Mid-Holocene glacial activity in the Pyrenees

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating of sediments from a bog at c. 2100 m in the Cirque de Troumouse provides the first reliable dating of Holocene glacier fluctuations in the Pyrenees. The oldest organic material in the bog provides a maximum date (5190 ± 90 BP) for moraines immediately downvalley, which are either Lateglacial or, more probably, Holocene in age. Bracketing dates on laminated glacioacustrine sediments in the bog indicate a Neoglacial event between 4955 ± 90 and 4654 ± 60 BP, which was probably contemporaneous with moraine ridges immediately upvalley. More recent Neoglacial events, as yet undated, are indicated by younger silt-rich sediments in the bog and two younger moraine sets on the cirque floor at altitudes of c. 2250-2350 m. 'Little Ice Age' events were more restricted in extent, and are recorded by younger moraines at c. 2360 and at c. 2650 m resting on and immediately below the cirque wall.

A History of Long-Term Human–Environment Interactions in the French Pyrenees Inferred from the Pollen Data

“…3300 cal. bc ) correlated with a climatic decline suggested by advances of the Pyrenean and Alpine glaciers (Gellatly et al 1992 ;Haas et al 1998 ) . This correlation reinforces the hypothesis on the in fl uence of climate variability on human activity and land-use in highland zones (Berglund 2003 ;Bonsall et al 2002 ;Gobet et al 2003 ;Tinner et al 2003 ;Magny 2004 ;Galop 2005 ) .…”

Holocene and ‘Little Ice Age’ glacial activity in the Marboré Cirque, Monte Perdido Massif, Central Spanish Pyrenees

“…The Marboré Cirque is very close to the Troumouse Cirque (French Pyrenees), where an important intra-Holocene advance was detected (Gellatly et al, 1992). Thus, the Marboré Cirque is a taget area to study glacial evolution in the Pyrenees during the Holocene.…”

“…Sedimentary analysis of the Marboré Lake cores indicates that a significant depositional change occurred in the middle of the Holocene, coinciding with the glacial advance in the Troumouse Cirque (Gellatly et al, 1992). Second, the previous studies differentiated three groups of morainic or pseudo-morainic deposits ( and interpreted as a moraine (Gómez de Llarena, 1936;Hernández-Pacheco and Vidal Box, 1946;Nicolás Martínez, 1981;Martínez de Pisón and Arenillas, 1988), a nival protalus rampart (Boyé, 1952a) and a supraglacial till (García-Ruiz and Martí-Bono, 2001).…”

Los efectos geoecológicos del cambio global en el Pirineo Central español: una revisión a distintas escalas espaciales y temporales

“…En el Pirineo se dispone de una datación en la morrena más externa del circo de Marboré, en la cara norte del Macizo de Monte Perdido, con una edad de 5100 ± 0.1 años cal. (Figura 4 A), coincidiendo con una reactivación del glaciarismo en el Circo de Troumouse, localizado a 9 km de distancia de Marboré, en el Pirineo francés, donde Gellatly et al (1992) dataron las morrenas entre 5190 ± 90 y 4654 ± 60 años cal. BP.…”