scholarly journals Little Ice Age glacier history of the Central and Western Alps from pictorial documents

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.J. Zumbühl ◽  
S.U. Nussbaumer
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Western Alps ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
Valley Bottom ◽  
Valley Glacier ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The 19Th Century

The Lower Grindelwald Glacier (Bernese Oberland, Switzerland) consists of two parts, the Ischmeer in the east (disconnected) and the Bernese Fiescher Glacier in the west. During the Little Ice Age (LIA), the glacier terminated either in the area of the “Schopffelsen” (landmark rock terraces) or advanced at least six times (ten times if we include early findings) even further down into the valley bottom forming the “Schweif” (tail). Maximal ice extensions were reached in 1602 and 1855/56 AD. The years after the end of the LIA have been dominated by a dramatic melting of ice, especially after 2000. The Mer de Glace (Mont Blanc area, France) is a compound valley glacier formed by the tributaries Glacier du Tacul, Glacier de Léschaux, and Glacier de Talèfre (disconnected). During the LIA, the Mer de Glace nearly continuously reached the plain in the Chamonix Valley (maximal extensions in 1644 and 1821 AD). The retreat, beginning in the mid-1850s, was followed by a relatively stable position of the front (1880s until 1930s). Afterwards the retreat has continued until today, especially impressive after 1995. The perception of glaciers in the early times was dominated by fear. In the age of Enlightenment and later in the 19th century, it changed to fascination. In the 20th century, glaciers became a top attraction of the Alps, but today they are disappearing from sight. With a huge number of high-quality pictorial documents, it is possible to reconstruct the LIA history of many glaciers in the European Alps from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Thanks to these pictures, we get an image of the beauty and fascination of LIA glaciers, ending down in the valleys. The pictorial documents (drawings, paintings, prints, photographs, and maps) of important artists (Caspar Wolf, Jean-Antoine Linck, Samuel Birmann) promoted a rapidly growing tourism. Compared with today’s situations, it gives totally different landscapes – a comparison of LIA images with the same views of today is probably the best visual proof for the changes in climate.

scholarly journals No role for industrial black carbon in forcing 19th century glacier retreat in the Alps

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sigl ◽  
Nerilie J. Abram ◽  
Jacopo Gabrieli ◽  
Theo M. Jenk ◽  
Dimitri Osmont ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Radiative Properties ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
The Alps

Abstract. Light absorbing aerosols in the atmosphere and cryosphere play an important role in the climate system. Their presence in ambient air and snow changes radiative properties of these media, thus contributing to increased atmospheric warming and snowmelt. High spatio-temporal variability of aerosol concentrations and a shortage of long-term observations contribute to large uncertainties in properly assigning the climate effects of aerosols through time. Starting around 1860 AD, many glaciers in the European Alps began to retreat from their maximum mid-19th century terminus positions, thereby visualizing the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe. Radiative forcing by increasing deposition of industrial black carbon to snow has been suggested as the main driver of the abrupt glacier retreats in the Alps. Basis for this hypothesis were model simulations using elemental carbon concentrations at low temporal resolution from two ice cores in the Alps. Here we present sub-annually resolved, well-replicated concentration records of refractory black carbon (rBC; using soot photometry) as well as distinctive tracers for mineral dust, biomass burning and industrial pollution from the Colle Gnifetti ice core in the Alps from 1741–2015 AD. These records allow precise assessment of a potential relation between the timing of observed acceleration of glacier melt in the mid-19th century with an increase of rBC deposition on the glacier caused by the industrialization of Western Europe. Our study reveals that in 1875 AD, the time when European rBC emission rates started to significantly increase, the majority of Alpine glaciers had already experienced more than 80 % of their total 19th century length reduction. Industrial BC emissions can, therefore, not been considered as the primary forcing for the rapid deglaciation at the end of the Little Ice Age in the Alps. BC records from the Alps and Greenland also reveal the limitations of bottom-up emission inventories to represent a realistic evolution of anthropogenic BC emissions since preindustrial times.

scholarly journals Little Ice Age climate reconstruction from ensemble reanalysis of Alpine glacier fluctuations

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 5147-5175 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Lüthi
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Macroscopic Model ◽  
Volume Changes ◽  
Equilibrium Line Altitude ◽  
Alpine Glacier ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Glacier Terminus ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps

Abstract. Mountain glaciers sample a combination of climate parameters – temperature, precipitation and radiation – by their rate of volume accumulation and loss. Flow dynamics acts as transfer function which maps volume changes to a length response of the glacier terminus. Long histories of terminus positions have been assembled for several glaciers in the Alps. Here I analyze terminus position histories from an ensemble of seven glaciers in the Alps with a macroscopic model of glacier dynamics to derive a history of glacier equilibrium line altitude (ELA) for the time span 400–2010 C.E. The resulting climatic reconstruction depends only on records of glacier variations. The reconstructed ELA history is similar to recent reconstructions of Alpine summer temperature and Atlantic Meridional Oscillation (AMO) index. Most reconstructed low-ELA periods coincide with large explosive volcano eruptions, hinting to mass balance reduction by volcanic radiative cooling. The glacier advances during the LIA, and the retreat after 1860 are thus explained by temperature and volcanic cooling alone.

scholarly journals Ground surface temperature reconstruction for the last 500 years obtained from permafrost temperatures observed in the Stelvio Share borehole, Italian Alps

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Guglielmin ◽  
Marco Donatelli ◽  
Matteo Semplice ◽  
Stefano Serra Capizzano
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Ground Surface ◽  
Temperature Reconstruction ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Italian Alps ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Mean Annual Air Temperature

Abstract. The general pattern of ground surface temperatures (GST) reconstructed from the permafrost Stelvio Share Borehole (SSB) for the last 500 years are similar to the mean annual air temperature (MAAT) reconstructions for the European Alps. The main difference with respect to MAAT reconstructions relates to post Little Ice Age (LIA) events. Between 1940 and 1989, SSB data indicate a 0.9 °C cooling. Subsequently, a rapid and abrupt GST warming (more than 0.8 °C per decade) was recorded between 1990 and 2011. This warming is of the same magnitude as the increase of MAAT between 1990 and 2000 recorded in central Europe and roughly double the MAAT in the Alps.

Mangrove dynamics in the southwestern Caribbean since the ‘Little Ice Age’: A history of human and natural disturbances

The Holocene ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 849-861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catalina González ◽  
Ligia Estela Urrego ◽  
José Ignacio Martínez ◽  
Jaime Polanía ◽  
Yusuke Yokoyama
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Natural Disturbances ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mangrove Dynamics

scholarly journals The Evolutionary History, Diversity, and Ecology of Willows (Salix L.) in the European Alps

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Natascha D. Wagner ◽  
Li He ◽  
Elvira Hörandl
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Introgressive Hybridization ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Secondary Contact ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Mountain ◽  
The Alps

The genus Salix (willows), with 33 species, represents the most diverse genus of woody plants in the European Alps. Many species dominate subalpine and alpine types of vegetation. Despite a long history of research on willows, the evolutionary and ecological factors for this species richness are poorly known. Here we will review recent progress in research on phylogenetic relationships, evolution, ecology, and speciation in alpine willows. Phylogenomic reconstructions suggest multiple colonization of the Alps, probably from the late Miocene onward, and reject hypotheses of a single radiation. Relatives occur in the Arctic and in temperate Eurasia. Most species are widespread in the European mountain systems or in the European lowlands. Within the Alps, species differ ecologically according to different elevational zones and habitat preferences. Homoploid hybridization is a frequent process in willows and happens mostly after climatic fluctuations and secondary contact. Breakdown of the ecological crossing barriers of species is followed by introgressive hybridization. Polyploidy is an important speciation mechanism, as 40% of species are polyploid, including the four endemic species of the Alps. Phylogenomic data suggest an allopolyploid origin for all taxa analyzed so far. Further studies are needed to specifically analyze biogeographical history, character evolution, and genome evolution of polyploids.

scholarly journals Neoglacial history of Robson Glacier, British Columbia

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 1153-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.H. Luckman ◽  
M.H. Masiokas ◽  
K. Nicolussi
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Tree Line ◽  
Canadian Rockies ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Forest Sites ◽  
History Of ◽  
Subfossil Wood ◽  
Glacier Advance

As glaciers in the Canadian Rockies recede, glacier forefields continue to yield subfossil wood from sites overridden by these glaciers during the Holocene. Robson Glacier in British Columbia formerly extended below tree line, and recession over the last century has progressively revealed a number of buried forest sites that are providing one of the more complete records of glacier history in the Canadian Rockies during the latter half of the Holocene. The glacier was advancing ca. 5.5 km upvalley of the Little Ice Age terminus ca. 5.26 cal ka BP, at sites ca. 2 km upvalley ca. 4.02 cal ka BP and ca. 3.55 cal ka BP, and 0.5–1 km upvalley between 1140 and 1350 A.D. There is also limited evidence based on detrital wood of an additional period of glacier advance ca. 3.24 cal ka BP. This record is more similar to glacier histories further west in British Columbia than elsewhere in the Rockies and provides the first evidence for a post-Hypsithermal glacier advance at ca. 5.26 cal ka BP in the Rockies. The utilization of the wiggle-matching approach using multiple 14C dates from sample locations determined by dendrochronological analyses enabled the recognition of 14C outliers and an increase in the precision and accuracy of the dating of glacier advances.

scholarly journals Lichenometry and Schmidt hammer tests in the Kaunertal glacier foreland (Ötztal Alps) during the AMADEE-15 Mars Mission Simulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 190-196
Author(s):  
Jan Czempiński ◽  
Maciej Dąbski
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Schmidt Hammer ◽  
Mars Mission ◽  
Frontal Part ◽  
Glacier Foreland ◽  
Glacier Front ◽  
Relative Stabilization ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mission Simulation

AbstractThe aim of this article is to show the results of the lichenometrical and Schmidt hammer measurements performed in 2015 during the AMADEE-15 Mars Mission Simulation in the Ötztal Alps in order to test the capabilities of analogue astronauts and collect information on the geomorphic history of the study area since the Little Ice Age (LIA). The results obtained differ significantly from our expectations, which we attribute to differences in the field experience of participants and the astronauts’ technical limitations in terms of mobility. However, the experiments proved that these methods are within the range of the astronauts’ capabilities. Environmental factors, such as i) varied petrography, ii) varied number of thalli in test polygons, and iii) differences in topoclimatic conditions between the LIA moraine and the glacier front, further inhibited simple interpretation. The LIA maximum of the Kaunertal glacier occurred in AD 1850, and relative stabilization of the frontal part of the rock glacier occurred in AD 1711.

scholarly journals Bodengeographische Beobachtungen zur pleistozänen und holozänen Vergletscherung des Westlichen Tienshan (Usbekistan)

1996 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-151
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Zech ◽  
Rupert Bäumler ◽  
Oksana Savoskul ◽  
Anatoli Ni ◽  
Maxim Petrov
Keyword(s):  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Lower Side ◽  
Glacial Ice ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Glacial Origin ◽  
Weathered Soils ◽  
Recent Origin ◽  
The Alps

Abstract. Soil geographic studies were carried out in the Oigaing valley between Ugamsky and Pskemsky range NE of Tashkent (W-Tienshan, Republic of Uzbekistan) with special regard to the Pleistocene and Holocene glaciation. Clear end moraines of the last main glaciation are preserved at the junction of Maidan and Oigaing river at 1500-1600 m a.s.l. They show intensively weathered soils with a depth of more than 80 cm. Similar deposits ol presumably Pleistocene or late glacial origin are also located upvalley at the embouchure of numerous side valleys (Beschtor, Tekesch, Aütor) into the main valley of Oigaing. All side valleys are characterized by late glacial ground and end moraines in 2500-2700 m a.s.l. showing intensively weathered brown colored soils of 30-40 cm depth. Further moraines of Holocene or recent origin are located approach of the recent glaciers which descend to 3000-3200 m. They show shallow, initial soils, and presumably correspond with glacial advances during the so-called "Little Ice Age" with a maximum advance at about 1850 in the Alps, and in the middle Holocene at about 2000 or 4000 a BP. Highly weathered, and rubefied interglacial soils developed from old Quaternary gravel are preserved above high glacial ice marginal grounds of the last main glaciation (>2850 m a.s.l.) in the lower side valley of the Barkrak river. In the upper valley huge drift could be shown above the ice marginal grounds, but without typical forms of morainic deposits. They give evidence for older glaciations with a greater extent compared with the last main glaciation. However, no corresponding moraines are present in the working area.

scholarly journals New constraints on the exhumation history of the western Tauern Window (European Alps) from thermochronology, thermokinematic modeling, and topographic analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Wolff ◽  
Ralf Hetzel ◽  
István Dunkl ◽  
Aneta A. Anczkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Thermal Relaxation ◽  
Slip Rate ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Valley Bottom ◽  
Topographic Analysis ◽  
Tauern Window ◽  
History Of ◽  
Exhumation History

AbstractThe Brenner normal fault bounds the Tauern Window to the west and accommodated a significant portion of the orogen-parallel extension in the Eastern Alps. Here, we use zircon (U–Th)/He, apatite fission track, and apatite (U–Th)/He dating, thermokinematic modeling, and a topographic analysis to constrain the exhumation history of the western Tauern Window in the footwall of the Brenner fault. ZHe ages from an E–W profile (parallel to the slip direction of the fault) decrease westwards from ~ 11 to ~ 8 Ma and suggest a fault-slip rate of 3.9 ± 0.9 km/Myr, whereas AFT and AHe ages show no spatial trends. ZHe and AFT ages from an elevation profile indicate apparent exhumation rates of 1.1 ± 0.7 and 1.0 ± 1.3 km/Myr, respectively, whereas the AHe ages are again spatially invariant. Most of the thermochronological ages are well predicted by a thermokinematic model with a normal fault that slips at a rate of 4.2 km/Myr between ~ 19 and ~ 9 Ma and produces 35 ± 10 km of extension. The modeling reveals that the spatially invariant AHe ages are caused by heat advection due to faulting and posttectonic thermal relaxation. The enigmatic increase of K–Ar phengite and biotite ages towards the Brenner fault is caused by heat conduction from the hot footwall to the cooler hanging wall. Topographic profiles across an N–S valley in the fault footwall indicate 1000 ± 300 m of erosion after faulting ceased, which agrees with the results of our thermokinematic model. Valley incision explains why the Brenner fault is located on the western valley shoulder and not at the valley bottom. We conclude that the ability of thermokinematic models to quantify heat transfer by rock advection and conduction is crucial for interpreting cooling ages from extensional fault systems.

scholarly journals Supraglacial debris-transport variability over time: examples from Switzerland and Iceland

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 181-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.B. Whalley ◽  
C.F. Palmer ◽  
S.J. Hamilton ◽  
D. Kitchen
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Debris Transport ◽  
Actual Volume ◽  
Glacier Ice ◽  
Rock Glaciers ◽  
Slow Moving ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Over Time

The volume of debris in the left-lateral, Little Ice Age (LIA:AD1550–1850) moraine of the Feegletscher, Valais, Switzerland was compared with the actual volume being transported currently by the glacier. The latter is smaller by a factor of about two. In Tröllaskagi, north Iceland, a surface cover of debris on top of a very slow moving glacier ice mass (glacier noir, rock glacier) has been dated by lichenometry. The age of the oldest part is commensurate with LIA moraines in the area. Knowing the volume of debris of a given age allows an estimate of the debris supply to the glacier in a given time. Again, there appears to have been a significant reduction in debris to the glacier since the turn of the 19th century. Debris input in the early LIA seems to have been particularly copious and this may be important in the formation of some glacier depositional forms such as rock glaciers.

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