The Ledsjö end moraine—a subaquatic push moraine composed of glaciomarine clay in central Sweden

During the Younger Dryas cold event, the Scandinavian ice sheet readvanced in southwest Sweden and formed the Middle Swedish end-moraine zone (MSEMZ). Recent highway construction near Skara has created an exposure through the prominent ridge at Ledsjö. Through sketching and measurement of structural information, we have documented the internal character of the Ledsjö moraine. The moraine consists predominantly of clay with numerous sand pods and lenses, which show undeformed, brittle deformed, or fluidized structures. Based on geomorphology and structural geology, it is clear the moraine was made during two advances. As ice advanced, proglacial marine clay was subglacially mobilized by the ice and extruded at the ice margin forming a ramp of debris-flow sediment. Contemporaneously, subglacial meltwater transported sand to the margin, where the meltwater became a buoyant plume, and sand was deposited near the ice margin by currents moving away from as well as toward the ice margin. These processes resulted in interbedded sand and clay. Continued advance of the ice margin deformed this package and further pushed the assemblage into a ridge form with gravity sliding of portions of the ridge. Prior to the second advance, sand was deposited on the proximal side of the initial ridge. During readvance, this sand was thrust faulted and intruded by mobilized clay. Up ice of the intruded sands, subglacial, extensional deformation created a complex shear zone of faulted sand and clay. The Ledsjö moraine represents a subaerial example of submarine push moraines like the submerged moraines recently documented in Svalbard.     

Processes of annual moraine formation at a temperate alpine valley glacier: insights into glacier dynamics and climatic controls

This paper presents the first detailed sedimentological study of annual moraines formed by an alpine valley glacier. The moraines have been forming since at least AD 1980 by a subsidiary lobe of Gornergletscher, Switzerland that advances up a reverse bedrock slope. They reach heights of 0.5–1.5 m, widths of up to 6 m and lengths of up to several hundreds of metres. Sediments in these moraines are composed of proglacial outwash and debris flow units; subglacial traction till is absent entirely. Based on four representative sections, three genetic process combinations have been identified: (i) inefficient bulldozing of a gently sloping ice margin transfers proglacial sediments onto the ice, causing differential ablation and dead‐ice incorporation upon retreat; (ii) terrestrial ice‐contact fans are formed by the dumping of englacial and supraglacial material from point sources such as englacial conduit fills; debris flows and associated fluvial sediments are stacked against a temporarily stationary margin at the start, and deformed during glacier advance in the remainder, of the accumulation season; (iii) a steep ice margin without supraglacial input leads to efficient bulldozing and deformation of pre‐existing foreland sediments by wholesale folding. Ice‐surface slope appears to be a key control on the type of process responsible for moraine formation in any given place and year. The second and third modes result in stable and higher moraines that have a higher preservation potential than those containing dead ice. Analysis of the spacing and climatic records at Gornergletscher reveals that winter temperature controls marginal retreat and hence moraine formation. However, any climatic signal is complicated by other factors, most notably the presence of a reverse bedrock slope, so that the extraction of a clear climatic signal is not straightforward. This study highlights the complexity of annual moraine formation in high‐mountain environments and suggests avenues for further research.     

Styles of ice-marginal deformation at Hagafellsjökull-Eystri, Iceland during the 1998/99 winter-spring surge

This paper describes the internal architecture of a push moraine formed by a winter-spring surge of Hagafellsjökull-Eystri (Iceland) in 1998/99. The sedimentary architecture of this push moraine consists of a multilayered slab of glaciofluvial sediments with a monoclinal structure that has been displaced laterally by the advancing ice margin. The crest and ice-distal face of the moraine consist of subhorizontal sediment sheets, while the ice-proximal face dips steeply (45° to 90°) towards the ice margin. The core of the moraine consists of frozen sediment and thin slabs of glacier ice are embedded in its proximal face. The sediment slabs are characterized by both brittle and ductile styles of deformation. We argue that the observed variation in deformation style is dependent on whether the glacial foreland was frozen or unfrozen at the time of displacement. Frozen foreland would behave in a brittle fashion, while unfrozen foreland is likely to have deformed in a more ductile manner. The associated spatial variations in the degree of foreland freezing could be explained by variation in ice-marginal snow cover. We conclude that the thermal regime of the foreland, and the timing of the ice advance, is of importance to the style of internal deformation found within ice-marginal push moraines.     

Marginal formations of the last Kara and Barents ice sheets in northern European Russia

Glacial landforms in northern Russia, from the Timan Ridge in the west to the east of the Urals, have been mapped by aerial photographs and satellite images supported by field observations. An east-west trending belt of fresh hummock-and-lake glaciokarst landscapes has been traced to the north of 67°N. The southern boundary of these landscapes is called the Markhida Line, which is interpreted as a nearly synchronous limit of the last ice sheet that affected this region. The hummocky landscapes are subdivided into three types according to the stage of postglacial modification: Markhida, Harbei and Halmer. The Halmer landscape on the Uralian piedmont in the east is the freshest, whereas the westernmost Markhida landscape is more eroded. The west-east gradient in morphology is considered to be a result of the time-transgressive melting of stagnant glacier ice and of the underlying permafrost. The pattern of ice-pushed ridges and other directional features reflects a dominant ice flow direction from the Kara Sea shelf. Traces of ice movement from the central Barents Sea are only discernible in the Pechora River left bank area west of 50°E. In the Polar Urals the horseshoe-shaped end moraines at altitudes of up to 560 m a.s.l. reflect ice movement up-valley from the Kara Ice Sheet, indicating the absence of a contemporaneous ice dome in the mountains. The Markhida moraines, superimposed onto the Eemian strata, represent the maximum ice sheet extent in the western part of the Pechora Basin during the Weichselian. The Markhida Line truncates the huge arcs of the Laya-Adzva and Rogovaya ice-pushed ridges protruding to the south. The latter moraines therefore reflect an older ice advance, probably also of Weichselian age. Still farther south, fluvially dissected morainic plateaus without lakes are of pre-Eemian age, because they plunge northwards under marine Eemian sediments. Shorelines of the large ice-dammed Lake Komi, identified between 90 and 110 m a.s.l. in the areas south of the Markhida Line, are radiocarbon dated to be older than 45 ka. The shorelines, incised into the Laya-Adzva moraines, morphologically interfinger with the Markhida moraines, indicating that the last ice advance onto the Russian mainland reached the Markhida Line during the Middle or Early Weichselian, before 45 ka ago.     

Proglacial glaciotectonic deformation and the origin of the Cromer Ridge push moraine complex, North Norfolk, England

The landscape of northeast Norfolk is dominated by a high (>50 m) ridge which has been interpreted as an end moraine (Cromer Ridge). This feature is truncated by coastal erosion at Trimingham. Evidence of large- and small-scale compressive styles of deformation is found throughout the sequence, except at the very top, where late Anglian/early Hoxnian lake sediments are found within an undeformed kettle hole. The deformation consists of open folds (including chevron folds) and listric thrust faults. It is suggested that these are the result of a single compressive event, which was caused by proglacial glaciotectonic deformation. It is inferred that this deformation is due to a combination of frontal pushing and compressive stresses transmitted through a subglacial deforming wedge. It is also shown that strain increases towards the ice sheet margin, as reflected by the deformational styles (from open folding up-glacier to listric thrust faulting down-glacier). The Cromer Ridge is shown to be a push moraine complex related to an actively retreating ice margin.     

Contemporary terminal-moraine ridge formation at a temperate glacier: Styggedalsbreen, Jotunheimen, southern Norway

Terminal-moraine ridges up to 6 m high have been forming at the snout of Styggedalsbreen for two decades. Based on intermittent observations during this period, combined with a detailed study of ridge morphology, sedimentary structures and composition during the 1993 field season, a model of terminal-moraine formation that involves the interaction of glacial and glacio-fluvial processes at a seasonally oscillating ice margin is presented. In winter, subglacial debris is frozen-on to the glacier sole; in summer, ice-marginal and supraglacial streams deposit sediments on the wasting ice tongue. The ice tongue overrides an embryonic moraine ridge during a late-winter advance and a double layer of sediment (diamicton overlain by sorted sands and gravels) is added to the moraine ridge during the subsequent ablation season. Particular ridges grow incrementally over many years and exert positive feedback by enhancing snout up-arching during the winter advance and constraining the course of summer meltwater streams close to the ice margin. The double-layer annual-meltout model is related to moraine formation by the stacking of subglacial frozen-on sediment slabs (Krüger 1993). Moraine ridges of this type have a complex origin. are not push moraines, and may be characteristic of dynamic high-latitude and high-altitude temperate glaciers.     

Structural and depositional evidence for repeated ice-marginal oscillation along the eastern margin of the Late Devensian Irish Sea Ice Stream

Late Devensian glacigenic sediments and landforms along the north-west coast of Wales document the advance and subsequent retreat of the eastern margin of an Irish Sea Ice Stream that met, coalesced and ultimately uncoupled from ice radiating outwards from the adjacent Welsh Ice Cap centred over Snowdonia. Across the boundary between the two former ice masses is a set of sediment–landform assemblages that reflect rapidly changing erosional and depositional conditions during ice interaction. From the inner part of the ice-stream the assemblages range outwards, from a subglacial depositional assemblage, characterised by drumlin swarms; through a subglacial erosional assemblage, marked by prominent bedrock scours and large subglacial rock channels; through an ice-marginal assemblage, identified by closely spaced, glaciotectonised push moraines and intervening marginal sandur troughs; into a freely expanding proglacial sandur and lacustrine delta assemblage. The ice-marginal assemblage provides evidence for numerous oscillatory episodes during retreat and at least 20 ice-marginal limits can be identified. At least 11 of these display multiple criteria for identifying readvance and, in the ideal case, is characterised by a moraine form built by localised tectonic stacking of diamict to the rear, fronted by a clastic wedge of ice-front alluvial fan gravel and intercalated flow till. The distribution of sediment–landform assemblages suggests a highly dynamic, convergent ice-stream flow pattern, with high ice velocity, a sharply delineated lateral shear margin, pervasive ice-marginal glaciotectonic deformation and a tightly focused ice-marginal sediment delivery system; all signature characteristics of contemporary ice streams.     

Seafloor glacial features reveal the extent and decay of the last British Ice Sheet,east of Scotland

Three‐dimensional (3D) seismic datasets, 2D seismic reflection profiles and shallow cores provide insights into the geometry and composition of glacial features on the continental shelf, offshore eastern Scotland (58° N, 1–2° W). The relic features are related to the activity of the last British Ice Sheet (BIS) in the Outer Moray Firth. A landsystem assemblage consisting of four types of subglacial and ice marginal morphology is mapped at the seafloor. The assemblage comprises: (i) large seabed banks (interpreted as end moraines), coeval with the Bosies Bank moraine; (ii) morainic ridges (hummocky, push and end moraine) formed beneath, and at the margins of the ice sheet; (iii) an incised valley (a subglacial meltwater channel), recording meltwater drainage beneath former ice sheets; and (iv) elongate ridges and grooves (subglacial bedforms) overprinted by transverse ridges (grounding line moraines). The bedforms suggest that fast‐flowing grounded ice advanced eastward of the previously proposed terminus of the offshore Late Weichselian BIS, increasing the size and extent of the ice sheet beyond traditional limits. Complex moraine formation at the margins of less active ice characterised subsequent retreat, with periodic stillstands and readvances. Observations are consistent with interpretations of a dynamic and oscillating ice margin during BIS deglaciation, and with an extensive ice sheet in the North Sea basin at the Last Glacial Maximum. Final ice margin retreat was rapid, manifested in stagnant ice topography, which aided preservation of the landsystem record. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Minor end moraines of the Wisconsin Valley Lobe, north-central Wisconsin, USA

Approximately 35 parallel, discontinuous glacial ridges occur in an area of about 100 km² in north‐central Wisconsin. The ridges are located between about 6 and 15 km north (formerly up‐ice) of the maximum extent of the Wisconsin Valley Lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. The ridges are between 1 and 4 m high, up to 1 km long, and spaced between 30 and 80 m apart. They are typically asymmetrical with a steep proximal (ice‐contact) slope and gentle distal slope. The ridges are composed primarily of subglacial till on their proximal sides and glacial debris‐flow sediment on the distal sides. In some ridges the till and debris‐flow sediment are underlain by sorted sediment that was deformed in the former direction of ice flow. We interpret the ridges to be recessional moraines that formed as the Wisconsin Valley Lobe wasted back from its maximum extent, with each ridge having formed by a sequence of (1) pushing of sorted ice‐marginal sediment, (2) partial overriding by the glacier and deposition of subglacial till on the proximal side of the ridge, and (3) deposition of debris‐flow sediment on the distal side of the ridge after the frozen till at the crest of the ridge melted. The moraines are similar to annual recessional moraines described at several modern glaciers, especially the northern margin of Myrdalsjokull, Iceland. Thus, we believe the ridges probably formed as a result of minor winter advances of the ice margin during deglaciation. Based on this assumption, we calculate the net rate of ice‐surface lowering of the Wisconsin Valley Lobe during the period when the moraines formed. Various estimates of ice‐surface slope and rates of ice‐margin retreat yield a wide range of values for ice‐surface lowering (1.7–14.5 m/yr). Given that ablation rates must exceed those of ice‐surface lowering, this range of values suggests relatively high summer temperatures along the margin of the Wisconsin Valley Lobe when it began retreating from its maximum extent. In addition, the formation of annual moraines indicates that the glacier toe was thin, the ice surface was clean, and the ice margin experienced relatively cold winters.     

Glacial geomorphology of Teesdale,northern Pennines,England: Implications for upland styles of ice stream operation and deglaciation in the British-Irish Ice Sheet

The glacial geomorphology of Teesdale and the North Pennines uplands is analysed in order to decipher: a) the operation of easterly flowing palaeo-ice streams in the British-Irish Ice Sheet; and b) the style of regional deglaciation. Six landform categories are: i) bedrock controlled features, including glacitectonic bedrock megablocks or ‘rubble moraine’; ii) discrete mounds and hills, often of unknown composition, interpreted as weakly streamlined moraines and potential ‘rubble moraine’; iii) non-streamlined drift mounds and ridges, representing lateral, frontal and inter-ice stream/interlobate moraines; iv) streamlined landforms, including drumlins of various elongation ratios and bedrock controlled lineations; v) glacifluvial outwash and depositional ridges; and vi) relict channels and valleys, related to glacial meltwater incision or meltwater re-occupation of preglacial fluvial features. Multiple tills in valley-floor drumlin exposures indicate that the subglacial bedform record is a blend of flow directions typical of areas of discontinuous till cover and extensive bedrock erosional landforms. Arcuate assemblages of partially streamlined drift mounds are likely to be glacially overridden latero-frontal moraines related to phases of “average glacial conditions” (palimpsests). Deglacial oscillations of a glacier lobe in mid-Teesdale are marked by five inset assemblages of moraines and associated drift and meltwater channels, named the Glacial Lake Eggleshope, Mill Hill, Gueswick, Hayberries and Lonton stages. The Lonton stage moraines are thought to be coeval with bedrock-cored moraines in the central Stainmore Gap and likely record the temporary development of cold-based or polythermal ice conditions around the margins of a plateau-based icefield during the Scottish Readvance.     

Sedimentary facies and landform genesis at a temperate outlet glacier: Soler Glacier, North Patagonian Icefield

This paper focuses on the structural glaciology, dynamics, debris transport paths and sedimentology of the forefield of Soler Glacier, a temperate outlet glacier of the North Patagonian Icefield in southern Chile. The glacier is fed by an icefall from the icefield and by snow and ice avalanches from surrounding mountain slopes. The dominant structures in the glacier are ogives, crevasses and crevasse traces. Thrusts and recumbent folds are developed where the glacier encounters a reverse slope, elevating basal and englacial material to the ice surface. Other debris sources for the glacier include avalanche and rockfall material, some of which is ingested in marginal crevasses. Debris incorporated in the ice and on its surface controls both the distribution of sedimentary facies on the forefield and moraine ridge morphology. Lithofacies in moraine ridges on the glacier forefield include large isolated boulders, diamictons, gravel, sand and fine-grained facies. In relative abundance terms, the dominant lithofacies and their interpretation are sandy boulder gravel (ice-marginal), sandy gravel (glaciofluvial), angular gravel (supraglacial) and diamicton (basal glacial). Proglacial water bodies are currently developing between the receding glacier and its frontal and lateral moraines. The presence of folded sand and laminites in moraine ridges in front of the glacier suggests that, during a previous advance, Soler Glacier over-rode a former proglacial lake, reworking lacustrine deposits. Post-depositional modification of the landform/sediment assemblage includes melting of the ice-core beneath the sediment cover, redistribution of finer material across the proglacial area by aeolian processes and fluvial reworking. Overall, the preservation potential of this landform/sediment assemblage is high on the centennial to millennial timescale.     

Advance of alpine glaciers during final retreat of the Cordilleran ice sheet in the Finlay River area, northern British Columbia, Canada

Sharp-crested moraines, up to 120 m high and 9 km beyond Little Ice Age glacier limits, record a late Pleistocene advance of alpine glaciers in the Finlay River area in northern British Columbia. The moraines are regional in extent and record climatic deterioration near the end of the last glaciation. Several lateral moraines are crosscut by meltwater channels that record downwasting of trunk valley ice of the northern Cordilleran ice sheet. Other lateral moraines merge with ice-stagnation deposits in trunk valleys. These relationships confirm the interaction of advancing alpine glaciers with the regionally decaying Cordilleran ice sheet and verify a late-glacial age for the moraines. Sediment cores were collected from eight lakes dammed by the moraines. Two tephras occur in basal sediments of five lakes, demonstrating that the moraines are the same age. Plant macrofossils from sediment cores provide a minimum limiting age of 10,550-10,250 cal yr BP (9230 ± 50 ¹⁴C yr BP) for abandonment of the moraines. The advance that left the moraines may date to the Younger Dryas period. The Finlay moraines demonstrate that the timing and style of regional deglaciation was important in determining the magnitude of late-glacial glacier advances.     

Formation of De Geer moraines and implications for deglaciation dynamics

De Geer moraines are very common in the Møre area, western Norway. These moraines occur below the marine limit and outside the Younger Dryas ice limit and occupy tributaries that connect the main fjords through the mountain passes. During deglaciation, ice in these tributaries flowed to the major ice streams. Sections across three De Geer moraines show that the ridges are composed of diamictons and fine-grained sediment, partly in stacked sequences. The diamicton units are interpreted as being composed of water-lain tills, lodgements tills and subaqueous flow deposits. The fine-grained sediment is though to have formed in a proglacial marine environment. Clast fabric of diamictons and deformation structures in underlying sands show that depositional directions for diamicton units and the direction of deformation for the sands is perpendicular to the ridge crests. Mainly based on this evidence, the ridges are thought to have formed by push at the glacier grounding line. The formation of transverse ridges (relative to ice flow) do occur in basal crevasses on modern glaciers, as do swarms of ridges along the front of retreating glaciers. The first mechanism of deposition does not seem to explain the ridges studied in the present paper and hence the importance of this process in the formation of De Geer moraines is questioned. The De Geer moraines were deposited by ice lobes advancing from one main fjord into another; therefore by studying the drainage pattern of the tributary lobes and their sequence of deglaciation, many features of the style of deglaciation of the ice sheet across the area can be determined. The northwestern part of the area was deglaciated earliest. After that, deglaciation proceeded to the southwest parallel to the coast. Subsequently the outer and the central part of Romsdalsfjorden were deglaciated causing ice to drain towards this fjord from both the north and south. The last fjord to be deglaciated was Storfjorden in the south.     

Ribbed moraine stratigraphy and formation in southern Finnish Lapland

Characteristics of ribbed moraines, the dominating moraine type in southern Finnish Lapland, have been studied in detail. The ridges are composed of several till units, of which the bottommost units consist of mature basal tills and the surficial parts are enriched with local, short‐transport rock fragments and boulders in till and at the surface of ridges. As a result of this re‐examination a two‐step model of the formation process of ribbed moraines is presented. In the first stage, while cold‐based conditions prevailed, both the bottommost part of the ice sheet and the frozen, substrate fractured under compressive ice flow. Following glacial transport of fractured blocks and formation of the transverse ridge morphology, erosion between the ridges continued owing to freeze–thaw process under variable pressure conditions. In the areas with a low pre‐existing till sheet, the process caused quarrying of the bedrock surface and subsequent deposition of rock fragments and boulders under high pressure on the next ridge. The most suitable conditions for ribbed moraine formation existed during Late Weichselian deglaciation, after the Younger Dryas when the climate warmed very quickly, leading to an imbalance between a warm glacier surface and a cold base. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple glaciations and marine transgressions, western Kennedy Channel, Northwest Territories, Canada

Along a 70 km section of western Kennedy Channel three prominent weathering zones are identified and serve to differentiate major events in the Quaternary landscape. The oldest zone (Zone 111b) is characterized by a deeply weathered, erratic-free terrain which extends from the mountain summits down to ca. 470 m above sea level. This zone shows no evidence of former glacierization. Zone 111a extends from ca. 470 to 370m above sea level and is characterized by sparse granite, gneiss and quartzite erratics amongst weathered bedrock and extensive, oxidized colluvium. The Precambrian provenance and uppermost profile of these erratics reflect the maximum advance of the northwest Greenland Ice Sheet onto northeastern Ellesmere Island. These uppermost erratics along western Kennedy Channel decrease in elevation southward and suggest that the former Greenland ice was thickest in the direction of the major outlet of Petermann Fiord. No evidence of a former ice ridge in Nares Strait was observed. Zone II is marked by the moraines of the outermost Ellesmere Island ice advance which form a prominent morpho-stratigraphic boundary where they cross-cut the zone of Greenland erratics at ca. 250–350 m above sea level. These moraines show advanced surface weathering and ice recession from them is associated with a pre-Holocene shoreline at 162 m above sea level. Late Wisconsin/Würm glacial deposits, equivalent to Zone I, were not observed in the lower valleys bordering Kennedy Channel. The outermost Ellesmere Island ice advance (Zone II) is radiometrically bracketed by ¹⁴C dates on in situ shells from subtill and supratill marine units which are 40,350±750 and>39,000 B.P., respectively. Amino acid age estimates on the same shell samples and others from similar stratigraphic positions all suggest ages of >35,000 B.P. Stratigraphically and chronologically this ice advance is correlated with the outermost Ellesmere Island ice advance 20–40 km to the north which formed small ice shelves when the relative sea level was ca. 175 m above sea level. The Holocene marine transgression along western Kennedy Channel occurred in an ice-free corridor maintained between the separated margins of the northwest Greenland and northeast Ellesmere Island ice sheets during the last glaciation. Initial emergence may have begun ca. 12,300 B.P., however, sea level had dropped only 15 m by ca. 8000 B.P. after which glacio-isostatic unloading of the corridor was rapid. The implications of these data are discussed in the context of existing models on high latitude glaciation and paleoclimatic change     

The evolution of the terrestrial-terminating Irish Sea glacier during the last glaciation

Here we reconstruct the last advance to maximum limits and retreat of the Irish Sea Glacier (ISG), the only land-terminating ice lobe of the western British Irish Ice Sheet. A series of reverse bedrock slopes rendered proglacial lakes endemic, forming time-transgressive moraine- and bedrock-dammed basins that evolved with ice marginal retreat. Combining, for the first time on glacial sediments, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) bleaching profiles for cobbles with single grain and small aliquot OSL measurements on sands, has produced a coherent chronology from these heterogeneously bleached samples. This chronology constrains what is globally an early build-up of ice during late Marine Isotope Stage 3 and Greenland Stadial (GS) 5, with ice margins reaching south Lancashire by 30 ± 1.2 ka, followed by a 120-km advance at 28.3 ± 1.4 ka reaching its 26.5 ± 1.1 ka maximum extent during GS-3. Early retreat during GS-3 reflects piracy of ice sources shared with the Irish-Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), starving the ISG. With ISG retreat, an opportunistic readvance of Welsh ice during GS-2 rode over the ISG moraines occupying the space vacated, with ice margins oscillating within a substantial glacial over-deepening. Our geomorphological chronosequence shows a glacial system forced by climate but mediated by piracy of ice sources shared with the ISIS, changing flow regimes and fronting environments.     

Quaternary glaciations in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, Northeast Siberia

Geomorphological mapping revealed five terminal moraines in the central Verkhoyansk Mountains. The youngest terminal moraine (I) was formed at least 50 ka ago according to new IRSL (infrared optically stimulated luminescence) dates. Older terminal moraines in the western foreland of the mountains are much more extensive in size. Although the smallest of these older moraines, moraine II, has not been dated, moraine III is 80 to 90 ka, moraine IV is 100 to 120 ka, and the outermost moraine V was deposited around 135 ka. This glaciation history is comparable to that of the Barents and Kara ice sheet and partly to that of the Polar Ural Mountains regarding the timing of the glaciations. However, no glaciation occurred during the global last glacial maximum (MIS 2). Based on cirque orientation and different glacier extent on the eastern and western flanks of the Verkhoyansk Mountains, local glaciations are mainly controlled by moisture transport from the west across the Eurasian continent. Thus glaciations in the Verkhoyansk Mountains not only express local climate changes but also are strongly influenced by the extent of the Eurasian ice sheets.     

Stratigraphy,sedimentology, age and palaeoenvironment of marine varved clay in the Middle Swedish end‐moraine zone

Johnson, M. D. & Ståhl, Y. 2009: Stratigraphy, sedimentology, age and palaeoenvironment of marine varved clay in the Middle Swedish end‐moraine zone. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2009.00124.x. ISSN 0300‐9483 Deglaciation of the Middle Swedish end‐moraine zone and age of the sediment in and between the moraines have been discussed for about a hundred years. The goal of this project was to determine the stratigraphy and age of the sediment in and between the moraines. Inter‐moraine flats are underlain by clay, 10–25 m thick, overlying thin sand and gravel or till on bedrock. The clay is overlain by a few metres of sand and gravel. Much of the clay beneath the flats consists of rhythmites that grade from grey to red and are 2–74 cm thick. Our interpretation of these rhythmites as being varves is supported by grain size and mineralogical and elemental variations. Foraminifera and ostracods show that the clay was deposited in an arctic marine environment, while radiocarbon dating of the microfossils indicates that the clay was deposited 12 150 cal. ¹⁴C years ago, during the Younger Dryas chronozone (YD). Most of the optical stimulated luminescence dates on the clay are much older, containing quartz sand that was insufficiently bleached. The stratigraphy indicates that the moraines are composed of YD clay pushed into ridge forms during ice‐front oscillations. It is not possible to determine how far north the Scandinavian Ice Sheet retreated prior to the YD advance. We neither support nor reject the suggestion that the ice margin retreated to the northern edge of Mt. Billingen during the Allerød, causing the Baltic Ice Lake to drain.     

Style and timing of glaciation in the Lahul Himalaya,northern India: a framework for reconstructing late Quaternary palaeoclimatic change in the western Himalayas

This paper presents a revised glacial chronology for the Lahul Himalaya and provides the most detailed reconstruction of former glacier extents in the western Himalayas published to date. On the basis of detailed geomorphological mapping, morphostratigraphy, and absolute and relative dating, three glaciations and two glacial advances are constrained. The oldest glaciation (Chandra glacial stage) is represented by glacially eroded benches and drumlins (the first to be described from the Himalaya) at altitudes of >4300 m and indicates glaciation on a landscape of broad valleys that had minimal fluvial incision. The second glaciation (Batal glacial stage) is represented by highly weathered and disssected lateral moraines and drumlins representing two phases of glaciation within the Batal glacial stage (Batal I and Batal II). The Batal stage was an extensive valley glaciation interrupted by a readvance that produced superimposed bedforms. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, indicates that glaciers probably started to retreat between 43400 ± 10300 and 36900 ± 8400 yr ago during the Batal stage. The Batal stage may be equivalent to marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 4 and early Oxygen Isotope Stage 3. The third glaciation (Kulti glacial stage), is represented by well-preserved moraines in the main tributary valleys that formed due to a less-extensive valley glaciation when ice advanced no more than 12 km from present ice margins. On the basis of an OSL age for deltaic sands and gravels that underlie tills of Kulti age, the Kulti glaciation is younger than 36900 ± 8400 yr ago. The development of peat bogs, having a basal age of 9160 ± 70 ¹⁴C yr BP possibly represents a phase of climatic amelioration coincident with post-Kulti deglaciation. The Kulti glaciation, therefore, is probably equivalent to all or parts of late Oxygen Isotope Stage 3, Stage 2 and early Stage 1. Two minor advances (Sonapani I and II) are represented by small sharp-crested moraines within a few kilometres of glacier termini. On the basis of relative weathering, the Sonapani advance is possibly of early mid-Holocene age, whereas the Sonapani II advance is historical. The change in style and extent of glaciation is attributed to topographic controls produced by fluvial incision and by increasing aridity during the Quaternary. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.