Holocene palaeoclimatic reconstruction in northern Iceland: approaches and results

A high-resolution diatom record of late-Quaternary sea-surface temperatures and oceanographic conditions from the eastern Norwegian Sea

“…Glaciers redeveloped in western Norway at about 5100 14 C yr BP (c. 6000 cal. yr BP) (Nesje & Dahl 1993;Dahl & Nesje 1996), a similar time to glacial re-advance in Iceland (Stötter et al 1999). Temperature reconstructions from pollen data in NW Finland and other terrestrial records in northern Norway all indicate the onset of cooling after the mid-Holocene period of maximum warmth at around 6500 cal.…”

“…yr BP and at 4600 cal. yr BP, probably resulting from increased precipitation combined with cooler conditions (Stötter et al 1999), can be tentatively correlated to the small dips in the SST records, especially the Baegisádalur I advance at 4600 cal. yr BP (Fig.…”

The origin of glacial alpine landscape in Tröllaskagi Peninsula (North Iceland)

“…The only exceptions are three cirques where moraines found a few metres in front of those from the LIA have been dated, all with ages more modern than 5.4 ka (Stötter et al, 1999). Pollen studies in different valleys of the Tröllaskagi confirm the start from 4.2 ka of a series of cold periods which facilitated the neoglacial advances.…”

“…Later, the glaciers retreated rapidly (Kaldal and Víkingssson, 1990;Andrews et al, 2000;Norðdahl and Einarsson, 2001;Geirsdóttir et al, 2002Geirsdóttir et al, , 2009Larsen et al, 2012). By 10.2 ka the centre and north of Iceland was already deglaciated (Stötter et al, 1999;Caseldine et al, 2003). Finally, by 8.7 ka the IIS had definitively disappeared and the extent of the glaciers was similar to or less than at present (Pétursson et al, 2015).…”

“…The greatest neoglacial advance of the ice-cap glaciers in the centre of Iceland was during the Little Ice Age (LIA), when the Holocene Thermal Minimum was reached (Stötter et al, 1999;Dugmore, 2001, 2006). But various small glaciers in Tröllaskagi and in Vestfirðir Peninsula, in the northwest of Iceland, had advances slightly greater than those of the LIA (Stötter et al, 1999;Principato, 2008).…”