Glacier variations in Breheimen, southern Norway: dating Little Ice Age moraine sequences at seven low‐altitude glaciers

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Winkler, Stefan, Matthews, John A., Shakesby, Richard A., Dresser, P. Quentin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2003
• Subjects: Norway; glacier
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jqs.756; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjqs.756; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jqs.756

Abstract Moraine sequences in front of seven relatively low‐altitude glaciers in the Breheimen region of central southern Norway are described and dated using a ‘multi‐proxy’ approach to moraine stratigraphy. Lichenometric dating, based on the Rhizocarpon subgenus, is used to construct a composite moraine chronology, which indicates eight phases of synchronous moraine formation: AD 1793–1799, 1807–1813, 1845–1852, 1859–1862, 1879–1885, 1897–1898, 1906–1908 and 1931–1933. Although the existence of a few cases of older moraines, possibly dating from earlier in the eighteenth or late in the seventeenth centuries cannot be ruled out by lichenometry, Schmidt hammer R‐values from boulders on outermost moraine ridges suggest an absence of Holocene moraines older than the Little Ice Age. Twenty‐three radiocarbon dates from buried soils and peat associated with outermost moraines at three glaciers—Tverreggibreen, Storegrovbreen and Greinbreen—also indicate that the ‘Little Ice Age’ glacier maximum was the Neoglacial maximum at most if not all glaciers. Several maximum age estimates for the Little Ice Age glacier maximum range between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, with the youngest from a buried soil being AD 1693. A pre‐Little Ice Age maximum cannot be ruled out at Greinbreen, however, where the age of buried peat suggests the outermost moraine dates from AD 981–1399 (at variance with the lichenometric evidence). Glaciofluvial stratigraphy at Tverreggibreen provides evidence for minor glacier advances about AD 655–963 and AD 1277–1396, respectively. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.