Skaftafellsjökull, Iceland: glacial geomorphology recording glacier recession since the Little Ice Age

ABSTRACT

A 1:5700 scale map of the recently deglaciated foreland of Skaftafellsjökull, Iceland as it appeared in 2007, depicts a typical active temperate glacial landsystem with a clear pattern of sequentially changing push moraine morphologies, including remarkable hairpin-shaped moraines, indicative of spatial and temporal variability in process-form regimes in glacier sub-marginal settings. Similar to other Icelandic glacier forelands, this demonstrates that the piedmont glacier lobes of the region have developed strong longitudinal crevassing and well-developed ice-marginal pecten during their historical recession from the Little Ice Age maximum moraines, likely driven by extending ice flow and poorly drained sub-marginal conditions typical of the uncovering of overdeepenings. Additionally, the localized development of a linear tract of kame and kettle topography is interpreted as the geomorphic and sedimentary signature of thrust stacked and gradually melting debris-rich glacier ice, a feature hitherto unrecognized in the Icelandic active temperate lobe landsystem signature.

KEYWORDS:

• Active temperate glacial landsystem
• Skaftafellsjökull
• push moraines

Acknowledgements

Aerial photographs taken in 2007 were provided by the NERC Airborne Remote Sensing Facility, UK. A research permit to undertake fieldwork at Skaftafellsjökull was provided by Regina Hreinsdóttir on behalf of Skaftafell National Park. Ben Chandler compiled Figure 2 based upon data from Veðurstofa Íslands (Icelandic Meteorological Office) and the Icelandic Glaciological Society.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Software

Aerial photographs were orthorectified and mosaicked using Agisoft Photoscan Professional Edition. Orthophotograph processing and contour generation were both performed in ESRI ArcGIS. The map overlay containing the base data was manually digitized on a large format Cal-Comp tablet digitizer using MapData vector digitizing software. The digitized vector files for the base data were converted from MapData format into ArcInfo ‘generate’ format for importing into Adobe Illustrator.

Map design

The map follows the protocol for mapping surficial deposits in Iceland and hence has a colour coding and symbology scheme that follows previous Iceland landsystems papers. It is designed to portray the areal extent of surficial glacial and glacially related materials by colour coding areas mapped from aerial photography. Glacial landforms are represented over this colour coding using line symbols. The relationship between topography and sediments and landforms is portrayed by overlaying the contours derived from photogrammetry.

ORCID

Marek Ewertowski http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0422-2327

Additional information

Funding

Fieldwork at Skaftafellsjökull was funded by the Royal Geographical Society. ME was supported by a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship, 7th Framework Programme (REA agreement number 299130).