John A Matthews
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1981560 |
|---|---|
| NOME | John A Matthews |
| PRENOMES | John A |
| SOBRENOME | Matthews |
| ASSINATURA | MATTHEWS J A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Swansea University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2610-863X |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 44 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 155 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 43 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1984 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
A comprehensive exposure-age dating approach to interpreting complex glacial and periglacial landscapes
Our aim was to use two exposure dating techniques in combination to understand the age and development of the full complement of glacial and periglacial landforms in the Alnesdalen drainage basin, southern Norway. This required the development of a comprehensive, landscape-scale approach based on 32 10 Be dates from 9 landforms and 121 Schmidt-hammer dates from 106 landforms, which identified a palimpsest landscape consisting of a mosaic of landf…
Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating of talus slopes in upper Jostedalen, southern Norway
Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) was used to evaluate the surface age, dynamics and evolution of eight talus (scree) slopes located between ~520 and ~1010 m a.s.l. in the upper Jostedalen area of southern Norway. Statistically significant differences in mean R-values were found between talus slopes but there was no consistent difference in R-values between three mid- to lower-slope positions, two operators, or first and second impacts fro…
Repeated survey along the foreland of a receding Norwegian glacier reveals shifts in succession of beetles and spiders
Glacier forelands provide important sites to study climate-forced ecological succession because a chronosequence is apparent along a single valley. However, most studies of invertebrate succession in forelands provide a single snapshot of community assemblage patterns. With glaciers retreating rapidly worldwide, it is important to begin re-surveying community composition and assessing changes in relation to new terrain revealed by the retreating …
New evidence for active talus-foot rock glaciers at Øyberget, southern Norway, and their development during the Holocene
Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) measurements demonstrate that lobate, blocky depositional landforms, located in southern Norway at an altitude of ~530 m above sea level, with an estimated mean annual air temperature of ~1.6°C, currently exhibit deformation attributed to viscous creep. Five years of InSAR measurements for six lobes demonstrate average surface velocities of 1.2–22.0 mm/year with maximum rates of 17.5–55.6 mm/year. N…
Evidence for rapid paraglacial formation of rock glaciers in southern Norway from 10 Be surface-exposure dating
We evaluate the timing and environmental controls on past rock-glacier activity at Øyberget, upper Ottadalen, southern Norway, using in situ 10 Be surface-exposure dating on (1) boulders belonging to relict rock-glacier lobes at c. 530 m asl, (2) bedrock and boulder surfaces at the Øyberget summit (c. 1200 m asl), and (3) bedrock at an up-valley site (c. 615 m asl). We find that the rock-glacier lobes became inactive around 11.1 ± 1.2 ka, coeval …
Age and development of active cryoplanation terraces in the alpine permafrost zone at Svartkampan, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) of boulders on cryoplanation terrace treads and associated bedrock cliff faces revealed Holocene ages ranging from 0 ± 825 to 8890 ± 1185 yr. The cliffs were significantly younger than the inner treads, which tended to be younger than the outer treads. Radiocarbon dates from the regolith of 3854 to 4821 cal yr BP (2σ range) indicated maximum rates of cliff recession of ~0.1 mm/yr, which suggests the onset …
Geomorphology of Proglacial Systems
Chronosequences of ant nest mounds from glacier forelands of Jostedalsbreen, southern Norway
Red wood ant nest mounds were investigated on terrain deglaciated since the mid-18th century at three outlet glaciers of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap in southern Norway. Chronosequence methodology was combined with a geo-ecological approach in the context of autecology. Size and composition of 168 mounds, most of which belonged to Formica lugubris, were related to terrain age, vegetation characteristics and physical habitat types using non-metric m…
Very low inheritance in cosmogenic surface exposure ages of glacial deposits
Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating has been widely used to estimate the surface exposure age of bedrock and boulder surfaces associated with deglaciation and Holocene glacier variations, but the effect of inherited age has been rarely directly addressed. In this study, small clasts, embedded in flute surfaces on two cirque glacier forelands in Jotunheimen, southern Norway and deposited within the last ~60 years, were used to test whether such …
Sediment fingerprinting and the mode of formation of singular and composite annual moraine ridges at two glacier margins, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
Sedimentary variation within and between annual moraine ridges formed at Storbreen and Styggedalsbreen, Jotunheimen, during the 1980s and 1990s is investigated with a focus on processes and mechanisms of moraine-ridge formation. Tops and bottoms of sediment slabs, deposited either as single annual moraines or incorporated into composite moraine ridges formed of several annual increments, were analysed and compared with possible source sediments w…
Use of ecological indicator values to investigate successional change in boreal to high-alpine glacier-foreland chronosequences, southern Norway
Mean weighted Ellenberg indicator values were calculated for vegetation recorded from four successional stages on 39 glacier forelands in the Jostedalsbreen and Jotunheimen regions of southern Norway. The sites ranged in altitude from 80 to 1860 m a.s.l. Results revealed a trend of decreasing mean indicator values for light, reaction and nitrogen on successively older terrain. Mean indicator values for moisture did not show a consistent pattern o…
Succession of pitfall-trapped insects and arachnids on eight Norwegian glacier forelands along an altitudinal gradient
Invertebrate primary succession based on pitfall traps is described in eight glacier-foreland chronosequences across a major geo-ecological gradient in the Jotunheimen and Jostedalsbreen subregions of southern Norway. Regional (predominantly altitudinal) and local environmental gradients are shown to be effective influences on the nature and rate of colonization and succession at both species- and community-levels of analysis. Inclusion of flying…
Late glacial and Holocene environmental changes inferred from sediments in Lake Myklevatnet, Nordfjord, western Norway
Holocene environmental change in subarctic aeolian dune fields
Sand dune stratigraphy, radiocarbon-dated charcoal layers, palaeosol development and luminescence dating are used to reconstruct the Holocene environmental history of the dune fields in Finnish Lapland since deglaciation in the early Holocene (~10,900–10,200 cal. BP). After rapid formation and stabilisation of parabolic dunes and the immigration of Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris), forest fires are inferred to have played a key role in triggering e…
Testing the ‘addition and persistence model’ of invertebrate succession in a subalpine glacier-foreland chronosequence
Invertebrate primary succession is investigated across a chronosequence in the subalpine (birch woodland) zone at Fåbergstølsbreen using pitfall traps. Presence and abundance of taxa, functional groups and communities are examined using a geo-ecological approach including mapping, graphical analysis, two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS). Twenty-nine of the 67 recorded taxa, and 14 of the 37 e…
Sensitivity, persistence and resolution of the geomorphological record of valley-floor floods in an alpine glacier-fed catchment, Leirdalen, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
Coarse-grained flood deposits, including 52 discrete berms, bars, terraces, splays and sheets, were investigated along a 6.6 km stretch of the Leira river, in a catchment containing several alpine glaciers. These landforms were mapped, characterized in terms of clast size and reconstructed hydrological parameters, and dated using several techniques with differing temporal range and resolution. High-resolution lichenometric dating indicated that 6…
The Schmidt hammer as a Holocene calibrated-age dating technique
Most recent developments of Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) as a calibrated-age dating tool have been limited by the use of locations at two age control points. This has necessitated: (1) making assumptions about a linear R-value—age relationship; and (2) basing predictions of age errors only on R-value variance at the two age control points. This paper analyses 9900 R-values obtained from multiple-age control points on a sequence of gla…
The Briksdalsbre Event
In the ad 1990s maritime glaciers in Scandinavia started to advance as a response to positive net mass balance in the preceding years, invoking annual advance rates in the order of ~50–60 m and a total frontal advance of 285 m (at Briksdalsbreen) in less than a decade. Records from six south Norwegian glaciers with continuous, annual front measurements are used to evaluate the magnitude, duration, climatic causes, and frontal time lags involved i…
Holocene glacier chronologies
In the context of reconstruction of Holocene glacier chronologies, there has been a clear tendency during the past few decades towards imprecise use of the term ‘high resolution’. Furthermore, it seems to be increasingly assumed that recently developed terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating (TCND) is replacing earlier dating methods. Although recent glaciological knowledge clearly reveals the futility of oversimplified global and inter-hemispheric…
Radiocarbon chronology of Holocene colluvial (debris-flow) events at Sletthamn, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
The history of colluvial events over the last 8500 years is reconstructed in three Norwegian alpine slope-foot mires fed by three independent debris-flow systems. Chronologies for each site are constructed based on 155 radiocarbon-dated peat samples. At the multimillennial scale, debris-flow activity was greatest during the transition from the Holocene Thermal Maximum to the late Holocene ( c. 4300—2800 cal. BP) when debris-flow events occurred w…
Cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway I
Cosmogenic nuclide dating ( 10 Be and 26 Al) is applied to boulders on two moraine ridges at the type-site of the early-Holocene Erdalen Event, southern Norway, dated previously using radiocarbon. Quartz-rich rock samples yielded 10 Be age estimates between 9.8 ± 1.2 and 10.1 ± 1.1 ka (external uncertainties, ± 1σ), with an average of 9.95 ka. These age estimates are statistically indistinguishable from the independent radiocarbon age estimate. 2…
Frank Oldfield and his contributions to environmental change research
Frank Oldfield's immense contribution to palaeoenvironmental science is summarized in relation to: pollen analysis, vegetation history and peat stratigraphy; palaeolimnology and 210 Pb dating; environmental magnetism, catchment—lake relationships and soil erosional history; multiproxy approaches; PAGES; and editing The Holocene. The tribute includes an introduction to the 14 other papers in this Special Issue, which were inspired in diverse ways …
Cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway II
10 Be and 26 Al exposure ages are reported for boulder moraine ridges in front of two high-altitude cirque glaciers (Austanbotnbreen, Jotunheimen and Østre Tundradalskyrkjabre, Breheimen) in southern Norway. Ages and 1σ external uncertainties for Austanbotnbreen moraines range from 7.4 ± 0.75 ka to 8.7 ± 0.9 ka when no adjustment for snow shielding is made. With the maximum conceivable snow cover effect (2 m thick, a density of 0.2 g/cm 3 , 6 mon…
Holocene glacier variation chronology of the Smørstabbtindan massif, Jotunheimen, southern Norway, and the recognition of century- to millennial-scale European Neoglacial Events
New stratigraphic evidence for the Holocene history of three glaciers in central Jotunheimen, southern Norway, is presented and the implications for century- to millennial-scale glacier and climatic variability are considered. Minerogenic layers in seven stream-bank mires, flooded episodically by glaciofluvial meltwater, are dated by 79 new radiocarbon age estimates. A revised chronology for glacier variations in Smørstabbtindan suggests a three-…
Geography
Geography: A Very Short Introduction charts modern geography's development from its historical roots in exploring foreign lands and mapping the regions of the world. Spanning both physical and human geography, the discipline today is unique as a subject which can bridge the divide between the sciences and the humanities, and between the environment and our society. Using wide-ranging examples from global warming and oil, to urbanization and ethni…
The late Neoglacial ('Little Ice Age') glacier maximum in southern Norway
Critical evidence is presented for the timing and extent of Holocene glacier variations in southern Norway based on end-moraine stratigraphy and 22 new 14 C dates. Dates have been obtained from moss layers, other plant remains, peat and soil associated with outermost moraines delimiting the Neoglacial maximum extent of four glaciers in the Jotunheimen-Jostedalsbreen region. There is conclusive evidence for a late Neoglacial ('Little Ice Age') max…
Holocene glacier variation chronology of the Smørstabbtindan massif, Jotunheimen, southern Norway, and the recognition of century- to millennial-scale European Neoglacial Events
New stratigraphic evidence for the Holocene history of three glaciers in central Jotunheimen, southern Norway, is presented and the implications for century- to millennial-scale glacier and climatic variability are considered. Minerogenic layers in seven stream-bank mires, flooded episodically by glaciofluvial meltwater, are dated by 79 new radiocarbon age estimates. A revised chronology for glacier variations in Smørstabbtindan suggests a three-…
Holocene glacier fluctuations of Flatebreen and winter-precipitation changes in the Jostedalsbreen region, western Norvay, based on glaciolacustrine sediment records
The history of Holocene glacier variations of Flatebreen, an independent glacier close to the SW part of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap, has been reconstructed from lacustrine sediments in the proglacial lake Jarbuvatnet. The sedimentary succession shows evidence of three maini episodes of Holocene glacier expansion. The first is recorded in the basal part of the core up to 370 cm. According to the age/depth relationship in the sediment core (based o…
The Briksdalsbre Event
In the ad 1990s maritime glaciers in Scandinavia started to advance as a response to positive net mass balance in the preceding years, invoking annual advance rates in the order of ~50–60 m and a total frontal advance of 285 m (at Briksdalsbreen) in less than a decade. Records from six south Norwegian glaciers with continuous, annual front measurements are used to evaluate the magnitude, duration, climatic causes, and frontal time lags involved i…
Little Ice Age’ glacier variations in Jotunheimen, southern Norwvay
A new approach to regional lichenometric dating is developed and applied to‘Little Ice Age’ moraine-ridge sequences on 16 glacier forelands in Jotunheimen, southern Norway. Lichenometric-dating curves, based on the Rhizocarpon subgenus, are constructed independently for west, central and east Jotunheimen. Although there are differences between the subregions, a composite regional moraine chronology for Jotunheimen identifies 12 episodes of morain…
Timing, equilibrium-line altitudes and climatic implications of two early-Holocene glacier readvances during the Erdalen Event at Jostedalsbreen, western Norway
Following the Younger Dryas, the first evidence of glacial activity in southern Norway in response to climatic change occurred during the early Holocene, when terminal moraines from the Erdalen Event formed beyond the position of later ‘Little Ice Age’ moraines. In front of present outlet glaciers on both sides of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap, sets of pre-‘Little Ice Age’ marginal moraines have been morphostratigraphically corre lated with the Erda…
Geography
Geography: A Very Short Introduction charts modern geography's development from its historical roots in exploring foreign lands and mapping the regions of the world. Spanning both physical and human geography, the discipline today is unique as a subject which can bridge the divide between the sciences and the humanities, and between the environment and our society. Using wide-ranging examples from global warming and oil, to urbanization and ethni…
On the accuracy of lichenometric dates
Families of lichenometric dating curves are constructed using four historically-dated moraine ridges on the glacier foreland of Nigardsbreen (Jostedalsbreen ice cap), southern Norway. A further 20 'Little Ice Age' moraine ridges are dated in terms of median-predicted dates derived from the families of curves. Four approaches are used to assess the accuracy of the median-predicted dates: (1) the extent to which the dates form a temporal sequence; …
The Schmidt hammer as a Holocene calibrated-age dating technique
Most recent developments of Schmidt-hammer exposure-age dating (SHD) as a calibrated-age dating tool have been limited by the use of locations at two age control points. This has necessitated: (1) making assumptions about a linear R-value—age relationship; and (2) basing predictions of age errors only on R-value variance at the two age control points. This paper analyses 9900 R-values obtained from multiple-age control points on a sequence of gla…
Holocene glacier chronologies
In the context of reconstruction of Holocene glacier chronologies, there has been a clear tendency during the past few decades towards imprecise use of the term ‘high resolution’. Furthermore, it seems to be increasingly assumed that recently developed terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating (TCND) is replacing earlier dating methods. Although recent glaciological knowledge clearly reveals the futility of oversimplified global and inter-hemispheric…
Cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway II
10 Be and 26 Al exposure ages are reported for boulder moraine ridges in front of two high-altitude cirque glaciers (Austanbotnbreen, Jotunheimen and Østre Tundradalskyrkjabre, Breheimen) in southern Norway. Ages and 1σ external uncertainties for Austanbotnbreen moraines range from 7.4 ± 0.75 ka to 8.7 ± 0.9 ka when no adjustment for snow shielding is made. With the maximum conceivable snow cover effect (2 m thick, a density of 0.2 g/cm 3 , 6 mon…
Reconstruction of Holocene glacier history from distal sources
This study attempts to reconstruct the Holocene glacier history of Breheimen, southern Norway from four stream-bank mire sites and a downstream lake sediment core near Sota Sæter, based on lithostratigraphy, sediment properties (loss-on-ignition (LOI), magnetic susceptibility (MS), grain size characteristics) and 69 radiocarbon dates. Late-Preboreal deglaciation is indicated by lake-floor accumulation of organic matter (gyttja) largely replacing …
Rates of Holocene chemical weathering, `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion and implications for Schmidt-hammer dating at a glacier—foreland boundary, Fåbergstølsbreen, southern Norway
Average rates of Holocene chemical weathering and `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion of bedrock are estimated across the glacier—foreland boundary of an outlet glacier of the Jostedalsbreen ice-cap, southern Norway. Estimates are derived from two types of evidence: (1) the heights of quartz veins above adjacent surfaces of granitic or granodioritic gneiss; and (2) Schmidt-hammer R-values of rock hardness. Average and maximum rates of surface loweri…
Succession of pitfall-trapped insects and arachnids on eight Norwegian glacier forelands along an altitudinal gradient
Invertebrate primary succession based on pitfall traps is described in eight glacier-foreland chronosequences across a major geo-ecological gradient in the Jotunheimen and Jostedalsbreen subregions of southern Norway. Regional (predominantly altitudinal) and local environmental gradients are shown to be effective influences on the nature and rate of colonization and succession at both species- and community-levels of analysis. Inclusion of flying…
Radiocarbon chronology of Holocene colluvial (debris-flow) events at Sletthamn, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
The history of colluvial events over the last 8500 years is reconstructed in three Norwegian alpine slope-foot mires fed by three independent debris-flow systems. Chronologies for each site are constructed based on 155 radiocarbon-dated peat samples. At the multimillennial scale, debris-flow activity was greatest during the transition from the Holocene Thermal Maximum to the late Holocene ( c. 4300—2800 cal. BP) when debris-flow events occurred w…
Glacier variations in Breheimen, southern Norway
Lichenometric evidence and Schmidt hammer R-values are used to date Holocene moraine sequences in front of six high-altitude (> 1500 m) glaciers in Breheimen, central southern Norway. At three glacier forelands with southerly aspects (Høgsetbreen, Vestre Høybre and Østre Høybre), relatively small (≤4 m high) discrete boulder moraine ridges are shown to date from the ‘Little Ice Age’. The remaining three glaciers (Østre Tundradalskyrkjabre, Nordre…
A twentieth-century neoparaglacial rock topple on a glacier foreland, Ö tztal Alps, Austria
A small-scale rock-slope failure firmly dated by historical photographic evidence, supported by lichenometry, to between ad 1977 and 1991 is described from the glacier foreland of Marzellferner and Schalf ferner, Ö tztal Alps, Austria. There was a timelag of 90–100 years between deglacierization of the site around ad 1890 and slope failure. An extreme rainfall event in ad 1987 is suggested as the most likely trigger factor affecting a rock slope …
Some Observations on Boulder-Cored Frost Boils
resulting from vertical frost heaving of individual boulders. They were observed in various stages of development on two glacier forelands in Jotunheimen, southern Norway. In their final stage the features comprise a boulder core partially exposed at the surface but retaining a sediment/vegetation capping. Surrounding the boulder is a shallow trough or moat beneath which is a distinct concentration of stones and gravel. Separating this aureole of…
New evidence for active talus-foot rock glaciers at Øyberget, southern Norway, and their development during the Holocene
Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) measurements demonstrate that lobate, blocky depositional landforms, located in southern Norway at an altitude of ~530 m above sea level, with an estimated mean annual air temperature of ~1.6°C, currently exhibit deformation attributed to viscous creep. Five years of InSAR measurements for six lobes demonstrate average surface velocities of 1.2–22.0 mm/year with maximum rates of 17.5–55.6 mm/year. N…
Late glacial and Holocene environmental changes inferred from sediments in Lake Myklevatnet, Nordfjord, western Norway
Holocene environmental change in subarctic aeolian dune fields
Sand dune stratigraphy, radiocarbon-dated charcoal layers, palaeosol development and luminescence dating are used to reconstruct the Holocene environmental history of the dune fields in Finnish Lapland since deglaciation in the early Holocene (~10,900–10,200 cal. BP). After rapid formation and stabilisation of parabolic dunes and the immigration of Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris), forest fires are inferred to have played a key role in triggering e…
Testing the ‘addition and persistence model’ of invertebrate succession in a subalpine glacier-foreland chronosequence
Invertebrate primary succession is investigated across a chronosequence in the subalpine (birch woodland) zone at Fåbergstølsbreen using pitfall traps. Presence and abundance of taxa, functional groups and communities are examined using a geo-ecological approach including mapping, graphical analysis, two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS). Twenty-nine of the 67 recorded taxa, and 14 of the 37 e…
Sensitivity, persistence and resolution of the geomorphological record of valley-floor floods in an alpine glacier-fed catchment, Leirdalen, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
Coarse-grained flood deposits, including 52 discrete berms, bars, terraces, splays and sheets, were investigated along a 6.6 km stretch of the Leira river, in a catchment containing several alpine glaciers. These landforms were mapped, characterized in terms of clast size and reconstructed hydrological parameters, and dated using several techniques with differing temporal range and resolution. High-resolution lichenometric dating indicated that 6…
Cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway I
Cosmogenic nuclide dating ( 10 Be and 26 Al) is applied to boulders on two moraine ridges at the type-site of the early-Holocene Erdalen Event, southern Norway, dated previously using radiocarbon. Quartz-rich rock samples yielded 10 Be age estimates between 9.8 ± 1.2 and 10.1 ± 1.1 ka (external uncertainties, ± 1σ), with an average of 9.95 ka. These age estimates are statistically indistinguishable from the independent radiocarbon age estimate. 2…
Reassessment of supposed early 'Little Ice Age' and older Neoglacial moraines in the Sandane area of western Norway
Neoglacial moraines that are substantially older than the conventional 'Little Ice Age' glacier maximum of the mid-eighteenth century have been recognized recently in the Sandane area of western Norway. This is important in the context of Scandinavian Holocene glacier variations because, in southern Scandinavia at least, it is widely accepted that glaciers were larger in the mid-eighteenth century than at any time since the Preboreal. In this rep…
Some Observations on Boulder-Cored Frost Boils
resulting from vertical frost heaving of individual boulders. They were observed in various stages of development on two glacier forelands in Jotunheimen, southern Norway. In their final stage the features comprise a boulder core partially exposed at the surface but retaining a sediment/vegetation capping. Surrounding the boulder is a shallow trough or moat beneath which is a distinct concentration of stones and gravel. Separating this aureole of…
The Ascendancy of Ausonius
The prosecutions of senators, for which the later years of Valcntinian’s government at Rome won their reputation as years of terror, and the emperor’s agents their name for congenital brutality, arose from trivial and accidental origins.1 A complaint laid by a certain Chilo before the prefect of Rome, Q. Clodius Hermogenianus Olybrius (368−70), claimed that he and his wife, Maxima, had been attacked by a conspiracy involving sorcery. The charges …
Christianity and the Court
During the fourth century, the increasing importance of north Italy as an administrative and military centre had been accompanied, as at Trier and the Rhineland, and in parts of Pannonia, by a transformation of the social and economic life of the region. The solid agricultural opulence familiar from the time of the early empire had given place to—or rather had now to coexist with—a society which was to a high degree mobile and cosmopolitan. The i…
The late Neoglacial ('Little Ice Age') glacier maximum in southern Norway
Critical evidence is presented for the timing and extent of Holocene glacier variations in southern Norway based on end-moraine stratigraphy and 22 new 14 C dates. Dates have been obtained from moss layers, other plant remains, peat and soil associated with outermost moraines delimiting the Neoglacial maximum extent of four glaciers in the Jotunheimen-Jostedalsbreen region. There is conclusive evidence for a late Neoglacial ('Little Ice Age') max…
Mountain Environments
On the accuracy of lichenometric dates
Families of lichenometric dating curves are constructed using four historically-dated moraine ridges on the glacier foreland of Nigardsbreen (Jostedalsbreen ice cap), southern Norway. A further 20 'Little Ice Age' moraine ridges are dated in terms of median-predicted dates derived from the families of curves. Four approaches are used to assess the accuracy of the median-predicted dates: (1) the extent to which the dates form a temporal sequence; …
Global Changes of the Past. Papers Arising from the 1989 Oies Global Change Institute
Reassessment of supposed early 'Little Ice Age' and older Neoglacial moraines in the Sandane area of western Norway
Neoglacial moraines that are substantially older than the conventional 'Little Ice Age' glacier maximum of the mid-eighteenth century have been recognized recently in the Sandane area of western Norway. This is important in the context of Scandinavian Holocene glacier variations because, in southern Scandinavia at least, it is widely accepted that glaciers were larger in the mid-eighteenth century than at any time since the Preboreal. In this rep…
Holocene glacier fluctuations of Flatebreen and winter-precipitation changes in the Jostedalsbreen region, western Norvay, based on glaciolacustrine sediment records
The history of Holocene glacier variations of Flatebreen, an independent glacier close to the SW part of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap, has been reconstructed from lacustrine sediments in the proglacial lake Jarbuvatnet. The sedimentary succession shows evidence of three maini episodes of Holocene glacier expansion. The first is recorded in the basal part of the core up to 370 cm. According to the age/depth relationship in the sediment core (based o…
Timing, equilibrium-line altitudes and climatic implications of two early-Holocene glacier readvances during the Erdalen Event at Jostedalsbreen, western Norway
Following the Younger Dryas, the first evidence of glacial activity in southern Norway in response to climatic change occurred during the early Holocene, when terminal moraines from the Erdalen Event formed beyond the position of later ‘Little Ice Age’ moraines. In front of present outlet glaciers on both sides of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap, sets of pre-‘Little Ice Age’ marginal moraines have been morphostratigraphically corre lated with the Erda…
Advance-10k
This editorial introduces a special issue of The Holocene containing 12 papers which represent highlights from a European Commission research project: ‘Analysis of Dendrochronological Variability and Associated Natural Climates in Eurasia – the last 10000 years’ (ADVANCE-10K). The focus is on the climatic implications of dendrochronology and especially on developing an integrated, dendrochronological approach to high-resolution climatic reconstru…
Unifying Geography
Glacier variations in Breheimen, southern Norway
Lichenometric evidence and Schmidt hammer R-values are used to date Holocene moraine sequences in front of six high-altitude (> 1500 m) glaciers in Breheimen, central southern Norway. At three glacier forelands with southerly aspects (Høgsetbreen, Vestre Høybre and Østre Høybre), relatively small (≤4 m high) discrete boulder moraine ridges are shown to date from the ‘Little Ice Age’. The remaining three glaciers (Østre Tundradalskyrkjabre, Nordre…
A twentieth-century neoparaglacial rock topple on a glacier foreland, Ö tztal Alps, Austria
A small-scale rock-slope failure firmly dated by historical photographic evidence, supported by lichenometry, to between ad 1977 and 1991 is described from the glacier foreland of Marzellferner and Schalf ferner, Ö tztal Alps, Austria. There was a timelag of 90–100 years between deglacierization of the site around ad 1890 and slope failure. An extreme rainfall event in ad 1987 is suggested as the most likely trigger factor affecting a rock slope …
The ‘little ice age’
This review focuses on the development of the ‘Little Ice Age’ as a glaciological and climatic concept, and evaluates its current usefulness in the light of new data on the glacier and climatic variations of the last millennium and of the Holocene. ‘Little Ice Age’ glacierization occurred over about 650 years and can be defined most precisely in the European Alps (c. AD 1300–1950) when extended glaciers were larger than before or since. ‘Little I…
Little Ice Age’ glacier variations in Jotunheimen, southern Norwvay
A new approach to regional lichenometric dating is developed and applied to‘Little Ice Age’ moraine-ridge sequences on 16 glacier forelands in Jotunheimen, southern Norway. Lichenometric-dating curves, based on the Rhizocarpon subgenus, are constructed independently for west, central and east Jotunheimen. Although there are differences between the subregions, a composite regional moraine chronology for Jotunheimen identifies 12 episodes of morain…
The Journey of Theophanes
Reconstruction of Holocene glacier history from distal sources
This study attempts to reconstruct the Holocene glacier history of Breheimen, southern Norway from four stream-bank mire sites and a downstream lake sediment core near Sota Sæter, based on lithostratigraphy, sediment properties (loss-on-ignition (LOI), magnetic susceptibility (MS), grain size characteristics) and 69 radiocarbon dates. Late-Preboreal deglaciation is indicated by lake-floor accumulation of organic matter (gyttja) largely replacing …
Rates of Holocene chemical weathering, `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion and implications for Schmidt-hammer dating at a glacier—foreland boundary, Fåbergstølsbreen, southern Norway
Average rates of Holocene chemical weathering and `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion of bedrock are estimated across the glacier—foreland boundary of an outlet glacier of the Jostedalsbreen ice-cap, southern Norway. Estimates are derived from two types of evidence: (1) the heights of quartz veins above adjacent surfaces of granitic or granodioritic gneiss; and (2) Schmidt-hammer R-values of rock hardness. Average and maximum rates of surface loweri…
Cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway I
Cosmogenic nuclide dating ( 10 Be and 26 Al) is applied to boulders on two moraine ridges at the type-site of the early-Holocene Erdalen Event, southern Norway, dated previously using radiocarbon. Quartz-rich rock samples yielded 10 Be age estimates between 9.8 ± 1.2 and 10.1 ± 1.1 ka (external uncertainties, ± 1σ), with an average of 9.95 ka. These age estimates are statistically indistinguishable from the independent radiocarbon age estimate. 2…
Frank Oldfield and his contributions to environmental change research
Frank Oldfield's immense contribution to palaeoenvironmental science is summarized in relation to: pollen analysis, vegetation history and peat stratigraphy; palaeolimnology and 210 Pb dating; environmental magnetism, catchment—lake relationships and soil erosional history; multiproxy approaches; PAGES; and editing The Holocene. The tribute includes an introduction to the 14 other papers in this Special Issue, which were inspired in diverse ways …
Cosmogenic 10 Be and 26 Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway II
10 Be and 26 Al exposure ages are reported for boulder moraine ridges in front of two high-altitude cirque glaciers (Austanbotnbreen, Jotunheimen and Østre Tundradalskyrkjabre, Breheimen) in southern Norway. Ages and 1σ external uncertainties for Austanbotnbreen moraines range from 7.4 ± 0.75 ka to 8.7 ± 0.9 ka when no adjustment for snow shielding is made. With the maximum conceivable snow cover effect (2 m thick, a density of 0.2 g/cm 3 , 6 mon…
Holocene glacier variation chronology of the Smørstabbtindan massif, Jotunheimen, southern Norway, and the recognition of century- to millennial-scale European Neoglacial Events
New stratigraphic evidence for the Holocene history of three glaciers in central Jotunheimen, southern Norway, is presented and the implications for century- to millennial-scale glacier and climatic variability are considered. Minerogenic layers in seven stream-bank mires, flooded episodically by glaciofluvial meltwater, are dated by 79 new radiocarbon age estimates. A revised chronology for glacier variations in Smørstabbtindan suggests a three-…
Geography
Geography: A Very Short Introduction charts modern geography's development from its historical roots in exploring foreign lands and mapping the regions of the world. Spanning both physical and human geography, the discipline today is unique as a subject which can bridge the divide between the sciences and the humanities, and between the environment and our society. Using wide-ranging examples from global warming and oil, to urbanization and ethni…
Radiocarbon chronology of Holocene colluvial (debris-flow) events at Sletthamn, Jotunheimen, southern Norway
The history of colluvial events over the last 8500 years is reconstructed in three Norwegian alpine slope-foot mires fed by three independent debris-flow systems. Chronologies for each site are constructed based on 155 radiocarbon-dated peat samples. At the multimillennial scale, debris-flow activity was greatest during the transition from the Holocene Thermal Maximum to the late Holocene ( c. 4300—2800 cal. BP) when debris-flow events occurred w…
Geography (33 obras) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (33 obras) · Physical geography (33 obras) · Geology (32 obras) · Glacier (27 obras) · Holocene (24 obras) · Geomorphology (22 obras) · Paleontology (22 obras) · Cryospheric studies and observations (21 obras) · Moraine (16 obras)