Preglacial surface remnants and Quaternary glacial regimes in northwestern Sweden

Abstract

We present a detailed map of the distribution of preglacial surface remnants in the Kebnekaise region of northwestern Sweden. In this mountain area we discern four important large-scale geomorphological units, each representing a specific set of erosional agents and formative conditions. These are: (i) intact preglacial surface remnants, characterized by gentle slopes, round summits, wide shallow valleys, and an absence of rock basins; (ii) preglacial surface remnants showing signs of minor glacial erosion and deposition; (iii) glacially scoured surfaces, including glacial troughs; (iv) deep fluvial valleys cut into the preglacial surface. The pattern of glacial erosion is explained as the result of three specific modes of glaciation known to have existed during the last 120,000 years, and inferred to have repeatedly prevailed during the last 2.75 million years: cirque glaciation, mountain ice sheets, and Fennoscandian ice sheets. A deep-ocean oxygen-isotope record of foraminifera from the North Atlantic (DSDP 607) was used to infer the temporal extent of these modes of glaciation during the last 2.75 million years. We interpret the preglacial landscape preservation and the pattern of glacial erosion in terms of the configuration, the basal thermal regime, and the duration of such glaciation events. The average subglacial thermal regime of both ice sheet types was frozen on the uplands and melting in the main valleys, where outlet glaciers and ice-streams formed. The pre-glacial landscape is best preserved at intermediate elevations, low enough not to have been covered by cirque glaciers, and apparently high enough not to have experienced melted-bed conditions and subglacial erosion during ice sheet overriding events. In a narrow high-relief zone along the elevation axis, interglacial fluvial erosion was morphologically important. The absence of glacial erosion on uplands in this zone allowed fluvial erosion to commence on the same locations during each ice-free interval. In contrast, no persistent fluvial valley pattern could develop in zones subjected to repeated glacial scouring and hence, derangement of fluvial patterns.