Evolution of the Norwegian plateau icefield Hardangerjøkulen since the ‘Little Ice Age’

Weber, P.; Boston, Clare M.; Lovell, Harold; Andreassen, Liss M.

doi:10.1177/0959683619865601

Cited by 16 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 59 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the Monadhliath this occurs on slopes up to a maximum of 20°, above which moraine formation and/or preservation potential is significantly diminished. These results are similar to recent research on Hardangerjøkulen (Weber et al ., ), which shows that moraine formation over the last century occurred asynchronously across outlet glaciers as a result of topographic controls and catchment processes. Our examination of moraine patterns and spacing provides one of the few examples of this influence in a Quaternary setting, however.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Topographic controls on plateau icefield recession: insights from the Younger Dryas Monadhliath Icefield, Scotland

Boston

Lukas

2019

J Quaternary Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Plateau icefields are a common form of mountain ice mass, frequently found in mid‐latitude to high‐arctic regions and increasingly recognized in the Quaternary record. Their top‐heavy hypsometry makes them highly sensitive to changes in climate when the equilibriaum line altitude (ELA) lies above the plateau edge, allowing ice to expand significantly as regional ELAs decrease, and causing rapid recession as climate warms. With respect to future climate warming, it is important to understand the controls on plateau icefield response to climate change in order to better predict recession rates, with implications for water resources and sea‐level rise. Improving knowledge of the controls on glacier recession may also enable further palaeoclimatic information to be extracted from the Quaternary glacial record. We use the distribution of moraines to examine topographic controls on Younger Dryas icefield recession in Scotland. We find that overall valley morphology influences the style of recession, through microclimatic and geometric controls, with bed gradient affecting moraine spacing. Ice mass reconfiguration may occur as recession progresses because ice divide migration could alter the expected response based on hypsometric distribution. These results add to a growing body of research examining controls on glacier recession and offer a step towards unravelling non‐linear ice mass behaviour. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Topographic controls on plateau icefield recession: insights from the Younger Dryas Monadhliath Icefield, Scotland

Boston

Lukas

2019

J Quaternary Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Jotunheimen and Hardangerjøkulen (southern Norway). Between LIA maximum (~1750) and 2003, glaciers in Jotunheimen (n = 233) shrank by approximately 100 km 2 (35 percent; Baumann, Winkler, and Andreassen 2009), and between LIA maxium (~1750) and 2013 the Hardangerjøkulen ice cap shrank by approximately 40.3 km 2 (37 percent; Weber et al 2019).…”

Section: Little Ice Age Maxima To Late Twentieth Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Norway is therefore a prime location to study the response of glaciers to climate change, but there remain several glacierized regions in Norway that lack detailed investigation (Stokes et al 2018). In particular, the mapping and dating of LIA glacier extent and subsequent retreat has only been done for a small number of glaciers and glacier regions in Norway (e.g., Ballantyne 1990;Bickerton and Matthews 1993;Winkler 2003;Matthews 2005;Nussbaumer, Nesje, and Zumbühl 2011;Weber et al 2019), and most of the small glacierized sites within northern Troms lack investigation as to their LIA limits. As such, it is unclear when glaciers reached their LIA maximum in this region and how rates of glacial change have varied after this maximum.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Timing of Little Ice Age maxima and subsequent glacier retreat in northern Troms and western Finnmark, northern Norway

Leigh

Stokes

Evans

et al. 2020

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Glaciers are important indicators of climate change, and recent observations worldwide document increasing rates of mountain glacier recession. Here we present approximately 200 years of change in mountain glacier extent in northern Troms and western Finnmark, northern Norway. This was achieved through (1) mapping and lichenometric dating of major moraine systems within a subset of the main study area (the Rotsund Valley) and (2) mapping recent (post-1980s) changes in ice extent from remotely sensed data. Lichenometric dating reveals that the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum occurred approximately 1814 (±41 years), which is before the early twentieth-century LIA maximum proposed on the nearby Lyngen Peninsula but younger than LIA maximum limits in southern and central Norway (mid-eighteenth century). Between LIA maximum and 1989, a small sample of measured glaciers (n = 15) shrank a total of 3.9 km 2 (39 percent), and those that shrank by more than 50 percent are fronted by proglacial lakes. Between 1989 and 2018, the total area of glaciers within the study area (n = 219 in 1989) shrank by approximately 35 km 2. Very small glaciers (<0.5 km 2) show the highest relative rates of shrinkage, and 90 percent of mapped glaciers within the study area were less than 0.5 km 2 in 2018.

show abstract

“…1a), exhibited a net frontal retreat over the course of the 20th century (Andreassen et al 2005). This retreat has accelerated since the beginning of the 21st century (Weber et al 2019;Andreassen et al 2020). The last major expansion of ice masses in Norway occurred during the LIA (Grove 2004), with the Abstract Current warming in the Arctic is occurring at a rate two to three times higher than that of the rest of the world, leading to rapid glacier wastage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession

Weber¹,

Lovell²,

Andreassen

et al. 2020

Polar Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Current warming in the Arctic is occurring at a rate two to three times higher than that of the rest of the world, leading to rapid glacier wastage. In Arctic mainland Norway, the plateau icefield Langfjordjøkelen has experienced the greatest mass loss of all Norwegian glaciers (excluding Svalbard) in recent decades. In this article, we examine this decline in a centennial-scale context through geomorphological mapping and the analysis of historical aerial photographs and maps. This allows Langfjordjøkelen’s maximum Little Ice Age extent (ca. 1925) to be reconstructed, providing an important baseline for a long-term assessment of icefield change. At the LIA maximum, Langfjordjøkelen covered an area of 14.9 km2. A comparison of the LIA dimensions with the icefield extent in 1891/1902, as displayed on a historical map, reveals a substantial overestimation of the map-based glacier outline. The post-LIA evolution of Langfjordjøkelen has been characterized by sustained high rates of glacier recession. By 2018, the icefield had lost 57% (8.5 km2) of its original LIA area, at a decadal rate of 9%, and its outlet glaciers had reduced in average length by 42% (1 km), at an annual rate of 11 m. Langfjordjøkelen’s percentage area decline has been greater than that of Norwegian ice masses at lower latitudes where comparable long-term glacier change data are available. This indicates that there is a significant latitudinal variation in Norwegian glacier response to 20th century warming, likely influenced by an enhanced warming signal in Arctic Norway compared to the rest of the Norwegian mainland.

show abstract

Evolution of the Norwegian plateau icefield Hardangerjøkulen since the ‘Little Ice Age’

Cited by 16 publications

References 59 publications

Topographic controls on plateau icefield recession: insights from the Younger Dryas Monadhliath Icefield, Scotland

Topographic controls on plateau icefield recession: insights from the Younger Dryas Monadhliath Icefield, Scotland

Timing of Little Ice Age maxima and subsequent glacier retreat in northern Troms and western Finnmark, northern Norway

Reconstructing the Little Ice Age extent of Langfjordjøkelen, Arctic mainland Norway, as a baseline for assessing centennial-scale icefield recession

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About