New stratigraphic evidence for the Holocene history of three glaciers in central Jotunheimen, southern Norway, is presented and the implications for century- to millennial-scale glacier and climatic variability are considered. Minerogenic layers in seven stream-bank mires, flooded episodically by glaciofluvial meltwater, are dated by 79 new radiocarbon age estimates. A revised chronology for glacier variations in Smørstabbtindan suggests a three-phase Holocene: (1) an early-Holocene deglaciation phase (11500—9500 cal. BP) characterized by readvances of ice-sheet remnants; (2) a mid-Holocene phase with relatively small or absent glaciers (9500—5000 cal. BP); and (3) a late-Holocene phase of enlarged and fluctuating glaciers (the last 5000 years). Seven millennial-scale neoglacial events (Smørstabbtindan I—VII), during which glaciers were larger than at present for most of the time, are dated to: >10 400—9600 (Erdalen Event), 8400—7650 (Finse Event), 4800—3900, 3200—2550, 2350—1700, 1400—750 and 500—0 cal. BP (`Little Ice Age'). Two or more century-scale events are nested within each millennial-scale event. Based on the timing of neoglacial maxima, the record from Smørstabbtindan is combined with comparable reconstructions from southern Norway to indicate at least 17 century- to millennial-scale Southern Norwegian Neoglacial Events. A similar approach to records from the Swiss and Austrian Alps identifies around 23 Alpine Neoglacial Events. This leads to the recognition of 13 European Neoglacial Events that are at least continental in extent but seem to be imperfectly correlated with episodes of low solar irradiance, which suggests that other climatic forcing factors are also involved, including volcanic aerosols and, in the early Holocene, freshwater outbursts into the northern Atlantic Ocean. Local to regional patterns in glacier behaviour, particularly in relation to century-scale events, may be accounted for by differences in glacier size and geometry, topography and atmospheric circulation patterns; whereas the three Holocene multimillennial phases appear to reflect the Earth's orbital variations.

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2003. Glacier variations in Breheimen, southern Norway: dating Little Ice Age moraine sequences at seven low-altitude glaciers.ABSTRACT: Moraine sequences in front of seven relatively low-altitude glaciers in the Breheimen region of central southern Norway are described and dated using a 'multi-proxy' approach to moraine stratigraphy. Lichenometric dating, based on the Rhizocarpon subgenus, is used to construct a composite moraine chronology, which indicates eight phases of synchronous moraine formation: AD . Although the existence of a few cases of older moraines, possibly dating from earlier in the eighteenth or late in the seventeenth centuries cannot be ruled out by lichenometry, Schmidt hammer R-values from boulders on outermost moraine ridges suggest an absence of Holocene moraines older than the Little Ice Age. Twenty-three radiocarbon dates from buried soils and peat associated with outermost moraines at three glaciers-Tverreggibreen, Storegrovbreen and Greinbreen-also indicate that the 'Little Ice Age' glacier maximum was the Neoglacial maximum at most if not all glaciers. Several maximum age estimates for the Little Ice Age glacier maximum range between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, with the youngest from a buried soil being AD 1693. A pre-Little Ice Age maximum cannot be ruled out at Greinbreen, however, where the age of buried peat suggests the outermost moraine dates from AD 981-1399 (at variance with the lichenometric evidence). Glaciofluvial stratigraphy at Tverreggibreen provides evidence for minor glacier advances about AD 655-963 and AD 1277-1396, respectively.