Timing, equilibrium-line altitudes and climatic implications of two early-Holocene glacier readvances during the Erdalen Event at Jostedalsbreen, western Norway

Abstract

Following the Younger Dryas, the first evidence of glacial activity in southern Norway in response to climatic change occurred during the early Holocene, when terminal moraines from the Erdalen Event formed beyond the position of later ‘Little Ice Age’ moraines. In front of present outlet glaciers on both sides of the Jostedalsbreen ice cap, sets of pre-‘Little Ice Age’ marginal moraines have been morphostratigraphically corre lated with the Erdalen Event. The lithostratigraphy in a peat bog at Hellemyrane in Jostedalen, western Norway, provides firm evidence for a two-phase Erdalen Event associated with two glacier readvances of Nigardsbreen at the Preboreal/Boreal transition. Radiocarbon dates from the peat bog give age estimates for the two phases: the first Erdalen Event readvance took place between 10 100 and 10 050 cal. BP, while the second occurred close to 9700 cal. BP. The lowering of the equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) during these readvances is estimated using the ‘Little Ice Age’ ratio (LR) approach to be about 230 m and 215 m, respectively. The first readvance is attributed to an increase in winter precipitation, while the second readvance may have been primarily caused by a marked drop in summer temperature which reactivated already existing ice masses.