Rockglacier activity during the Last Glacial–Interglacial transition and Holocene spring snowmelting

The environmental history of a talus-derived rockglacier located in northern Norway has been reconstructed through the Last Glacial–Interglacial transition based on two cores retrieved from an adjacent lake. The methods used to quantify sedimentary properties include rock magnetism, grain size analyses, loss-on-ignition (LOI) and bulk density, which when combined has enabled an unmixing of the various sediment components and their corresponding sources. Rockglaciers signify mean annual air temperatures (MAAT) of −4 °C or colder, but little is known about their dynamical response to changing thermal regimes. We document here for the first time that a permafrost regime did exist in northern Norway during the lateglacial period, and that it required a lowering equivalent of at least 7 °C compared to present-day MAAT. The lake sediments suggest that the rockglacier existed prior to the local deglaciation of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (>14 800 cal yr BP), and continued its expansion until the end of the Younger Dryas whereupon it became fossil. The cool climate of the lateglacial was intersected by brief warming spells that caused a systematic release of sedimentladen meltwater from the rockglacier. During the Holocene the minerogenic influx to the lake was driven by spring snowmelting, which are related to the magnitude of winter precipitation. Three phases are recognised: (1) 9800–6500 cal yr BP when wet winters prevailed, (2) 6500–4000 cal yr BP with dry winters, and (3) the last 4000 cal yr BP with a return to wetter winters.