Glacial history, Holocene shoreline displacement and palaeoclimate based on radiocarbon ages in the area of Bockfjorden, north-western Spitsbergen, Svalbard

Abstract

Age determinations of bivalve shells indicate that Bockfjorden, a fjord in north-western Spitsbergen, Svalbard, was deglaciated shortly before 10 Kya, and that the upper marine limit in this area, with an altitude of about 50 m a.s.l., has the same age. During most of the Holocene, the glaciers in Bockfjorden were less extensive than they are today. Their maximum Holocene extension occurred during the Little Ice Age. The initial shoreline emergence after the deglaciation was rapid, and former shorelines younger than 8.5 Ky are below the present sea level. A mid- Holocene transgression of the sea is traced as well as a transgression during the last thousand years.