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Lateglacial and Holocene glacier activity in the Van Mijenfjorden area, western Svalbard

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Abstract

Sedimentological, morphological and chronological studies of the Van Mijenfjorden region, Svalbard suggest numerous glacial advances seen in terrestrial and marine archives spanning from the Late Weichselian to the Little Ice Age. Only one ice-marginal deposit from the retreat phase of the fjord glacier is found along the entire fjord system. The deposit is located at a topographically controlled position near a bedrock threshold at the mouth of the fjord. Glacial records from tributary valleys and fjords correspond to varying sizes and styles of ice flow related to the deglaciation of the area during the Lateglacial and early Holocene as well as the regrowth of glacier systems during the early Holocene, the Neoglacial and the Little Ice Age. During the Younger Dryas, as the Van Mijen-fjord glacier retreated, a glacier advance took place in a southern tributary, probably as a dynamic response to the retreat in the fjord. Another glacier advance from a northern tributary valley took place during the early Holocene. This glacier advance extended to a position well outside the Little Ice Age (LIA) margins during a period in time when marine proxies suggest warm regional fjords. A Neoglacial glacier advance is identified in a third and inner tributary which also extends further than the subsequent LIA maximum. The Paula glacier system in the inner part of the fjord surged at least five times in the last 650 years, with each subsequent surge advance exhibiting less extensive maximum than the previous, resulting in an overall decrease in mass of the Paula glacier.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was given by the Geological Survey of Norway, the University Center in Svalbard, and the Research Council of Norway (IPY SciencePub project, Grant no. 175937/S30 to E. Larsen and Arctic Field Grant 2010 to A. Lyså, cf. Research Council of Norway RIS-ID 235826). The University Center in Svalbard, the Norwegian Polar Institute and Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani provided logistical support. The Norwegian Polar Institute gave access to digital aerial orthophotos and the Norwegian Hydrographic Service provided access to multibeam bathymetric data. R. Viola gave valuable help with GIS- and DEM-work. I. Lundquist and M.C. Rasmussen contributed with the graphics. F. Høgaas assisted in the field. To all these institutions and persons, we extend our sincere thanks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Norway, Torgard, P.O. Box 6315, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Eiliv Larsen, Astrid Lyså, Lena Rubensdotter & Dag Ottesen

  2. UNIS, The University Centre in Svalbard, P.O. Box 156, 9171, Longyearbyen, Norway

    Lena Rubensdotter, Wesley R. Farnsworth & Maria Jensen

  3. UiT, The Arctic University of Norwegian, Tromsø, P.O. Box 6050, 9037, Tromsö, Norway

    Wesley R. Farnsworth

  4. The National Laboratory for Age Determination, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Marie J. Nadeau

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41063_2018_42_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Quaternary geological and geomorphological map of the Sveagruva area. Scale: 1:60 000 [38, unpublished] (PDF 3722 KB)

41063_2018_42_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

Radiocarbon dates from the Sveagruva area. Most of the Tra-dates on mollusks reported in Table 1 are averages based on 2-4 parallel dates from the same mollusk sample. All individual dates in conventional radiocarbon years are listed herein. (XLSX 14 KB)

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Larsen, E., Lyså, A., Rubensdotter, L. et al. Lateglacial and Holocene glacier activity in the Van Mijenfjorden area, western Svalbard. Arktos 4, 1–21 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41063-018-0042-2

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