Publication Title
Quaternary Science Reviews
Document Type
Article
Department or Program
Geology
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Keywords
Deglaciation, Glacier, Holocene history, Holocene thermal maximum, Neoglacial, Sediments, Sub-bottom data, Svalbard
Abstract
© 2020 The Author(s) The response of glaciers and ice caps to past climate change provides important insight into how they will react to ongoing and future global warming. In Svalbard, the Holocene glacial history has been studied for many cirque and valley glaciers. However, little is known about how the larger ice caps in Svalbard responded to Late Glacial and Holocene climate changes. Here we use lake sediment cores and geophysical data from Femmilsjøen, one of Svalbard's largest lakes, to reconstruct the glacial history of the Åsgardfonna Ice Cap since the last deglaciation. We find that Femmilsjøen potentially deglaciated prior to 16.1 ± 0.3 cal ka BP and became isolated from the marine environment between 11.7 ± 0.3 to 11.3 ± 0.2 cal ka BP. Glacial meltwater runoff was absent between 10.1 ± 0.4 and 3.2 ± 0.2 cal ka BP, indicating that Åsgardfonna was greatly reduced or disappeared in the Early and Middle Holocene. Deposition of glacial-meltwater sediments re-commenced in Femmilsjøen at c. 3.2 ± 0.2 cal ka BP, indicating glacier re-growth in the Femmilsjøen catchment and the onset of the Neoglacial. The glacier(s) in the Femmilsjøen catchment area reached sizes no smaller than their modern extents already at c. 2.1 ± 0.7 cal ka BP. Our results suggest that larger Svalbard ice caps such as Åsgardfonna are very sensitive to climate changes and probably melted completely during the Holocene Thermal Maximum. Such information can be used as important constraints in future ice-cap simulations.
Recommended Citation
Allaart, L. Schomacker, A. et al. (2020) Glacial history of the Åsgardfonna Ice Cap, NE Spitsbergen, since the last glaciation. Quaternary Science Reviews. 251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106717
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Bates College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Required Publisher's Statement
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Comments
Original version is available from the publisher at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106717