Marginal Fluctuations of a Svalbard Surge-Type Tidewater Glacier, Blomstrandbreen, Since the Little Ice Age: A Record of Three Surges

Burton, David; Dowdeswell, Julian A.; Hogan, Kelly; Noormets, Riko

doi:10.1657/aaar0014-094

Cited by 34 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(109 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In several Spitsbergen fjords, comparisons between the known locations of past glacier termini over the past century or so and submarine moraine ridges have demonstrated clearly that the ridges are formed annually (e.g. Burton et al 2016), although this may not be so in all glacimarine settings. Similar ridges in marine and lacustrine environments, first observed in Scandinavia, have been referred to as De Geer moraines (e.g.…”

Section: Variety Of Submarine Glacial Landforms 522mentioning

confidence: 99%

The variety and distribution of submarine glacial landforms and implications for ice-sheet reconstruction

Dowdeswell

Canals

Jakobsson

et al. 2016

Memoirs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Glacimarine processes affect about 20% of the global ocean today, and this area expanded considerably under cyclical full-glacial conditions during the Quaternary (Fig. 1) . Many of the submarine landforms produced at the base and margin of past ice sheets remain well preserved on the seafloor in fjords and on high-latitude continental shelves after the retreat of the ice that produced them. These glacial landforms, protected from subaerial erosion and beneath wave-base and tidal currents in water that is often hundreds of metres deep, are gradually buried by both hemipelagic and glacimarine sedimentation; they may be preserved over long periods in the geological record if palaeocontinental shelves are not reworked by subsequent glacier advances or bottom currents ). This means that, first, submarine glacial landforms can be observed at or close to the modern seafloor after retreat of the last great ice sheets from their most recent Quaternary maximum about 18-20 000 years ago using swath-bathymetric mapping systems and, secondly, buried glacial landforms may also be identified and examined within glacial-sedimentary sequences from Quaternary and earlier ice ages using seismic-reflection methods.The development of multibeam echo sounding over the past two decades, coupled with high-accuracy GPS positioning, has allowed morphological mapping of the seafloor at an unprecedented level of detail. In this paper, the variety of submarine glacial landforms observed in modern, Quaternary and more ancient sediments is described. Landforms produced subglacially, those formed at and beyond marine ice-sheet margins, together with the slope processes and bottom currents likely to result in their reworking, are considered along with the sediment volumes of these landforms and the time they take to develop. This is followed by discussion of the significance of submarine glacial landforms and landform-assemblages for reconstruction of the form and flow of past ice sheets, including the former extent and flow direction of ice sheets, whether they are flowing fast as ice streams or slowly in inter-ice stream areas, the nature and rate of ice-sheet deglaciation, conditions at past ice-sheet beds, and inferences on the characteristics of the basal hydrological system and past climatic conditions.

show abstract

Section: Variety Of Submarine Glacial Landforms 522mentioning

confidence: 99%

The variety and distribution of submarine glacial landforms and implications for ice-sheet reconstruction

Dowdeswell

Canals

Jakobsson

et al. 2016

Memoirs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several of these have been inferred to be of surge type, implying that they experience cyclical changes in their flow velocities, triggered by internal mechanisms rather than external forcing, such as climate change (Lefauconnier & Hagen 1991;Solheim 1991;Hagen et al 1993;Ottesen & Dowdeswell 2006;Ottesen et al 2008;Blaszczyk et al 2009;Flink et al 2015;Streuff et al 2015). The dynamics and recent glacial history of the tidewater glaciers in the fjords of western Spitsbergen have been relatively well studied using marine geophysical, sedimentological, remote sensing and field-based methods (Vieli et al 2002;Hald et al 2004;Plassen et al 2004;Ottesen & Dowdeswell 2006;Ottesen et al 2008;Kristensen et al 2009;Baeten et al 2010;Mansell et al 2012;Blaszczyk et al 2013;Kempf et al 2013;Burton et al 2015;Flink et al 2015;Streuff et al 2015;Sobota et al 2016). These studies have provided new insights into past glacial and climatic changes in western Spitsbergen.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene glacial evolution of Mohnbukta in eastern Spitsbergen

Flink¹,

Hill²,

Noormets³

et al. 2017

Boreas

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Submarine geomorphology is one of the main tools for understanding past fluctuations of tidewater glaciers. In this study we investigate the glacial history of Mohnbukta, on the east coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, by combining multibeam‐bathymetric data, marine sediment cores and remote sensing data. Presently, three tidewater glaciers, Heuglinbreen, Königsbergbreen and Hayesbreen calve into Mohnbukta. Hayesbreen surged at the end of the Little Ice Age, between 1901 and 1910. The submarine landform assemblage in Mohnbukta contains two large transverse ridges, interpreted as terminal moraines, with debrisflow lobes on their distal slopes and sets of well‐preserved geometric networks of ridges, interpreted as crevasse‐squeeze ridges inshore of the moraines. The arrangement of crevasse‐squeeze ridges suggests that both landform sets were produced during surge‐type advances. The terminus position of the 1901–1910 Hayesbreen surge correlates with the inner (R.2) terminal moraine ridge suggesting that the R.1 ridge formed prior to 1901. Marine sediment cores display 14C ages between 5700–7700 cal. a BP derived from benthic foraminifera, from a clast‐rich mud unit. This unit represents pre‐surge unconsolidated Holocene sediments pushed in front of the glacier terminus and mixed up during the 1901 surge. An absence of retreat moraines in the deeper part of the inner basin and the observation of tabular icebergs calving off the glacier front during retreat suggest that the front of Hayesbreen was close to flotation, at least in the deeper parts of the basin. As the MOH15‐01 core does not penetrate into a subglacial till and the foraminifera in the samples were well preserved, the R.1 ridge is suggested to have formed prior to the deposition of the foraminifera. Based on these data we propose that a surge‐type advance occurred in Mohnbukta in the early Holocene, prior to 7700 cal. a BP, which in turn indicates that glaciers can switch to and from surge mode.

show abstract

“…The mud apron that formed during the recent NGS surge is morphologically similar to large submarine terminal moraines and associated debris flow lobes observed on the seafloor in front of a number of tidewater surge-type glaciers (e.g. Solheim and Pfirman, 1985;Plassen et al, 2004;Ottesen et al, 2008Ottesen et al, , 2017Kristensen et al, 2009a;Forwick et al, 2010;Streuff et al, 2015Streuff et al, , 2017aBurton et al, 2016), and we therefore interpret these as having a common genetic origin (cf. Kristensen et al, 2009a).…”

Section: Formation Of Mud Apron and Glaciotectonic Surge Morainesmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…The recent expansion in the availability of high-resolution submarine imagery has helped to identify new evidence for dynamic glacier flow in both fjord (Ottesen and Dowdeswell, 2006;Ottesen et al, 2008;Flink et al, 2015Flink et al, , 2017Streuff et al, 2015Streuff et al, , 2017aBurton et al, 2016;Ewertowski et al, 2016;Farnsworth et al, 2017;Allaart et al, 2018;Ćwiąkała et al, 2018;Larsen et al, 2018) and open-marine settings (Ottesen et al, 2017;Flink and Noormets, 2018). In the majority of these examples, there is clear geomorphological evidence for surging.…”

Section: Timings Of Late Holocene Tidewater Glacier Advances In Svalbardmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For tidewater glacier surges, this evidence is typically recorded on the sea floor (e.g. Solheim and Pfirman, 1985;Plassen et al, 2004;Ottesen et al, 2008Ottesen et al, , 2017Forwick et al, 2010;Flink et al, 2015Flink et al, , 2017Streuff et al, 2015Streuff et al, , 2017aBurton et al, 2016;Farnsworth et al, 2017). Field observations of the active phase of glacier surges are rare (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Multiple Late Holocene surges of a High-Arctic tidewater glacier system in Svalbard

Lovell

Benn

Lukas

et al. 2018

Quaternary Science Reviews

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most large tidewater glaciers in Svalbard are known to have surged at least once in the last few hundred years. However, very little information exists on the frequency, timing or magnitude of surges prior to the Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum in ~1900. We investigate the sedimentlandform assemblages produced by multiple advances of the Nathorstbreen glacier system (NGS) in order to reconstruct its Late Holocene surge history. The glacier has recently undergone one of the largest surges ever observed in Svalbard, advancing ~16 km from 2008 2 to 2016. We present flow velocities and ice-marginal observations (terminus change, proglacial geomorphological processes) from the later stages of this surge. A first detailed assessment of the development of a glaciotectonic mud apron within the fjord during a surge is provided. Geomorphological and sedimentological examination of the terrestrial moraine areas formed prior to the most recent surge reveals that at least two advances were responsible for their formation, based on the identification of a previously unrecognised ice-contact zone recorded by the distribution of sediment facies in coastal exposures. We distinguish between an outer, older advance to the distal part of the moraine system and an inner, younger advance to a position ~2 km upfjord. Radiocarbon dating of shells embedded in glaciotectonic composite ridges formed by the onshore bulldozing of marine mud during the outer (older) of the two advances shows that it occurred at some point during the interval 700-890 cal. yr BP (i.e. ~1160 AD), and not during the LIA as previously assumed. We instead attribute the inner (younger) advance to the LIA at ~1890.

show abstract

Marginal Fluctuations of a Svalbard Surge-Type Tidewater Glacier, Blomstrandbreen, Since the Little Ice Age: A Record of Three Surges

Cited by 34 publications

References 59 publications

The variety and distribution of submarine glacial landforms and implications for ice-sheet reconstruction

The variety and distribution of submarine glacial landforms and implications for ice-sheet reconstruction

Holocene glacial evolution of Mohnbukta in eastern Spitsbergen

Multiple Late Holocene surges of a High-Arctic tidewater glacier system in Svalbard

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About