The Weichselian glaciation in Svalbard before 15,000 B.P.*

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: SALVIGSEN, OTTO, NYDAL, REIDAR
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1981
• Subjects: Ice Sheet; Kongsøya; Sjuøyane; Svalbard; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1981.tb00507.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1502-3885.1981.tb00507.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1981.tb00507.x

Th/U dating and radiocarbon dating of ‘old’ shells are discussed, and amino acid ratios from shells are used as a method of relative‐age dating. The Svalbard area has been completely covered by an extensive ice sheet at leats once. New data from Sjuøyane indicate that such glaciation took place in the Early Weichselian. The Middle Weichselian was a period of interstadial conditions. Series of beaches of assumed Middle Weichselian age occur in several places in western Spitsbergen while no such beaches are known in the eastern part of the archipelago. The maximum glaciation in the Late Weichselian is assumed to have taken place about 18,000 B.P. In the western part of Spitsbergen, the Late Weichselian glaciation was limited and local, while the eastern part of the archipelago was covered by an ice sheet. Kongsøya has a pattern of Holocene shoreline displacement which indicates that the centre of this ice sheet was east of kong karts Land.