Lateglacial and Holocene glacier activity in the Van Mijenfjorden area, western Svalbard

Abstract

Sedimentological, morphological and chronological studies of the Van Mijenfjorden region, Svalbard suggest numerous glacial advances seen in terrestrial and marine archives spanning from the Late Weichselian to the Little Ice Age. Only one ice-marginal deposit from the retreat phase of the fjord glacier is found along the entire fjord system. The deposit is located at a topographically controlled position near a bedrock threshold at the mouth of the fjord. Glacial records from tributary valleys and fjords correspond to varying sizes and styles of ice flow related to the deglaciation of the area during the Lateglacial and early Holocene as well as the regrowth of glacier systems during the early Holocene, the Neoglacial and the Little Ice Age. During the Younger Dryas, as the Van Mijen-fjord glacier retreated, a glacier advance took place in a southern tributary, probably as a dynamic response to the retreat in the fjord. Another glacier advance from a northern tributary valley took place during the early Holocene. This glacier advance extended to a position well outside the Little Ice Age (LIA) margins during a period in time when marine proxies suggest warm regional fjords. A Neoglacial glacier advance is identified in a third and inner tributary which also extends further than the subsequent LIA maximum. The Paula glacier system in the inner part of the fjord surged at least five times in the last 650 years, with each subsequent surge advance exhibiting less extensive maximum than the previous, resulting in an overall decrease in mass of the Paula glacier.