The changing extent of marine-terminating glaciers and ice caps in northeastern Svalbard since the ‘Little Ice Age’ from marine-geophysical records

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian A Dowdeswell ◽  
Dag Ottesen ◽  
Valerie K Bellec
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
The Past ◽  
Covered Area ◽  
Data Coverage ◽  
Climatic Cooling ◽  
Glacial Landforms

Climate warming in Svalbard since the end of the ‘Little Ice Age’ early in the 20th century has reduced glacier extent in the archipelago. Previous attempts to reconstruct ‘Little Ice Age’ glacier limits have encountered problems in specifying the area of tidewater glacier advances because it is difficult to estimate the past positions of their marine termini. Multibeam echo-sounding data are needed to map past glacier extent offshore, especially in open-marine settings where subaerial lateral moraines cannot be used due to the absence of fjord walls. We use the submarine glacial landform record to measure the recent limits of advance of over 30 marine-terminating northeastern Svalbard glaciers and ice caps. Our results demonstrate that previous work has underestimated the ice-covered area relative to today by about 40% for northeastern Svalbard (excluding southeast Austfonna) because marine-geophysical evidence in the form of submarine terminal moraines was not included. We show that the recent ice extent was 1753 km2 larger than today over our full area of multibeam data coverage; about 5% of the total modern ice cover of Svalbard. It has often been assumed that moraine ridges located within a few kilometres of modern ice fronts in Svalbard represent either a ‘Little Ice Age’ maximum or relate to surge activity over the past century or so. In the marine environment of northeastern Svalbard, this timing can often be confirmed by reference to early historical maps and aerial photographs. Assemblages of submarine glacial landforms inshore of recently deposited terminal moraines suggest whether a recent advance may be a result of surging or ‘Little Ice Age’ climatic cooling relative to today. However, older terminal moraines do exist in the archipelago, as shown by radiocarbon and 10Be dating of Holocene moraine ridges.

scholarly journals Rapid Wastage of the Hazen Plateau Ice Caps, Northeastern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Serreze ◽  
Bruce Raup ◽  
Carsten Braun ◽  
Douglas R. Hardy ◽  
Raymond S. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Data ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Direct Response ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Warm Summer ◽  
Plant Recolonization

Abstract. Two pairs of small stagnant ice bodies on the Hazen Plateau of northeastern Ellesmere Island, the St. Patrick Bay ice caps and the Murray and Simmons ice caps, are rapidly shrinking, and the remnants of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps are likely to disappear entirely within the next five years. Vertical aerial photographs of these Little Ice Age relics taken during August of 1959 show that the larger of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps had an area of 7.48 km2, and the smaller one 2.93 km2. The Murray and Simmons ice caps covered 4.37 km2 and 7.45 km2 respectively. Outlines determined from ASTER satellite data for July 2016 show that, compared to 1959, the larger and the smaller of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps had both been reduced to only 5 % of their former area, with the Murray and Simmons ice caps faring better at 39 % and 25 %, likely reflecting their higher elevation. ASTER imagery in conjunction with past GPS surveys documents a strikingly rapid wastage of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps over the last 15 years. These two ice caps shrank noticeably even between 2014 and 2015, apparently in direct response to the especially warm summer of 2015 over northeastern Ellesmere Island. The well-documented recession patterns of the Hazen Plateau ice caps over the last 55+ years offer an opportunity to examine the processes of plant recolonization of polar landscapes.

scholarly journals Little ice age advance and retreat of Glaciar Jorge Montt, Chilean Patagonia, recorded in maps, air photographs and dendrochronology

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 3131-3164 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rivera ◽  
M. Koppes ◽  
C. Bravo ◽  
J. C. Aravena
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Dynamic Responses ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Present Position ◽  
Tidewater Glaciers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chilean Patagonia ◽  
Southern Patagonia ◽  
Induced Changes

Abstract. Glaciar Jorge Montt (48°20' S/73°30' W), one of the main tidewater glaciers of the Southern Patagonian Icefield (SPI), has experienced the fastest frontal retreat observed in Patagonia during the past century, with a recession of 19.5 km between 1898 and 2011. This record retreat uncovered trees overridden during the Little Ice Age (LIA) advance of the glacier. Samples of these trees were dated using radiocarbon methods, yielding burial ages between 460 and 250 cal yr BP. The dendrochronology and maps indicate that Glaciar Jorge Montt was at its present position before the beginning of the LIA, in concert with several other glaciers in Southern Patagonia, and reached its maximum advance position between 1650 and 1750 AD. The post-LIA retreat is most likely triggered by climatically induced changes during the 20th century, however, Glaciar Jorge Montt has responded more dramatically than its neighbours. The retreat of Jorge Montt opened a new fjord 19.5 km long, and up to 391 m deep, with a varied bathymetry well correlated with glacier retreat rates, suggesting that dynamic responses of the glacier are at least partially connected to near buoyancy conditions at the ice front, resulting in high calving fluxes, accelerating thinning rates and rapid ice velocities.

scholarly journals Neoglaciation in the Southern Kenai Mountains, Alaska

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 319-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory C. Wiles ◽  
Parker E. Calkin
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Partial Control ◽  
The Past ◽  
Proglacial Lakes ◽  
Glacial Chronology ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Ice Complex

A preliminary late-Holocene glacial chronology from the west flank of the southern Kenai Mountains, Alaska, is characterized by two major episodes of advance. Outlet glaciers of both the Harding Icefield and the Grewingk-Yalik ice complex were expanding across their present positions at 545 A.D. and again during the Little Ice Age, about 1500 A.D. The earliest of these Neoglacial advances is dated by radiocarbon ages from the outer rings of tree trunks rooted near the margins of Grewingk and Dinglestadt glaciers. Subsequently, ice margins retreated some distance behind their present positions allowing marked soil development before the last readvance through mature forest. Wood preserved in lateral moraines at Grewingk Glacier and from an uprooted stump at Tustemena Glacier date this later ice advance. Tree-ring ages, correlated with lichen diameters, suggest that this last advance was widespread and culminated in its Neoglacial maximum about 1800 A.D.. Since this time, glacier retreat has dominated in the area, punctuated by at least two pauses. Historical accounts and photographs document a mean rate of retreat of 27 m a−1 for the past century with partial control exerted by calving of ice margins into proglacial lakes.

scholarly journals Rapid wastage of the Hazen Plateau ice caps, northeastern Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark C. Serreze ◽  
Bruce Raup ◽  
Carsten Braun ◽  
Douglas R. Hardy ◽  
Raymond S. Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Data ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Direct Response ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Warm Summer ◽  
Plant Recolonization

Abstract. Two pairs of small stagnant ice bodies on the Hazen Plateau of northeastern Ellesmere Island, the St. Patrick Bay ice caps and the Murray and Simmons ice caps, are rapidly shrinking, and the remnants of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps are likely to disappear entirely within the next 5 years. Vertical aerial photographs of these Little Ice Age relics taken during August of 1959 show that the larger of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps had an area of 7.48 km2 and the smaller one 2.93 km2; the Murray and Simmons ice caps covered 4.37 and 7.45 km2 respectively. Outlines determined from ASTER satellite data for July 2016 show that, compared to 1959, the larger and the smaller of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps had both been reduced to only 5 % of their former area, with the Murray and Simmons ice caps faring better at 39 and 25 %, likely reflecting their higher elevation. Consistent with findings from other glaciological studies in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, ASTER imagery in conjunction with past GPS surveys documents a strikingly rapid wastage of the St. Patrick Bay ice caps over the last 15 years. These two ice caps shrank noticeably even between 2014 and 2015, apparently in direct response to the especially warm summer of 2015 over northeastern Ellesmere Island. The well-documented recession patterns of the Hazen Plateau ice caps over the last 55+ years offer an opportunity to examine the processes of plant recolonization of polar landscapes.

scholarly journals Little Ice Age advance and retreat of Glaciar Jorge Montt, Chilean Patagonia

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rivera ◽  
M. Koppes ◽  
C. Bravo ◽  
J. C. Aravena
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Dynamic Responses ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Present Position ◽  
Tidewater Glaciers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Old Growth Forest ◽  
Chilean Patagonia ◽  
Induced Changes

Abstract. Glaciar Jorge Montt (48°20' S/73°30' W), one of the main tidewater glaciers of the Southern Patagonian Icefield (SPI), has experienced the greatest terminal retreat observed in Patagonia during the past century, with a recession of 19.5 km between 1898 and 2011. This retreat has revealed trees laying subglacially until 2003. These trees were dated using radiocarbon, yielding burial ages between 460 and 250 cal yrs BP. The presence of old growth forest during those dates indicates that Glaciar Jorge Montt was upvalley of its present position before the commonly recognized Little Ice Age (LIA) period in Patagonia. The post-LIA retreat was most likely triggered by climatically induced changes during the 20th century; however, Glaciar Jorge Montt has responded more dramatically than its neighbours. The retreat of Jorge Montt opened a 19.5 km long fjord since 1898, which reaches depths in excess of 390 m. The bathymetry is well correlated with glacier retreat rates, suggesting that dynamic responses of the glacier are at least partially connected to near buoyancy conditions at the ice front, resulting in high calving fluxes, accelerating thinning rates and rapid ice velocities.

scholarly journals Neoglaciation in the Southern Kenai Mountains, Alaska

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 319-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory C. Wiles ◽  
Parker E. Calkin
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Partial Control ◽  
The Past ◽  
Proglacial Lakes ◽  
Glacial Chronology ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Ice Complex

A preliminary late-Holocene glacial chronology from the west flank of the southern Kenai Mountains, Alaska, is characterized by two major episodes of advance. Outlet glaciers of both the Harding Icefield and the Grewingk-Yalik ice complex were expanding across their present positions at 545 A.D. and again during the Little Ice Age, about 1500 A.D. The earliest of these Neoglacial advances is dated by radiocarbon ages from the outer rings of tree trunks rooted near the margins of Grewingk and Dinglestadt glaciers. Subsequently, ice margins retreated some distance behind their present positions allowing marked soil development before the last readvance through mature forest. Wood preserved in lateral moraines at Grewingk Glacier and from an uprooted stump at Tustemena Glacier date this later ice advance. Tree-ring ages, correlated with lichen diameters, suggest that this last advance was widespread and culminated in its Neoglacial maximum about 1800 A.D.. Since this time, glacier retreat has dominated in the area, punctuated by at least two pauses. Historical accounts and photographs document a mean rate of retreat of 27 m a−1 for the past century with partial control exerted by calving of ice margins into proglacial lakes.

Recent, rapid and profound changes to glacier morphology and dynamics, Juneau Icefield, Alaska

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethan Davies ◽  
Jacob Bendle ◽  
Robert McNabb ◽  
Jonathan Carrivick ◽  
Christopher McNeil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Equilibrium Line Altitude ◽  
Regional Warming ◽  
Geomorphological Mapping ◽  
Glacier Recession ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
High Resolution Satellite Imagery ◽  
Global Sea Level

<p>The Alaskan region (comprising glaciers in Alaska, British Columbia and Yukon) contains the third largest ice volume outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and contributes more to global sea level rise than any other glacierised region defined by the Randolph Glacier Inventory. However, ice loss in this area is not linear, but in part controlled by glacier hypsometry as valley and outlet glaciers are at risk of becoming detached from their accumulation areas during thinning. Plateau icefields, such as Juneau Icefield in Alaska, are very sensitive to changes in Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) as this can result in rapidly shrinking accumulation areas. Here, we present detailed geomorphological mapping around Juneau Icefield and use this data to reconstruct the icefield during the “Little Ice Age”. We use topographic maps, archival aerial photographs, high-resolution satellite imagery and digital elevation models to map glacier lake and glacier area and volume change from the Little Ice Age to the present day (1770, 1948, 1979, 1990, 2005, 2015 and 2019 AD). Structural glaciological mapping (1979 and 2019) highlights structural and topographic controls on non-linear glacier recession.  Our data shows pronounced glacier thinning and recession in response to widespread detachment of outlet glaciers from their plateau accumulation areas. Glacier detachments became common after 2005, and occurred with increasing frequency since then. Total summed rates of area change increased eightfold from 1770-1948 (-6.14 km<sup>2</sup> a<sup>-1</sup>) to 2015-2019 (-45.23 km<sup>2</sup> a<sup>-1</sup>). Total rates of recession were consistent from 1770 to 1990 AD, and grew increasingly rapid after 2005, in line with regional warming.</p>

Glacier changes since the Little Ice Age maximum in the western Qilian Shan, northwest China, and consequences of glacier runoff for water supply

2003 ◽  
Vol 49 (164) ◽  
pp. 117-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Shiyin ◽  
Sun Wenxin ◽  
Shen Yongping ◽  
Li Gang
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Equilibrium Line Altitude ◽  
North West ◽  
Glacier Changes ◽  
Glacier Runoff ◽  
Topographical Maps

AbstractBased on aerial photographs, topographical maps and the Landsat-5 image data, we have analyzed fluctuations of glaciers in the western Qilian Shan, north-west China, from the Little Ice Age (LIA) to 1990. The areas and volumes of glaciers in the whole considered region decreased 15% and 18%, respectively, from the LIA maximum to 1956. This trend of glacier shrinkage continued and accelerated between 1956 and 1990. These latest decreases in area and volume were about 10% in 34 years. The recent shrinkage may be due either to a combination of higher temperatures and lower precipitation during the period 1956–66, or to continuous warming in the high glacierized mountains from 1956 to 1990. As a consequence, glacier runoff from ice wastage between 1956 and 1990 has increased river runoff by 6.2 km3 in the four river basins under consideration. Besides, the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) rise estimated from the mean terminus retreat of small glaciers <1 km long is 46 m, which corresponds to a 0.3°C increase of mean temperatures in warm seasons from the LIA to the 1950s.

Glacier fluctuations during the past millennium in Garibaldi Provincial Park, southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (9) ◽  
pp. 1215-1233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Koch ◽  
John J Clague ◽  
Gerald D Osborn
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Southern Coast ◽  
Coast Mountains ◽  
The Past ◽  
Glacier Fluctuations ◽  
Garibaldi Provincial Park ◽  
Provincial Park ◽  
Past Millennium

The Little Ice Age glacier history in Garibaldi Provincial Park (southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia) was reconstructed using geomorphic mapping, radiocarbon ages on fossil wood in glacier forefields, dendrochronology, and lichenometry. The Little Ice Age began in the 11th century. Glaciers reached their first maximum of the past millennium in the 12th century. They were only slightly more extensive than today in the 13th century, but advanced at least twice in the 14th and 15th centuries to near their maximum Little Ice Age positions. Glaciers probably fluctuated around these advanced positions from the 15th century to the beginning of the 18th century. They achieved their greatest extent between A.D. 1690 and 1720. Moraines were deposited at positions beyond present-day ice limits throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Glacier fluctuations appear to be synchronous throughout Garibaldi Park. This chronology agrees well with similar records from other mountain ranges and with reconstructed Northern Hemisphere temperature series, indicating global forcing of glacier fluctuations in the past millennium. It also corresponds with sunspot minima, indicating that solar irradiance plays an important role in late Holocene climate change.

Humidity variations spanning the ‘Little Ice Age’ from an upland lake in southwestern China

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-299
Author(s):  
Tingwei Zhang ◽  
Xiaoqiang Yang ◽  
Qiong Chen ◽  
Jaime L Toney ◽  
Qixian Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Asian Monsoon ◽  
Activity Index ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Western China ◽  
Southwestern China ◽  
Sunspot Activity ◽  
Precipitation Pattern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Westerly Jet

A number of archives that span the past ~2000 years suggest that recent variability in hydroclimatic conditions that are influenced by the Asian monsoon in China are unusual in the longer term context. However, the lack of high-resolution precipitation records over this period hampered our ability to characterize and constrain the forcing mechanism(s) of the recent humidity variations. Here, we present the ratio of hematite to goethite (Hm/Gt) derived from the semiquantitative evaluation of the diffuse reflectance spectroscopic analysis as a reliable and effective precipitation proxy to reconstruct the humidity variations during the past 1400 years deduced from Tengchongqinghai Lake sediments, southwestern China. Hm/Gt varied synchronously with variations of Chinese temperature reconstructed from the historical documents and sunspot activity index over the past 1400 years. Critical periodicities of ~450 and ~250 years show that solar activity is the dominant control on precipitation change on centennial scales. However, the relationship determined from Hm/Gt in this study contradicts the stalagmite δ18O interpretations from different regions of China, which exhibit a more complex precipitation pattern that is influenced by the strength of westerly jet in addition to the Asian monsoon. The increased westerly jet during the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) caused a humid climate in southern China and dry conditions in northern and western China.

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