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Paleoclimatology is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural variation and the evolution of the current climate.
The Younger Dryas was a period in Earth's geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP). It is primarily known for the sudden or "abrupt" cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, when the North Atlantic Ocean cooled and annual air temperatures decreased by ~3 °C (5.4 °F) over North America, 2–6 °C (3.6–10.8 °F) in Europe and up to 10 °C (18 °F) in Greenland, in a few decades. Cooling in Greenland was particularly rapid, taking place over just 3 years or less. At the same time, the Southern Hemisphere experienced warming. This period ended as rapidly as it began, with dramatic warming over ~50 years, which transitioned the Earth from the glacial Pleistocene epoch into the current Holocene.
Permafrost is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two years or more: the oldest permafrost had been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below a meter (3 ft), the deepest is greater than 1,500 m (4,900 ft). Similarly, the area of individual permafrost zones may be limited to narrow mountain summits or extend across vast Arctic regions. The ground beneath glaciers and ice sheets is not usually defined as permafrost, so on land, permafrost is generally located beneath a so-called active layer of soil which freezes and thaws depending on the season.
Jotunheimen is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 square kilometres (1,400 sq mi) in southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, including the 2,469-metre (8,100 ft) tall mountain Galdhøpiggen. The Jotunheimen mountains straddle the border between Innlandet and Vestland counties.
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Europe, and Asia and profoundly affected Earth's climate by causing a major expansion of deserts, along with a large drop in sea levels.
Thermokarst is a type of terrain characterised by very irregular surfaces of marshy hollows and small hummocks formed when ice-rich permafrost thaws. The land surface type occurs in Arctic areas, and on a smaller scale in mountainous areas such as the Himalayas and the Swiss Alps.
Pingos are intrapermafrost ice-cored hills, 3–70 m (10–230 ft) high and 30–1,000 m (98–3,281 ft) in diameter. They are typically conical in shape and grow and persist only in permafrost environments, such as the Arctic and subarctic. A pingo is a periglacial landform, which is defined as a non-glacial landform or process linked to colder climates. It is estimated that there are more than 11,000 pingos on Earth, with the Tuktoyaktuk peninsula area having the greatest concentration at a total of 1,350. There is currently remarkably limited data on pingos.
Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms, consisting either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in-between. Rock glaciers are normally found at high latitudes and/or elevations, and may extend outward and downslope from talus cones, glaciers or terminal moraines of glaciers.
The Holocene glacial retreat is a geographical phenomenon that involved the global retreat of glaciers (deglaciation) that previously had advanced during the Last Glacial Maximum. Ice sheet retreat initiated ca. 19,000 years ago and accelerated after ca. 15,000 years ago. The Holocene, starting with abrupt warming 11,700 years ago, resulted in rapid melting of the remaining ice sheets of North America and Europe.
The Nordenskjöld Coast is located on the Antarctic Peninsula, more specifically Graham Land, which is the top region of the Peninsula. The Peninsula is a thin, long ice sheet with an Alpine-style mountain chain. The coast consists of 15m tall ice cliffs with ice shelves.
The International Permafrost Association (IPA), founded in 1983, is an international professional body formed to foster the dissemination of knowledge concerning permafrost and to promote cooperation among individuals and national or international organisations engaged in scientific investigation and engineering work related to permafrost and seasonally frozen ground. The IPA became an Affiliated Organisation of the International Union of Geological Sciences in July 1989.
Yedoma is an organic-rich Pleistocene-age permafrost with ice content of 50–90% by volume. Yedoma are abundant in the cold regions of eastern Siberia, such as northern Yakutia, as well as in Alaska and the Yukon.
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The climate of Svalbard is principally a result of its latitude, which is between 74° and 81° north. Climate is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as the average weather over a 30-year period. The North Atlantic Current moderates Svalbard's temperatures, particularly during winter, giving it up to 20 °C (36 °F) higher winter temperature than similar latitudes in continental Russia and Canada. This keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the year. The interior fjord areas and valleys, sheltered by the mountains, have fewer temperature differences than the coast, with about 2 °C lower summer temperatures and 3 °C higher winter temperatures. On the south of the largest island, Spitsbergen, the temperature is slightly higher than further north and west. During winter, the temperature difference between south and north is typically 5 °C, and about 3 °C in summer. Bear Island (Bjørnøya) has average temperatures even higher than the rest of the archipelago.
A blockfield, felsenmeer, boulder field or stone field is a surface covered by boulder- or block-sized rocks usually associated with a history of volcanic activity, alpine and subpolar climates and periglaciation. Blockfields differ from screes and talus slope in that blockfields do not apparently originate from mass wastings. They are believed to be formed by frost weathering below the surface. An alternative theory that modern blockfields may have originated from chemical weathering that occurred in the Neogene when the climate was relatively warmer. Following this thought the blockfields would then have been reworked by periglacial action.
The Tarfala research station is a field station of Stockholm University. The station is situated in the Tarfala Valley in northern Sweden. It specializes in glacial, periglacial and climatological research.
Discrete debris accumulation (DDA) is a non-genetic term in mountain glacial geology to aid identification of non-lithified sediments on a valley or mountain slope or floor. It is intended that the debris accumulation is discrete such that it can be mapped, in the field and/or from aerial or satellite imagery. The origin or formative process may well not be known clearly or be changed by subsequent investigators it is advisable to have a non-genetic field reference so that discussion can then be used to ascertain, if possible, the origin. Mountain areas may currently have glaciers (glacierized) or have had glaciers (glaciated) or be subject to forms of periglacial activity. A moraine would be an easily identified DDA as would an esker. Although scree (talus) is generally easily identified and mapped, these deposits may be modified by ice, avalanches or downslope movement to create essentially new landforms. Many small slope failures and landslides can give the appearance of moraines or protalus ramparts on slopes. After mapping as a DDA, further investigation might draw light on the origin of the feature.
All regions and seasons of Norway are expected to become warmer and wetter due to climate change.
Periglaciation describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing and freezing, very often in areas of permafrost. The meltwater may refreeze in ice wedges and other structures. "Periglacial" originally suggested an environment located on the margin of past glaciers. However, freeze and thaw cycles influence landscapes also outside areas of past glaciation. Therefore, periglacial environments are anywhere when freezing and thawing modify the landscape in a significant manner.
The glacial buzzsaw is a hypothesis claiming erosion by warm-based glaciers is key to limit the height of mountains above certain threshold altitude. To this the hypothesis adds that great mountain massifs are leveled towards the equilibrium line altitude (ELA), which would act as a “climatic base level”. Starting from the hypothesis it has been predicted that local climate restricts the maximum height that mountain massifs can attain by effect of uplifting tectonic forces. It follows that as local climate is cooler at higher latitudes the highest mountains are lower there compared to the tropics where glaciation is and has been more limited. The mechanism behind the glacial buzzsaw effect would be the erosion of small glaciers that are mostly unable to erode much below the equilibrium line altitude since they do not reach these altitudes because of increased ablation. Instead, large valley glaciers may easily surpass the equilibrium line altitude and do therefore not contribute to a glacial buzzsaw effect. This is said to be the case of the Patagonian ice fields where lack of buzzsaw effect results in rapid tectonic uplift rates.
The Sub-Mesozoic hilly peneplains or Sub-Mesozoic hilly relief is a landscape in Scandinavia made up of undulating hills and joint valleys and occasional kaolinized bedrock in valley bottoms. The landscape formed in the Mesozoic Era and was eventually drowned by the sea during the Campanian transgression and covered by a thick blanket of Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Later erosion of the cover rocks partly re-exposed this landscape. During the Quaternary epoch the re-exposed Mesozoic hilly relief escaped major glacier erosion being only surficially scoured in parts.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Halfdan Carstens (2013) Klimatolog i hardt vær Archived 2014-01-09 at the Wayback Machine Geo, nb. 1 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2014 (in Norwegian)
- ↑ Ole Humlum UiO. Retrieved 9 January 2014
- 1 2 Curriculum Vitae: Ole Humlum (as of 2010) Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research. Retrieved 9 January 2014
- ↑ Members Polar Academy. Retrieved 9 January 2014
- ↑ Bjørn H. Samset and Henrik H. Svensen (26 July 2013) Seniorsaken Morgenbladet. Retrieved 9 January 2014 (in Norwegian)
- ↑ Richardson, Mark (August 2013). "Comment on 'The phase relation between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature' by Humlum, Stordahl and Solheim". Global and Planetary Change . 107: 226–228. Bibcode:2013GPC...107..226R. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.03.011.
- ↑ NTB (18 September 2014) De naturlige variasjonene i klimaet har vært undervurdert Adresseavisen . Retrieved 9 January 2014 (in Norwegian)
- ↑ Humlum, Ole; Stordahl, Kjell; Solheim, Jan-Erik (January 2013). "The phase relation between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature". Global and Planetary Change . 100: 51–69. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2012.08.008 . Retrieved 19 March 2023.
- ↑ julienx2k2 (23 May 2011). "Humlum is at it again". Skeptical Science . Retrieved 18 November 2023.
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