'Little Ice Age' marginal moraines in the Grovabreen area, inner Sunnfjord, are mapped and described. The modem and 'Little Ice Age' (mid-eighteenth century) equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) of the plateau glacier Grovabreen is calculated by the use of an accumulation-area ratio (AAR) of 0.6, giving a 'Little Ice Age' ELA depression of 125 m. AAR-ELA depression of the 'Little Ice Age' glaciers is also calculated for northern and southern outlet glaciers. Different estimates are considered to be the result of topographic differences. Other methods, such as the mean elevation of glaciers (MEG) and the toe-to-headwall altitude ratio (THAR), gave ELA depressions of 260 m and 315 m, respectively. These differences, due to topographic conditions, indicate that only glaciers with a uniform slope should be used to calculate the regional ELA of former glaciers.

A number of large rock avalanches from the northern slope of the 1435 m high mountain of Vora in Breim, inner Nordfjord have been mapped. The avalanche tongues dam the 4 km long Sandalsvatnet, they cover an area of 3 km 2 and the volume exceeds 100 million m3. Age estimates have been obtained by radiocarbon datings of rock dust layers in a bog and the Schmidt-hammer method. Altogether 11 large rock avalanches have occurred throughout the Holocene, of which six lobes can be recognized morphologically. Five silt laminae in a 5.5 m deep bog basin distally to the avalanche lobes are interpreted as primary sediments from dust clouds generated by rock avalanches. In addition three silt beds are interpreted as glaciolacustrine sediments related to temporary damming caused by landsliding. Average avalanche frequency during the Holocene was c. 1 per 1000 yr and during the period 7100—3600 BP it was c. 1 per 700 yr. After 3600 BP no rock avalanches have been recognized.

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Younger Dryas cirque glaciers are known to have existed beyond the Scandinavian Ice Sheet in parts of western Norway. At Kråkenes, on the outermost coast, a cirque glacier formed and subsequently wasted away during the Younger Dryas. No glacier existed there during the Allerød. Large cirque moraines, some with marine deltas and associated fans, extend into the western part of Sykkylvsfjorden. Comparison with existing late‐glacial sea‐level curves shows that the uppermost marine sediment in these features was deposited well above Younger Dryas sea‐level, demonstrating that the cirques were occupied by glaciers before the Younger Dryas. During the Younger Dryas the cirque glaciers expanded, and some advanced across the deltas, depositing till and supplying the sediment to form lower‐level fans and deltas controlled by Younger Dryas sea level. The extent of the Younger Dryas advance of some of the glaciers was, at least in part, controlled by grounding on material deposited before the Younger Dryas. The depositional history of the glacial–marine deposits in the Sykkylven area indicates that cirque glaciers existed throughout Late‐glacial time and only expanded during the Younger Dryas. The sediment sequence in glacial lakes beyond cirque moraines and reconstructions of glacier equilibrium lines indicate that this was true for most cirques in western Norway. Only on the outermost coast were new glaciers formed in response to Younger Dryas climate cooling. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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