Holocene glacial variations in Sarek National Park, northern Sweden

Abstract

Detailed mapping of well‐preserved moraine systems fronting 17 small alpine glaciers in Sarek National Park in Swedish Lapland reveals two Holocene intervals of prolonged glacier expansion, each involving a complex of minor fluctuations. The younger interval, which corresponds to the Little Ice Age, experienced advances that culminated about A.D. 1916–1920, 1880–1890, 1850–1860, 1800–1810, 1780, 1700–1720, 1680, 1650, and 1590–1620. The older expansion interval, which probably centered around 2500 14C yr B.P., experienced several minor fluctuations spread through about 600 years.Lichen data collected on moraine systems in Sarek are internally consistent from glacier to glacier. Lichen measurements on surfaces of known age in Sarek and nearby Kebnekaise match closely, allowing moraine correlations between these areas. Several older expansion intervals are recorded in the Kebnekaise Mountains. Taken together, the two sequences suggest that a series of prolonged expansion intervals, each similar to the Little Ice Age, has characterized the Holocene in Lapland. Fluctuations of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet in Sweden suggest that this series of Little‐Ice‐Age events extends back into the late Weichsel in the form of the Younger Dryas and Oldest Dryas stadials.