Glacier and Environmental Changes—Neoglacial Data From the Outermost Moraine Ridges at Engabreen, Northern Norway

Abstract

A fossil brown podzolic (Typic Cryochrept) soil covers the two outermost moraine ridges at Engabreen. This soil is buried by a sediment which is considered to be of aeolian origin and is thought to have been derived from an adjacent sandur which had been reactivated by a later glacial advance. The subsequent advance built a major moraine ridge just proximal to the two older ridges. A comparison of the palaeosol with the modern soils on the three ridges reveals similar development. It is suggested that these soils each indicate some 250 years of soil formation so consequently the two outer ridges were created by a glacial advance prior to 1450 A.D. This latter event was the maximal Neoglacial advance. The historically recorded early eighteenth century advance which destroyed a farm terminated at the major moraine ridge and thus was not the largest advance.