Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession
Current warming in the Arctic is occurring at a rate two to three times higher than that of the rest of the world, leading to rapid glacier wastage. In Arctic mainland Norway, the plateau icefield Langfjordjøkelen has experienced the greatest mass loss of all Norwegian glaciers (excluding Svalbard)...
Published in: | Polar Research |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Norwegian Polar Institute
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.4304 |
id |
ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/4304 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/4304 2023-05-15T14:52:02+02:00 Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession Weber, Paul Lovell, Harold Andreassen, Liss M. Boston, Clare M. 2020-08-01 text/html application/pdf application/epub+zip text/xml https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.4304 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11123 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11120 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11121 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11122 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304 doi:10.33265/polar.v39.4304 Copyright (c) 2020 Paul Weber, Harold Lovell, Liss M. Andreassen, Clare M. Boston https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0 CC-BY-ND Polar Research; Vol 39 (2020) 1751-8369 Glacier change glacier reconstruction glacial geomorphology historical maps plateau icefield info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2020 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.4304 2021-11-11T19:14:21Z Current warming in the Arctic is occurring at a rate two to three times higher than that of the rest of the world, leading to rapid glacier wastage. In Arctic mainland Norway, the plateau icefield Langfjordjøkelen has experienced the greatest mass loss of all Norwegian glaciers (excluding Svalbard) in recent decades. In this article, we examine this decline in a centennial-scale context through geomorphological mapping and the analysis of historical aerial photographs and maps. This allows Langfjordjøkelen’s maximum Little Ice Age extent (ca. 1925) to be reconstructed, providing an important baseline for a long-term assessment of icefield change. At the LIA maximum, Langfjordjøkelen covered an area of 14.9 km2. A comparison of the LIA dimensions with the icefield extent in 1891/1902, as displayed on a historical map, reveals a substantial overestimation of the map-based glacier outline. The post-LIA evolution of Langfjordjøkelen has been characterized by sustained high rates of glacier recession. By 2018, the icefield had lost 57% (8.5 km2) of its original LIA area, at a decadal rate of 9%, and its outlet glaciers had reduced in average length by 42% (1 km), at an annual rate of 11 m. Langfjordjøkelen’s percentage area decline has been greater than that of Norwegian ice masses at lower latitudes where comparable long-term glacier change data are available. This indicates that there is a significant latitudinal variation in Norwegian glacier response to 20th century warming, likely influenced by an enhanced warming signal in Arctic Norway compared to the rest of the Norwegian mainland. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic glacier glacier Polar Research Svalbard Polar Research (E-Journal) Arctic Langfjordjøkelen ENVELOPE(21.721,21.721,70.140,70.140) Norway Svalbard Polar Research 39 0 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
topic |
Glacier change glacier reconstruction glacial geomorphology historical maps plateau icefield |
spellingShingle |
Glacier change glacier reconstruction glacial geomorphology historical maps plateau icefield Weber, Paul Lovell, Harold Andreassen, Liss M. Boston, Clare M. Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
topic_facet |
Glacier change glacier reconstruction glacial geomorphology historical maps plateau icefield |
description |
Current warming in the Arctic is occurring at a rate two to three times higher than that of the rest of the world, leading to rapid glacier wastage. In Arctic mainland Norway, the plateau icefield Langfjordjøkelen has experienced the greatest mass loss of all Norwegian glaciers (excluding Svalbard) in recent decades. In this article, we examine this decline in a centennial-scale context through geomorphological mapping and the analysis of historical aerial photographs and maps. This allows Langfjordjøkelen’s maximum Little Ice Age extent (ca. 1925) to be reconstructed, providing an important baseline for a long-term assessment of icefield change. At the LIA maximum, Langfjordjøkelen covered an area of 14.9 km2. A comparison of the LIA dimensions with the icefield extent in 1891/1902, as displayed on a historical map, reveals a substantial overestimation of the map-based glacier outline. The post-LIA evolution of Langfjordjøkelen has been characterized by sustained high rates of glacier recession. By 2018, the icefield had lost 57% (8.5 km2) of its original LIA area, at a decadal rate of 9%, and its outlet glaciers had reduced in average length by 42% (1 km), at an annual rate of 11 m. Langfjordjøkelen’s percentage area decline has been greater than that of Norwegian ice masses at lower latitudes where comparable long-term glacier change data are available. This indicates that there is a significant latitudinal variation in Norwegian glacier response to 20th century warming, likely influenced by an enhanced warming signal in Arctic Norway compared to the rest of the Norwegian mainland. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Weber, Paul Lovell, Harold Andreassen, Liss M. Boston, Clare M. |
author_facet |
Weber, Paul Lovell, Harold Andreassen, Liss M. Boston, Clare M. |
author_sort |
Weber, Paul |
title |
Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
title_short |
Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
title_full |
Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
title_fullStr |
Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
title_sort |
reconstructing the little ice age extent of langfjordjøkelen, arctic mainland norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.4304 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(21.721,21.721,70.140,70.140) |
geographic |
Arctic Langfjordjøkelen Norway Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Langfjordjøkelen Norway Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic glacier glacier Polar Research Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic glacier glacier Polar Research Svalbard |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol 39 (2020) 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11123 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11120 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11121 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304/11122 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/4304 doi:10.33265/polar.v39.4304 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2020 Paul Weber, Harold Lovell, Liss M. Andreassen, Clare M. Boston https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v39.4304 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
0 |
_version_ |
1766323161600622592 |