Climate change threatens archaeologically significant ice patches: insights into their age, internal structure, mass balance and climate sensitivity

Ødegård, Rune Strand; Nesje, Atle; Isaksen, Ketil; Andreassen, Liss Marie; Eiken, Trond; Schwikowski, Margit; Uglietti, Chiara

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-17-2017

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-17-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-17-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 1

Research article

|

02 Jan 2017

Research article |

| 02 Jan 2017

Climate change threatens archaeologically significant ice patches: insights into their age, internal structure, mass balance and climate sensitivity

Rune Strand Ødegård, Atle Nesje, Ketil Isaksen, Liss Marie Andreassen, Trond Eiken, Margit Schwikowski, and Chiara Uglietti

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-17-2017-supplement

Data sets

Meteorological data for stations Juvvasshøe (15270) and Fokstugu (16610), Norwegian Meteorological Institute http://eklima.met.no/

Short summary

Despite numerous spectacular archaeological discoveries worldwide related to melting ice, governing processes related to ice patch development are still largely unexplored. We present new results from Jotunheimen in central southern Norway showing that the Juvfonne ice patch has existed continuously since ca. 7600 cal years BP. This is the oldest dating of ice in mainland Norway. Moss mats along the margin of Juvfonne in 2014 were covered by the expanding ice patch about 2000 years ago.