The Extent of Some Glaciers in Northern Iceland during the Little Ice Age and the Nature of Recent Deglaciation

Lichenometric studies from four glaciers in Northern Iceland are used to determine the dates of their Little Ice Age maxima. In all cases these date to the last half of the nineteenth century and probably marked the maximum Neoglacial extent of the glaciers. Comparison of the pattern of subsequent deglaciation and meteorological records from the area indicates a likely relationship between changes in the mass balance of glaciers in Northern Iceland and mean summer temperatures. LITTLE IS KNOWN about the glacial history of Northern Iceland during the Holocene. Recent studies of Gljufurarjokull, a small valley-head glacier in the Trollaskagi peninsula of Northern Iceland, have demonstrated that it reached its Neoglacial maximum late in the Little Ice Age, only retreating from this position at the end of the nineteenth century (Caseldine, 1983; Caseldine and Cullingford, 1981). In this paper further details of the Gljufurarjokull record are presented and compared with other small glaciers in the region. Lichenometry Dating of the most recent deglaciation at Gljufurarjokull was based on the use of lichenometry, a technique as yet used very little in Iceland (Jaksch, 1970, 1975; Caseldine, 1983; Gordon and Sharp, 1983). Lichenometry utilizes the linear growth rate of certain lichen species such that measurement of the diameter of the largest thallus found at any site can be taken as representative of the age of the substrate on which it is growing. The rate of growth is usually determined from measurements on surfaces of known age and expressed in mma-1 (Lock, Andrews and Webber, 1979). In 1979 a lichen growth curve was derived for Rhizocarpon geographicum agg. from dated abandoned farmsteads in SkitaSalur and applied to the glacier foreland of Gljufurarjokull. This produced linear growth rates of 0.57 mma-1 (using the single largest lichen) and 0.51 mma-1 (using the mean of the 5 largest lichens) for the period 1905-1981. Although it was acknowledged that there could be differences in growth rate between the two valleys this problem could not be fully solved in view of the lack of any dated surface from the foreland. However, comparison with other growth rates for Rhizocarpon geographicum agg. in Iceland has supported the applicability of the results, the more continental area of Northern Iceland showing a slightly lower rate of growth than sites in Southern Iceland around the Vatnajokull ice cap (Table I

Cryosphere · Deglaciation · Geography · Geomorphology · Glacial period · Glacier · Glacier morphology · Holocene · Ice age · Ice stream · Little ice age · Physical geography · Sea ice · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Lichen and fungal ecology · Oceanography · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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