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This paper reviews the deglaciation history and palaeoclimate from 22 to 9.5 14Cka BP in the Andfjord‐Vagsfjord area. Eight main glacial events are recorded: The Egga‐I (>22 14Cka BP), the Bjerka, the Egga‐II (>14.6 14Cka BP), the Flesen (14.5 14Cka BP), the D (13.8–13.2 14Cka BP), the Skarpnes (12.2 14Cka BP), the Tromsø–Lyngen (10.7–10.3 14C ka BP) and the Stordal (10.0–9.5 14Cka BP). Onset of the final deglaciation occurred about 14.6 14Cka BP. Most of the western part of the Fennoscandian and Barents Sea Ice Sheets receded from the outer continental shelf 15–14 14Cka BP. The delivery and melting of icebergs at this time to the Norwegian‐Greenland Sea resulted in a low oxygen isotope event recorded in a number of cores in the region. Atlantic water intruded the area 13.2 14Cka BP, and an atmospheric warming commenced 12.9/12.8 14Cka BP. A marked glacial recession occurred before the Skarpnes event. During Allerød time, the glaciers retreated to the fjord heads or even farther inland. The Fennoscandian outlet glaciers readvanced (locally more than 40 km), reached their Younger Dryas outer limit after 10.7 14Cka BP and retreated from this position before about 10.3 14Cka BP.

In many areas of Svalbard, the Neoglacial terminal deposits represent the Holocene glacial maximum. The glaciers began the retreat from their Neoglacial maximum positions around 1900 AD. Based on high resolution acoustic data and sediment cores, sedimentation patterns in four tidewater glacier‐influenced inlets of the fjord Isfjorden (Tempelfjorden, Billefjorden, Yoldiabukta and Borebukta), Spitsbergen, were investigated. A model for sedimentation of tidewater glaciers in these High Arctic environments is proposed. Glacigenic deposits occur in proximal and distal basins. The proximal basins comprise morainal ridges and hummocky moraines, bounded by terminal moraines marking the maximum Neoglacial ice extent. The distal basins are characterized by debris lobes and draping stratified glacimarine sediments beyond, and to some extent beneath and above, the lobes. The debris lobe in Tempelfjorden is composed of massive clayey silt with scattered clasts. Distal glacimarine sediments comprise stratified clayey silt with low ice‐rafted debris (IRD) content. The average sedimentation rate for the glacimarine sediments in Tempelfjorden is 17 mm/yr for the last ca. 130 years. It is suggested that the stratified sediments in Tempelfjorden are glacimarine varves. The high sedimentation rate and low IRD content are explained by input from rivers, in addition to sedimentation from suspension of glacial meltwater. The debris lobes in Borebukta are composed of massive clayey silt with high clast content. Distal glacimarine sediments in Yoldiabukta comprise clayey silt with high IRD content. The average sedimentation rate for these sediments is 0.6 mm/yr for the last 2300 years.

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