Atle Nesje
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 4130088 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Atle Nesje |
| PRENOMES | Atle |
| SOBRENOME | Nesje |
| ASSINATURA | NESJE A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Bergen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8508-5805 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 54 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 266 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 54 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1991 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
Rediscovery of marks established by Johan Bernhard Rekstad around the turn of the 20th century to measure frontal variations of outlet glaciers from Jostedalsbreen Ice Cap in western Norway
Around the turn of the 20th century, the first state geologist at the Geological Survey of Norway, located in Kristiania (Oslo) at that time, Johan (also sometimes named John) Bernhard Rekstad established a series of marks, mostly crosses carved into boulders and bedrock slabs. These marks formed the basis for frontal measurements of outlet glaciers from Jostedalsbreen Ice Cap in western Norway. In total, he carved 29 marks in front of 15 outlet …
Glacier thinning, recession and advance, and the associated evolution of a glacial lake between 1966 and 2021 at Austerdalsbreen , western Norway
The Jostedalsbreen is the largest ice cap in Norway and mainland Europe. Rapid retreat of many of its outlet glaciers since the 2000s has led to the formation of several glacial lakes. Processes causing the formation and expansion of glacial lakes and their interaction with a glacier and terminal moraine have not been widely addressed yet. In this study, we investigate the degradation of the front of the southeast‐facing outlet glacier Austerdals…
Future state of Norwegian glaciers
Glaciers and ice caps in Norway are presently undergoing mass loss, areal reduction, and frontal retreat, mainly a result of increased summer ablation due to rising summer temperatures over Scandinavia, especially after 2000 CE. In this paper, the glacier mass-balance response of 10 Norwegian glaciers with continuous mass balance observations (>10 years) to climate projections from 1971–2000 to 2071–2100 have been estimated. Projected changes in …
The ‘Little Ice Age’ advance of Nigardsbreen, Norway
This study presents a cross-disciplinary revision of the Little Ice Age (LIA) advance of Nigardsbreen glacier, an outlet from Jostedalsbreen ice cap in western Norway. The associated glacier foreland is characterised by a well-preserved moraine series succeeding the 1748 CE LIA culmination, and a robust age control of individual moraines exists from abundant historical written and pictorial information as well as extensive lichenometric studies. …
Ötzi, 30 years on
When Ötzi, the Iceman, was found in a gully in the Tisenjoch pass in the Tyrolean Alps in 1991, he was a huge surprise for the archaeological community. The lead initial investigator of the find argued that it was unique, preserved by serendipitous circumstances. It was hypothesised that the mummy with associated artefacts had been quickly covered by glacier ice and stayed buried until the melt-out in 1991. It is now more than 30 years since Ötzi…
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 …
Interpreting archaeological site-formation processes at a mountain ice patch
In the context of global warming, ice patches are increasingly important foci of high-elevation archaeology. Langfonne in Jotunheimen, central southern Norway, is uniquely suited to provide a window onto site formation processes and taphonomy in this novel archaeological setting. Here the site record from systematic survey includes the largest number of arrows, bones and antlers from a single ice patch worldwide. Combining data from these finds w…
Little Ice Age summer temperatures in western Norway from a 700-year tree-ring chronology
A ring-width Pinus sylvestris chronology from Sogndal in western Norway was created, covering the period AD 1240–2008 and allowing for reconstruction of monthly mean July temperatures. This reconstruction is the first of its kind from western Norway and it aims to densify the existing network of temperature-sensitive tree-ring proxy series to better understand past temperature variability in the ‘Little Ice Age’ and diminish the spatial uncertain…
Volume–area scaling parameterisation of Norwegian ice caps
Over the recent decades, glaciers have in general continued to lose mass, causing surface lowering, volume reduction and frontal retreat, thus contributing to global sea-level rise. When making assessments of present and future sea-level change and management of water resources in glaciated catchments, precise estimates of glacier volume are important. The glacier volume cannot be measured on every single glacier. Therefore, the global glacier vo…
Precipitation variations and possible forcing factors on the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau during the last millennium
Understanding precipitation variation, drought and flood history, and their associated forcing mechanisms are important to human society. In this study, five moisture-sensitive tree-ring width chronologies are used to represent variations in precipitation over the past millennium on the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NETP). We find a strong coherency between chronologies in the NETP, indicating a common response to regional climate during the last…
A multi-proxy approach to reconstructing sedimentary environments from the Sperchios delta, Greece
This paper presents an integrated approach to assess Holocene environmental changes in the Sperchios delta, Sperchios rift, central Greece. A multidisciplinary study was carried out applying established analytical methods as well as exploring new techniques to detect past environmental conditions in a fluvio-deltaic depositional system. A series of six deep boreholes, up to 50 m long, and four shallow cores, up to 6 m long, from across the delta …
Spørteggbreen, western Norway, in the past, present and future
A two-dimensional shallow ice-flow model, yielding the glacier geometry at selected time intervals, is used to simulate the development of Spørteggbreen (1) from 8000 cal. yr BP to the present, (2) from ad 2011 to 2050, and (3) extending forward in time to ad 2100 and 2200. Glacier-surface geometry, subglacial topography, mass-balance data, internal deformation, and subglacial sliding are used as input data for the model runs. To force the model …
Late glacial and Holocene environmental changes inferred from sediments in Lake Myklevatnet, Nordfjord, western Norway
Holocene development and geomorphic processes at Omnsbreen, southern Norway
Omnsbreen is a small (<0.5 km 2 ) and degrading glacier situated at the regional lower limit of present-day permafrost distribution and glaciation. At present, the existence of Omnsbreen is mainly dependent on wind-borne snow redistributed by the prevailing westerly winter-wind, and lies in an area of marginal permafrost occurrence. During the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) both the glacier and the distribution of permafrost in the area reached their max…
A new approach for reconstructing glacier variability based on lake sediments recording input from more than one glacier
We explore the possibility of building a continuous glacier reconstruction by analyzing the integrated sedimentary response of a large (440 km 2 ) glacierized catchment in western Norway, as recorded in the downstream lake Nerfloen (N61°56’, E6°52’). A multi-proxy numerical analysis demonstrates that it is possible to distinguish a glacier component in the ~ 8000-yr-long record, based on distinct changes in grain size, geochemistry, and magnetic …
Historical glacier fluctuations of Jostedalsbreen and Folgefonna (southern Norway) reassessed by new pictorial and written evidence
Glaciers are sensitive indicators of past climate and thus valuable sources of climate history. Unfortunately, direct determinations of glacier changes (variations in length and mass balance) did not start with increasing accuracy before the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore, historical and geomorphological evidence has to be used to reconstruct glacier variability for preceding time periods. Here we present new glacier length reconstructi…
A Holocene record of snow-avalanche and flood activity reconstructed from a lacustrine sedimentary sequence in Oldevatnet, western Norway
Two lacustrine sediment cores from Oldevatnet in western Norway have been studied in order to produce a record of floods, mass-wasting events and glacier fluctuations during the last 7300 years. River floods, density currents and snow-avalanches have deposited distinct ‘event layers’ at the lake floor throughout this time interval. In this study, a novel approach has been applied to distinguish event layers from the continuous background sediment…
Climate and glacier fluctuations at Jostedalsbreen and Folgefonna, southwestern Norway and in the western Alps from the ‘Little Ice Age’ until the present
Glacier length, though an indirect and delayed signal of climate conditions, can be used to determine the relationship between climate and glacier response. This study discusses glacier length change of eight outlet glaciers of Jostedalsbreen and Folgefonna (southern Norway), from the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) until the present. A climate index was calculated from meteorological data from Bergen to determine the specific frontal time lags of the ind…
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…
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway
The main aim of this study is to describe consequences of climate change in the mountain region of southern Norway with respect to recently exposed finds of archaeological remains associated with reindeer hunting and trapping at and around ice patches in central southern Norway. In the early years of the twenty-first century, warm summers caused negative glacier mass balance and significant glacier retreat and melting of ice patches in central so…
Latest Pleistocene and Holocene alpine glacier fluctuations in Scandinavia
Perturbation of climatic response at maritime glaciers
Detailed analyses of mass-balance and length-variation data from maritime mountain glaciers in southern Nor way reveal that some frequent assumptions of the relationship between mass-balance data and terminus response need to be reconsidered. In particular, the possibility of a 'regime shift' in the mass-balance drivers and the virtual absence of any frontal reaction time due to a perturbation of the dynamic response of the glacier tongue occurri…
A simple method of simulating the future frontal position of Briksdalsbreen, western Norway
To simulate future mass balance and frontal variations of Briksdalsbreen in western Norway, a degree-day model based on temperature and precipitation data from Bergen has been used. Briksdalsbreen is a steep, western outlet glacier from Jostedalsbreen. The calculated relationship between annual glacier front variation and mass balance gives best correlation with a frontal time lag of 3 years, which is in accordance with previous studies. Climate …
Glacial remobilization cycles as revealed by lateral moraine sediment, Bødalsbreen glacier foreland, western Norway
The proglacial area of Bødalsbreen glacier in western Norway contains nine moraine ridges formed at the maximum of the `Little Ice Age' (~AD 1755) and during the subsequent glacier retreat (AD 1767—2000). The frontal moraines are composed of a sandy diamicton, whereas the lateral ones consist of only boulder-sized clasts without any matrix. These lateral moraines seemingly are composed of a very high proportion of mature clasts, a notion supporte…
The ‘Little Ice Age’ – only temperature
Understanding the climate of the last few centuries, including the ‘Little Ice Age’, may help us better understand modern-day natural climate variability and make climate predictions. The conventional view of the climate development during the last millennium has been that it followed the simple sequence of a ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’, a cool ‘Little Ice Age’ followed by warming in the later part of the nineteenth century and during the twentieth c…
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…
Utilizing physical sediment variability in glacier-fed lakes for continuous glacier reconstructions during the Holocene, northern Folgefonna, western Norway
The maritime plateau glacier of northern Folgefonna in western Norway has a short (subdecadal) response time to climatic shifts, and is therefore well suited for reconstructing high-resolution glacier fluctuations. The reconstruction presented here is based on physical parameters of glaciolacustrine sediments retrieved from two glacier-fed lakes and a peat bog north of the ice cap. Bulk density and modelled glacier net mass balance for the last 2…
Holocene mean July temperature and winter precipitation in western Norvay inferred from palynological and glaciological lake-sediment proxies
Reconstructions of mean July temperature (T jul ) and winter precipitation (P w ) for the last 11/500 years on the Folgefonna peninsula are presented. T jul was reconstructed using pollen-climate transfer functions and P w was reconstructed based on the exponential relationship between mean solid winter precipitation and ablation-season temperature at the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) with a reconstructed former ELA, using T jul as the proxy fo…
Holocene glacier fluctuations at Hardangerjøkulen, central-southern Norway
Holocene glacier fluctuations at the northern sector of Hardangerjøkulen, central-southern Norway, are reconstructed from four radiocarbon-dated lake and terrestrial sites in the Finse region. For the first time, detailed information has been obtained concerning the number, age and magnitude of Scandinavian glacier variations from the early to mid-Holocene. The deglaciation of the continental ice sheet occurred prior to 9100BP, after which the gl…
A new approach to calculating Holocene winter precipitation by combining glacier equilibrium-line altitudes and pine-tree limits
At Hardangerjøkulen, central southern Norway, detailed knowledge of the number, age and magnitude of Holocene glacier fluctuations is used to reconstruct variations in equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) for the last 10 000 years. Present and past ELAs are based on an accumulation-area ratio (AAR) of 0.7 and are adjusted for land uplift. A synchronous relationship between advanced glacier positions and the highest pine-tree limits ( Pinus sylvestris …
Glacier fluctuations, equilibrium-line altitudes and palaeoclimate in Lyngen, northern Norway, during the Lateglacial and Holocene
Based on lacustrine and morpho-stratigraphical evidence from Lyngen in Troms, northern Norway, 13 marginal moraines have been mapped in front of Lenangsbreene in Strupskardet. Moraines M1-M13 are inferred to represent glacier halts or advance/readvance taking place during the Lateglacial and Holocene. The presence of collapse depressions suggests that some of them were ice cored (M1-M3). A chronological framework, taking into account a combinatio…
Holocene river floods in the upper Glomma catchment, southern Norway
The Glomma catchment in east-central southern Norway has a discharge dominated by a general spring-flood regime with episodic large river floods In this study, the instrumental records (from AD 1871) and documentary evidence (back to the seventeenth century) have been extended for about 10 000 years by reconstructing episodes of palaeofloods as recorded by sedimentological depositional indicators. A record of Holocene flood events has been establ…
Greenland (Gisp2) ice core and historical indicators of complex North Atlantic climate changes during the fourteenth century
The paper uses Greenland GISP2 ice core data together with historical documentary information to investigate the nature of climate changes that took place between AD 1270 and 1450 across the North Atlantic region. Detailed Deuterium and deuterium excess time series resolved to c. 8—10 samples per year are used to reconstruct relative changes in Greenland air temperature and past changes in sea surface temperature across the western North Atlantic…
Briksdalsbreen, western Norway
Annual measurements of the frontal variations of Briksdalsbreen are compared with twentieth-century records of summer temperature, winter precipitation and mass budget to evaluate the effects of climatic change on the glacier fluctuations. Frontal variations are shown to be determined by both summer temperature and winter precipitation. Between AD 1901 and 1931 the glacier front was in a more-or-less stable position. Warm summers in the 1930s and…
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…
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…
Were abrupt Lateglacial and early-Holocene climatic changes in northwest Europe linked to freshwater outbursts to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans
During the Lateglacial and early Holocene, abrupt, millennial-scale climatic variations are recorded in a wide range of high-resolution proxy records from marine and terrestrial archives in NW Europe. Our review of the evidence for these rapid climate events do not show an apparent link to possible forcing factors such as long-term, orbitally induced variations in solar radiation, short-term variations in solar activity as inferred from 14 C, atm…
A continuous, high-resolution 8500-yr snow-avalanche record from western Norway
A record of Holocene snow-avalanche activity has been reconstructed from the presence of coarse (>1 mm) minerogenic particles in lake sediment cores retrieved from Vanndalsvatnet in western Norway. At this site, snow avalanches bring minerogenic debris and macroscopic plant remains from the adjacent valley side south of the lake onto the lake ice. When the lake ice melts during late spring, the debris sinks to the lake bottom. A flux record of th…
Topographical effects on the equilibrium-line altitude on glaciers
The climatic significance of artefacts related to prehistoric reindeer hunting exposed at melting ice patches in southern Norway
The main aim of this study is to describe consequences of climate change in the mountain region of southern Norway with respect to recently exposed finds of archaeological remains associated with reindeer hunting and trapping at and around ice patches in central southern Norway. In the early years of the twenty-first century, warm summers caused negative glacier mass balance and significant glacier retreat and melting of ice patches in central so…
Glacier fluctuations of Jostedalsbreen, western Norway, during the past 20 years
The steep outlet glaciers of Jostedalsbreen, western Norway, are good examples of sensitively reacting maritime mountain glaciers. Their changes in length, frontal position and lower tongue's morphology during the past 20 years have been well documented. At first they experienced a strong frontal advance. After AD 2000 glacier behaviour was dominated by a strong frontal retreat, in some cases causing a separation of the lowermost glacier tongue. …
A theoretical approach to glacier equilibrium-line altitudes using meteorological data and glacier mass-balance records from southern Norway
Based on a close exponential relationship between mean ablation-season temperature and winter precipitation at the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) of 10 Norwegian glaciers, three equations are derived. The first equation enables calculation of the minimum altitude of areas climatically suited for glacier formation, and is termed the altitude of instantaneous glacierization (AIG). Equation (2) is derived based on the ‘principle of terrain adaptati…
What were the Primary Forcing Mechanisms of High-Frequency Holocene Climate and Glacier Variations
A compilation of Holocene glacial advances throughout the world is compared with summer solar insolation integrated over the Northern Hemisphere and the magnitudes of global acid fallout from volcanic eruptions north of 20°S*** estimated from the acidity signal of annual ice layers in the Crëte and Camp Century ice cores in Greenland. Correlation analysis between glacial advances versus volcanic eruptions yielded a correlation coefficient of r = …
A Holocene record of snow-avalanche and flood activity reconstructed from a lacustrine sedimentary sequence in Oldevatnet, western Norway
Two lacustrine sediment cores from Oldevatnet in western Norway have been studied in order to produce a record of floods, mass-wasting events and glacier fluctuations during the last 7300 years. River floods, density currents and snow-avalanches have deposited distinct ‘event layers’ at the lake floor throughout this time interval. In this study, a novel approach has been applied to distinguish event layers from the continuous background sediment…
Climate and glacier fluctuations at Jostedalsbreen and Folgefonna, southwestern Norway and in the western Alps from the ‘Little Ice Age’ until the present
Glacier length, though an indirect and delayed signal of climate conditions, can be used to determine the relationship between climate and glacier response. This study discusses glacier length change of eight outlet glaciers of Jostedalsbreen and Folgefonna (southern Norway), from the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) until the present. A climate index was calculated from meteorological data from Bergen to determine the specific frontal time lags of the ind…
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 …
Interpreting archaeological site-formation processes at a mountain ice patch
In the context of global warming, ice patches are increasingly important foci of high-elevation archaeology. Langfonne in Jotunheimen, central southern Norway, is uniquely suited to provide a window onto site formation processes and taphonomy in this novel archaeological setting. Here the site record from systematic survey includes the largest number of arrows, bones and antlers from a single ice patch worldwide. Combining data from these finds w…
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…
Holocene debris flows recognized in a lacustrine sedimentary succession
This study focuses on the sedimentary characteristics and the chronostratigraphy of Holocene massflow deposits recognized in a lake-fill sedimentary succession. These deposits in lake Ulvådalsvatnet, western Norway, are discrete, sharp-bounded units of sand-sized sediment, running from gravelly and graded to silt-rich, and characterized by low total carbon and water contents. They are rich in terrestrial macrogflora detritus, dark brown in colour…
Holocene glacial and climate history of the Jostedalsbreen region, Western Norway; evidence from lake sediments and terrestrial deposits
Late Holocene glacier fluctuations in Bevringsdalen, Jostedalsbreen region, western Norway (ca 3200-1400 BP)
Lithostratigraphy and radiocarbon dates from a 1.3 m-deep gully section in Bevringsdalen, SW of Jostedalsbreen in western Norway, with alternating minerogenic (glacial) and peat (non-glacial) layers, demonstrate that glaciers upvalley from the site were present during the following intervals: 2595 ± 85 BP (840-700 cal. BC) to 2360 ± 80 BP (525-385 cal. BC); between 2250 ± 65 BP (395-225 cal. BC) and 2150 ± 80 BP (360-105 cal. BC); between 1740 ± …
What were the Primary Forcing Mechanisms of High-Frequency Holocene Climate and Glacier Variations
A compilation of Holocene glacial advances throughout the world is compared with summer solar insolation integrated over the Northern Hemisphere and the magnitudes of global acid fallout from volcanic eruptions north of 20°S*** estimated from the acidity signal of annual ice layers in the Crëte and Camp Century ice cores in Greenland. Correlation analysis between glacial advances versus volcanic eruptions yielded a correlation coefficient of r = …
Topographical effects on the equilibrium-line altitude on glaciers
Holocene glacier activity at the southwestern part of Hardangerjøkulen, central-southern Norway
Lacustrine sediments from Lake Isdalsvatn downstream from the southwestern margin of the plateau glacier Hardangerjøkulen, central-southern Norway, show that the lake received glacial meltwater until 7890 ± 95 BP. A thin, bluish-grey minerogenic silt layer probably reflects a short glacial (re)advance between 7005 ± 90 and 6835 ± 150BP. After the latter date, inflow of glacial meltwater ceased, indicating that small or, more probably, no glaciers…
Holocene glacier fluctuations at Hardangerjøkulen, central-southern Norway
Holocene glacier fluctuations at the northern sector of Hardangerjøkulen, central-southern Norway, are reconstructed from four radiocarbon-dated lake and terrestrial sites in the Finse region. For the first time, detailed information has been obtained concerning the number, age and magnitude of Scandinavian glacier variations from the early to mid-Holocene. The deglaciation of the continental ice sheet occurred prior to 9100BP, after which the gl…
Briksdalsbreen, western Norway
Annual measurements of the frontal variations of Briksdalsbreen are compared with twentieth-century records of summer temperature, winter precipitation and mass budget to evaluate the effects of climatic change on the glacier fluctuations. Frontal variations are shown to be determined by both summer temperature and winter precipitation. Between AD 1901 and 1931 the glacier front was in a more-or-less stable position. Warm summers in the 1930s and…
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…
A new approach to calculating Holocene winter precipitation by combining glacier equilibrium-line altitudes and pine-tree limits
At Hardangerjøkulen, central southern Norway, detailed knowledge of the number, age and magnitude of Holocene glacier fluctuations is used to reconstruct variations in equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) for the last 10 000 years. Present and past ELAs are based on an accumulation-area ratio (AAR) of 0.7 and are adjusted for land uplift. A synchronous relationship between advanced glacier positions and the highest pine-tree limits ( Pinus sylvestris …
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…
Holocene glacier fluctuations of Grovabreen and Holocene snow-avalanche activity reconstructed from lake sediments in Grningstlsvatnet, western Norway
On the southern side of Grovabreen, a plateau glacier in inner Sunnfjord, western Norway, sedimentological analyses of two lake-sediment cores from Groningstolsvatnet have been made in order to reconstruct the Holocene history of Grovabreen and of local snow-avalanche activity. The lake catchment was deglaciated about 9470 cal. BP and glaciers were absent from the catchment between 9470 and 4700 cal. BP, except for a glacier episode, correlated w…
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…
Holocene debris flows recognized in a lacustrine sedimentary succession
This study focuses on the sedimentary characteristics and the chronostratigraphy of Holocene massflow deposits recognized in a lake-fill sedimentary succession. These deposits in lake Ulvådalsvatnet, western Norway, are discrete, sharp-bounded units of sand-sized sediment, running from gravelly and graded to silt-rich, and characterized by low total carbon and water contents. They are rich in terrestrial macrogflora detritus, dark brown in colour…
A theoretical approach to glacier equilibrium-line altitudes using meteorological data and glacier mass-balance records from southern Norway
Based on a close exponential relationship between mean ablation-season temperature and winter precipitation at the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) of 10 Norwegian glaciers, three equations are derived. The first equation enables calculation of the minimum altitude of areas climatically suited for glacier formation, and is termed the altitude of instantaneous glacierization (AIG). Equation (2) is derived based on the ‘principle of terrain adaptati…
The ‘Little Ice Age’ – only temperature
Understanding the climate of the last few centuries, including the ‘Little Ice Age’, may help us better understand modern-day natural climate variability and make climate predictions. The conventional view of the climate development during the last millennium has been that it followed the simple sequence of a ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’, a cool ‘Little Ice Age’ followed by warming in the later part of the nineteenth century and during the twentieth c…
Theoretical equilibrium-line altitudes and glacier buildup sensitivity in southern Norway based on meteorological data in a geographical information system
Three equations derived from a close exponential glacier-climate relationship at the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) of Norwegian glaciers have been utilized and implemented in a geographical information system (GIS). The first equation enables calculation of the minimum altitude of areas climatically suited for glacier formation at present, and is termed the altitude of instantaneous glacierization (AIG). Equation (2) is based on the ‘principle …
Were abrupt Lateglacial and early-Holocene climatic changes in northwest Europe linked to freshwater outbursts to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans
During the Lateglacial and early Holocene, abrupt, millennial-scale climatic variations are recorded in a wide range of high-resolution proxy records from marine and terrestrial archives in NW Europe. Our review of the evidence for these rapid climate events do not show an apparent link to possible forcing factors such as long-term, orbitally induced variations in solar radiation, short-term variations in solar activity as inferred from 14 C, atm…
Briksdalsbreen in western Norway
Mountain glaciers and ice caps are sensitive to changes in regional and global climate. Temporal glacier variations, manifested in change of volume, area and length, provide some of the clearest signals of climate change in nature. Therefore, glaciers are considered key indicators for the detection of global warming. Except for a few glaciers in western Scandinavia, glaciers in Europe are in retreat, following the global trend. Maritime (coastal)…
Holocene mean July temperature and winter precipitation in western Norvay inferred from palynological and glaciological lake-sediment proxies
Reconstructions of mean July temperature (T jul ) and winter precipitation (P w ) for the last 11/500 years on the Folgefonna peninsula are presented. T jul was reconstructed using pollen-climate transfer functions and P w was reconstructed based on the exponential relationship between mean solid winter precipitation and ablation-season temperature at the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) with a reconstructed former ELA, using T jul as the proxy fo…
Glacier fluctuations, equilibrium-line altitudes and palaeoclimate in Lyngen, northern Norway, during the Lateglacial and Holocene
Based on lacustrine and morpho-stratigraphical evidence from Lyngen in Troms, northern Norway, 13 marginal moraines have been mapped in front of Lenangsbreene in Strupskardet. Moraines M1-M13 are inferred to represent glacier halts or advance/readvance taking place during the Lateglacial and Holocene. The presence of collapse depressions suggests that some of them were ice cored (M1-M3). A chronological framework, taking into account a combinatio…
Utilizing physical sediment variability in glacier-fed lakes for continuous glacier reconstructions during the Holocene, northern Folgefonna, western Norway
The maritime plateau glacier of northern Folgefonna in western Norway has a short (subdecadal) response time to climatic shifts, and is therefore well suited for reconstructing high-resolution glacier fluctuations. The reconstruction presented here is based on physical parameters of glaciolacustrine sediments retrieved from two glacier-fed lakes and a peat bog north of the ice cap. Bulk density and modelled glacier net mass balance for the last 2…
Holocene palaeoclimate reconstructions at Vanndalsvatnet, western Norway, with particular reference to the 8200 cal. yr BP event
Analyses of organic content, magnetic susceptibility, grain size and pollen in sediments from the proglacial lake Vanndalsvatnet in western Norway provide a high-resolution terrestrial record and pollen-based quantitative estimates of mean July and January temperatures and annual precipitation across the ∼ 8200 cal. yr BP event. Glaciers in the catchment melted away at approximately 8600 cal. yr BP. Immediately following deglaciation, a series of…
Holocene river floods in the upper Glomma catchment, southern Norway
The Glomma catchment in east-central southern Norway has a discharge dominated by a general spring-flood regime with episodic large river floods In this study, the instrumental records (from AD 1871) and documentary evidence (back to the seventeenth century) have been extended for about 10 000 years by reconstructing episodes of palaeofloods as recorded by sedimentological depositional indicators. A record of Holocene flood events has been establ…
Cirque glacier activity in arctic Norway during the last deglaciation
Numerous cirques of the Lofoten–Vesterålen archipelago in northern Norway have distinct moraine sequences that previously have been assigned to the Allerød-Younger Dryas (∼ 13,400 to 11,700 yr BP) interval, constraining the regional distribution of the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) of cirque and valley glaciers. Here we present evidence from a once glacier-fed lake on southern Andøya that contests this view. Analyses of radiocarbon dated lacust…
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 …
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (51 obras) · Physical geography (48 obras) · Geology (47 obras) · Glacier (44 obras) · Geography (42 obras) · Geomorphology (39 obras) · Cryospheric studies and observations (34 obras) · Oceanography (33 obras) · Holocene (32 obras) · Climatology (28 obras)