Persistence of Holocene ice cap in northeast Svalbard aided by glacio-isostatic rebound

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Farnsworth, Wesley Randall, Ingólfsson, Ólafur, Brynjólfsson, Skafti, Allaart, Lis, Kjellman, Sofia Elisabeth, Kjær, Kurt H., Larsen, Nicolaj K., Macias-Fauria, Marc, Siggaard-Andersen, Marie-Louise, Schomacker, Anders
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2024
• Subjects: Barents Sea; glacier; Ice cap; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic; Sea ice; Svalbard; Svalbard-Barents Sea Ice sheet; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/33319; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108625

The deglaciation of the Svalbard-Barents Sea Ice Sheet was driven by relative sea-level rise, the incursion of North Atlantic waters around Spitsbergen, and increasing summer insolation. However, ice retreat was inter rupted by asynchronous re-advances that occurred into high relative seas, during a period associated with warm regional waters and elevated summer temperatures. Better understanding of this complex style of deglaciation and the dynamic response to a warming climate can serve as an important analogue for modern warming and today’s ice sheets. We present evidence from northern Svalbard of glacier re-advances during the Late Glacial Early Holocene in hand with relative sea-level history and the occurrence of thermophilous molluscs. We argue that glacio-isostatic adjustment during the transition into the Holocene influenced ice marginal dynamics and as a result, the southern region of the Åsgardfonna ice cap persisted through the Holocene Thermal Maximum.