Little Ice Age advance of Kvískerjajöklar, Öræfajökull, Iceland. A contribution to the assessment of glacier variations in Iceland since the late 18th century

Abstract

We describe the changes of the Kvískerjajöklar outlet glaciers in SE Iceland (presently ranging 600–1600 m a.s.l.), from their Little Ice Age maximum (LIAmax) to the present. We assume that glacier extent of the late 19th century approximately describes LIAmax although the glaciers already reached their peak extent in the 18th century. The former glacier margins were delineated from moraines, historical descriptions, topographical maps, aerial and oblique photographs, Landsat images and a lidar DEM. Along the previous glacier margins, elevation differences with respect to the lidar DEM of 2011 were estimated and contour maps of the glacier drawn at selected dates, maintaining the shape of the glacier surface as available maps. During the period ∼1890 to 2011, the outlets lost −0.4 m a$^{−1}$ water equivalent evenly distributed over their surface and their area was reduced by 37\% (from ∼10 km² to 6.4 km², 0.03 km² a$^{−1}$, 0.43 km³ water equivalent in total, i.e. 0.003 km³ w.e. a$^{−1}$).