography survey, seismoacoustic profiles, sediment filling thickness, sedimentation rate