Fluctuations glaciaires de la fin du Würm dans les Alpes françaises, établies par des analyses polliniques

Sediments from the peat-bog La Muzelle (Massif des Ecrins, Iserc, France, alt. 2,150 m) were analyzed. The site was reached by a Pinus forest and an Abies forest during the Allerød and the Atlantic, and during the Bølling a shrubland was noted. Forests have been degrading into lawns without intermediary heath long before the appearance of the first signs of human action. The glacier has been receding ever since the Late Würm, except during the Younger Dryas when big frontal moraines were formed close to the peat-bog. The nature of the sediments allowed a determination of several frontal positions of the glacier. No notable re-advance could be evidenced during the Older or Oldest Dryas nor during the Holocene; only a minor oscillation may have occurred at the beginning of the Allerød.