Lake sediment studies of Holocene glacial activity in the Kårsa valley, northern Sweden: contrasts in interpretation

• Published in: The Holocene
• Main Authors: Snowball, I., Sandgren, P.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 1996
• Subjects: Paleontology; Earth-Surface Processes; Ecology; Archeology; Global and Planetary Change; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/095968369600600312; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/095968369600600312

A multidisciplinary study of lake sediments deposited in lake basins in the Kårsa valley, northern Sweden, suggests the complete disappearance of the Kårsa glacier during the early and mid-Holocene. Glacier reformation, indicated by the deposition of sediment with a fine particle size distribution and low organic content in the three lakes, took place at c. 3000 14 C years BP. This interpretation contrasts with a study based on the weight loss-on-ignition of the same sediments, which suggests several glacier advances throughout the entire Holocene. The contrasting interpretation is due to different methodological approaches. Single-core (site) studies should be avoided in the future and only features that are consistently reproducible and can be dated in spatially distributed cores should be interpreted in terms of variations in glacial activity, environmental conditions and ultimately, climate.