Geological Society of America

T230 Past Records and Future Challenges of Glacier and Ice Sheet Response to Climate Change (Posters): Honoring and Building on the Legacy of Mark Meier

Tuesday, 29 October 2013
9:00 AM - 6:30 PM
Hall D

HOLOCENE GLACIAL HISTORY OF THE DRANGAJöKULL ICE CAP, NW ICELAND, BASED ON LAKE SEDIMENT RECORDS

Paper number: T230-1
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM

Authors

Anders Schomacker Presenting Author
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
Nicolaj Krog Larsen
Aarhus University, Aarhus, N/A
Skafti Brynjólfsson
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N/A
Esther Ruth Gudmundsdóttir
University of Iceland, Reykjavík, N/A
Julie Andreassen
Aarhus University, Aarhus, N/A
Lena Håkansson
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, N/A
Ólafur Ingólfsson
University of Iceland, Reykjavík

Abstract

The Drangajökull ice cap is located at the northwestern peninsula (Vestfirðir) of Iceland. It is the fifth largest ice cap in Iceland and presently has an area of about 142 km². It descends from c. 915 m a.s.l. and the main ice drainage takes place through three surge-type outlets in valleys on the northeastern, southwestern, and western side of the ice cap. Drangajökull rests on Neogene plateau basalts with numerous lakes around the ice cap. Compared to the other ice caps in Iceland, little is known about the Holocene glacial history of Drangajökull.

We cored lakes around the ice cap in order to reconstruct the Holocene glacial history of Drangajökull from the lacustrine sedimentary records. Some of the lakes are threshold lakes, i.e. they only receive glacial meltwater when the ice cap is much more extensive than at present. Other lakes receive glacial meltwater at present. The lake sediment cores were split open, described, photographed, sampled, XRF scanned, magnetic susceptibility measured. The chronology is based on tephra stratigraphy and ¹⁴C dating of macrofossils recovered from gyttja in the cores. Here, we present preliminary results from analyses of the lake sediment cores and discuss their implications for the Holocene glacial history of Drangajökull.