Late Holocene glacier activity at inner Hornsund and Scottbreen, southern Svalbard

Abstract

New 10Be dating on two late Holocene maximum moraines on the Treskelen Peninsula and at Scottbreen, Svalbard, improve constraints on the timing and character of Holocene glacial activity in this region. Average moraine ages of 1.9 ± 0.3 ka (n = 4) on the Treskelen Peninsula and 1.7 ± 0.1 ka (n = 5) on Scottbreen indicate the timing of a glacial culmination. The age of moraine abandonment at Treskelen and Scottbreen correlates with snowline lowering and glacier expansion between ∼2.0 and 1.5 ka observed elsewhere on Svalbard. Both Scottbreen and the glaciers near Treskelen have surged in the instrumental record, like many glaciers across Svalbard. Yet, the age relation between our possible surge-related moraines and other glacier records leads us to hypothesize that on centennial and longer timescales, climate forcing outweighs surge dynamics, which exerts a stronger control on glacier length on centennial timescales at our study sites.