A complete record of Holocene glacier variability at Austre Okstindbreen, northern Norway: an integrated approach

Abstract

Arctic glaciers are currently undergoing major changes, but accurate knowledge about how they varied during the entire Holocene is still scarce. Here we present a new complete glacier record from Austre Okstindbreen in Nordland, northern Norway. This reconstruction is based on a number of short and long cores retrieved from several downstream basins, which have been analyzed by a suite of methods including geochemical elements (XRF), rock magnetic properties, dry bulk density (DBD) and Loss-on-ignition (LOI). Lake sediment distribution was surveyed and mapped prior to coring by the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR). Independently lichen-dated marginal moraines and historical information about the glacier frontal positions from old photographs and maps have made it possible to link the moraine sequence to the 210Pb dated lake sediment chronology. This integrated approach reveals that Austre Okstindbreen is the first known glacier in Scandinavia to possibly have survived the “Holocene Thermal Optimum”. It also brackets the four largest glacier advances to c 7400–7000, 1400–1200, 900–700 and 300–150 years before AD 2000 (b2k). In contrast to most reconstructed glaciers in Scandinavia, the largest glacier advance was not associated with the “Little Ice Age”, but rather to an earlier period centred at 1300 b2k. Both the moraine chronology and the lacustrine records document this Neoglacial advance. Compared to other glacier reconstructions from the Northern Hemisphere, we identify near-synchronous glacier advances occurring roughly at 4000 b2k; 2700 b2k; 1300 b2k and during the “Little Ice Age”. These correlative advances across the Northern Hemisphere suggest that these observed centennial-scale events are a shared feature regardless of the large geographical distances separating them. Some minor discrepancies between different geographical areas may be caused by lack of precise dating, but local climatic conditions may play a role as well.