Holocene aeolian sedimentation and episodic mass-wasting events recorded in lacustrine sediments on Langøya in Vesterålen, northern Norway

In this study, the frequency of mass-wasting events and past storminess has been reconstructed throughout the Holocene (11,500 cal yr BP to present) from lacustrine sediments in lake Trehynnvatnet (33 m a.s.l.), which is located in a glacially carved valley at Nykvåg on the outmost coast of western Langøya, Vesterålen, northern Norway. Sediment cores (∼2-5 m long) have been examined by use of high-resolution magnetic susceptibility and XRF-scanning as well as grain size and loss-on-ignition analysis. In total 35 episodic event layers have been identified throughout the Holocene. The majority of these events are characterized as discrete coarse-grained sediment layers followed by normal grading, and are related to past mass-wasting activity within the catchment. Periods with high mass-wasting activity are dated to 11,000-10,500, 5500-4500, 4000-3500, 3000-2500, 2000-1000 and 500-0 cal yr BP. The continuous input of sand grains (>250 μm) has been systematically investigated throughout the sediment cores. The sand grains are related to catchment samples from the sandy beach deposits in Sandvikbukta c. 750 m away in SW direction, and are suggested to indicate (niveo-) aeolian influx to the lake. The content of sand grains varies greatly throughout the record, although there is a clear increase in influx of sand during the last 2800 years. Periods with high aeolian influx are proposed to indicate increased storminess, which occurred between 1600 and 1550 (350-400 CE), 1400-1300 (450-550 CE), 750-550 (1200-1400 CE) and 250-20 cal yr BP (1700-1930 CE), which to some degree coincides with periods of increased storminess and winter precipitation recorded in other studies around the North Eastern Atlantic region.