Younger Dryas cirque glaciers in western Spitsbergen: smaller than during the Little Ice Age |
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| Authors: | JAN MANGERUD JON Y LANDVIK |
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| Institution: | (e-mail: ), Department of Earth Science and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, Allégt. 41, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway;(e-mail: ), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway |
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| Abstract: | The outermost moraines in front of the Scottbreen glacier in Spitsbergen date from c . AD 1900. These moraines rest on top of a marine shoreline radiocarbon-dated to about 11 200 14C yr BP and demonstrate that the AD-1900 moraines show the maximum glacier extent since late Allerød time. This means that Scottbreen was smaller during the Younger Dryas than at AD 1900, in contrast with glaciers on mainland western Europe, which were all much larger during the Younger Dryas. The explanation is probably starvation of precipitation on western Spitsbergen during the Younger Dryas. In contrast, ice sheets and glaciers in Spitsbergen reacted more or less in concert with glaciers in western Europe, during the global Last Glacial Maximum and the Little Ice Age. |
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