Influences of the Little Ice Age glacier advance on hillslope morphometry and development in paraglacial valley systems around the Jostedalsbreen ice cap in Western Norway

Geomorphology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 167-168 ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Laute ◽  
Achim A. Beylich
The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1041-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Løseth Jansen ◽  
Svein Olaf Dahl ◽  
Pål Ringkjøb Nielsen

The course of the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) in Scandinavia is characterized by large glacier advances that started at about AD 1300 and culminated at about AD 1750. The end of the LIA is marked as an unprecedented and ongoing glacier retreat that accelerated from the early 20th century. The course of the LIA is here presented based on fluctuations of Austerdalsisen, the largest valley outlet glacier draining the Austre Svartisen (Østisen) ice cap, Nordland, northern Norway. During the LIA glacierization, Austerdalsisen separated into two branches, and relative to the present glacier terminus, a western valley glacier advanced more than 4 km, whereas a SE valley glacier advanced about 3 km. At present, meltwater from Austerdalsisen drains towards SE. If the glacier obtains a critical magnitude, however, most of the meltwater is drained westwards across a higher overflow gap. Based on radiocarbon-dated lake sediments, distal proglacial glaciolacustrine/glaciofluvial sediments and historical observations, the course and chronology of the deglaciation following the LIA glacier maximum at Austerdalsisen are established. Because of high sedimentation rates due to low local bedrock resistance to glacier erosion beneath Austerdalsisen, however, cores from distal glacier-fed lakes covering the entire LIA/Holocene are hard to retrieve. Hence, an inverse approach to reconstruct the entire course of the LIA glacierization at Austerdalsisen is performed by suggesting little input of glacier-meltwater-induced sediments to the SE distal glacier-fed lake Litl Røvatnet, whenever Austerdalsisen rerouted meltwater westwards. If the terminus of Austerdalsisen was near the critical magnitude threshold, regular glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) towards SE occurred.


2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kam-biu Liu ◽  
Carl A. Reese ◽  
Lonnie G. Thompson

AbstractThis paper presents a high-resolution ice-core pollen record from the Sajama Ice Cap, Bolivia, that spans the last 400 yr. The pollen record corroborates the oxygen isotopic and ice accumulation records from the Quelccaya Ice Cap and supports the scenario that the Little Ice Age (LIA) consisted of two distinct phases�"a wet period from AD 1500 to 1700, and a dry period from AD 1700 to 1880. During the dry period xerophytic shrubs expanded to replace puna grasses on the Altiplano, as suggested by a dramatic drop in the Poaceae/Asteraceae (P/A) pollen ratio. The environment around Sajama was probably similar to the desert-like shrublands of the Southern Bolivian Highlands and western Andean slopes today. The striking similarity between the Sajama and Quelccaya proxy records suggests that climatic changes during the Little Ice Age occurred synchronously across the Altiplano.


Boreas ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Adamson ◽  
Timothy Lane ◽  
Matthew Carney ◽  
Thomas Bishop ◽  
Cathy Delaney

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 1153-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.H. Luckman ◽  
M.H. Masiokas ◽  
K. Nicolussi

As glaciers in the Canadian Rockies recede, glacier forefields continue to yield subfossil wood from sites overridden by these glaciers during the Holocene. Robson Glacier in British Columbia formerly extended below tree line, and recession over the last century has progressively revealed a number of buried forest sites that are providing one of the more complete records of glacier history in the Canadian Rockies during the latter half of the Holocene. The glacier was advancing ca. 5.5 km upvalley of the Little Ice Age terminus ca. 5.26 cal ka BP, at sites ca. 2 km upvalley ca. 4.02 cal ka BP and ca. 3.55 cal ka BP, and 0.5–1 km upvalley between 1140 and 1350 A.D. There is also limited evidence based on detrital wood of an additional period of glacier advance ca. 3.24 cal ka BP. This record is more similar to glacier histories further west in British Columbia than elsewhere in the Rockies and provides the first evidence for a post-Hypsithermal glacier advance at ca. 5.26 cal ka BP in the Rockies. The utilization of the wiggle-matching approach using multiple 14C dates from sample locations determined by dendrochronological analyses enabled the recognition of 14C outliers and an increase in the precision and accuracy of the dating of glacier advances.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1527-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon L. Pendleton ◽  
Gifford H. Miller ◽  
Robert A. Anderson ◽  
Sarah E. Crump ◽  
Yafang Zhong ◽  
...  

Abstract. Records of Neoglacial glacier activity in the Arctic constructed from moraines are often incomplete due to a preservation bias toward the most extensive advance, often the Little Ice Age. Recent warming in the Arctic has caused extensive retreat of glaciers over the past several decades, exposing preserved landscapes complete with in situ tundra plants previously entombed by ice. The radiocarbon ages of these plants define the timing of snowline depression and glacier advance across the site, in response to local summer cooling. Erosion rapidly removes most dead plants that have been recently exposed by ice retreat, but where erosive processes are unusually weak, dead plants may remain preserved on the landscape for decades. In such settings, a transect of plant radiocarbon ages can be used to construct a near-continuous chronology of past ice margin advance. Here we present radiocarbon dates from the first such transect on Baffin Island, which directly dates the advance of a small ice cap over the past two millennia. The nature of ice expansion between 20 BCE and ∼ 1000 CE is still uncertain, but episodic advances at ∼ 1000 CE, ∼ 1200, and  ∼ 1500 led to the maximum Neoglacial dimensions ~ 1900 CE. We employ a two-dimensional numerical glacier model calibrated using the plant radiocarbon ages ice margin chronology to assess the sensitivity of the ice cap to temperature change. Model experiments show that at least ∼ 0.44 °C of cooling over the past 2 kyr is required for the ice cap to reach its 1900 CE margin, and that the period from ∼ 1000 to 1900 CE must have been at least 0.25° C cooler than the previous millennium, results that agree with regional temperature reconstructions and climate model simulations. However, significant warming since 1900 CE is required to explain retreat to its present position, and, at the same rate of warming, the ice cap will disappear before 2100 CE.


The Holocene ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1350-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P Moran ◽  
Susan Ivy Ochs ◽  
Marcus Christl ◽  
Hanns Kerschner

A two-phased moraine system in the high Alpine valley of Lisenser Längental in the Stubai Alps of western Austria is located in an intermediate morphostratigraphic position constrained by ‘Egesen Stadial’ (Younger Dryas) moraines down valley and ‘Little Ice Age’ (‘LIA’) positions (modern times) up valley. The equilibrium line altitude (ELA) was about 50 m lower than during the ‘LIA’ when applying an accumulation area ratio of 0.67. Exposure dating of boulders with 10Be yields a mean age of 3750 ± 330 years for the more extensive outer moraine system and a single age of 3140 ± 280 years for the inner one. The ages correspond well to the ‘Loebben oscillation’, a sequence of multi-decadal to multi-centennial cooling phases at the onset of the late-Holocene, also recognized in other Alpine records. The climatic downturn was severe enough to cause small to medium-sized Alpine glaciers in the central Alps to advance significantly beyond their ‘LIA’ extent, but too short to trigger a similar reaction with large glaciers.


1986 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 369-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Matthews ◽  
John L. Innes ◽  
Christopher J. Caseldine

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Smith ◽  
Colin P. Laroque

ABSTRACT Dendrochronological investigations at Moving Glacier provide the first calendar-dating of a Little Ice Age glacier advance on Vancouver Island. In 1931, Moving Glacier was within 30 to 50 m of a distinct trimline and terminal moraine marking its maximum Little Ice Age extent. A reconnaissance of the site in 1993 revealed the presence of sheared in situ stumps and detrital trunks inside the 1931 ice limit. Sampling in 1994 showed the site was covered by a mature subalpine forest prior to the glacial advance which overrode the site after 1718 A.D. Following this period of expansion, which saw Moving Glacier expand to its maximum Little Ice Age position after 1818 A.D., the glacier apparently experienced only minimal retreat prior to first being photographed in 1931.


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