Open AccessYounger Dryas cirque glaciers in western Spitsbergen: smaller than during the Little Ice Age
Author(s) -
MANGERUD JAN,
LANDVIK JON Y.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
boreas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1502-3885
pISSN - 0300-9483
DOI - 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2007.tb01250.x
Subject(s) - younger dryas , moraine , geology , glacier , cirque glacier , rock glacier , physical geography , glacier morphology , radiocarbon dating , glacial period , ice sheet , oceanography , climatology , paleontology , cryosphere , ice stream , sea ice , geography
The outermost moraines in front of the Scottbreen glacier in Spitsbergen date from c . AD 1900. These moraines rest on top of a marine shoreline radiocarbon‐dated to about 11 200 14 C yr BP and demonstrate that the AD‐1900 moraines show the maximum glacier extent since late Allerød time. This means that Scottbreen was smaller during the Younger Dryas than at AD 1900, in contrast with glaciers on mainland western Europe, which were all much larger during the Younger Dryas. The explanation is probably starvation of precipitation on western Spitsbergen during the Younger Dryas. In contrast, ice sheets and glaciers in Spitsbergen reacted more or less in concert with glaciers in western Europe, during the global Last Glacial Maximum and the Little Ice Age.