Jökull - 01.12.1956, Page 3

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JÖKLARANNSÓKNAFÉLAGS ÍSLANDS
6. ÁR REYKJAVÍK 1956
On the Variations of Svínafellsjökull,
Skaftafellsjökull and Kvíárjökull in Öræfi
BY
SIGURDUR THORARI NSSON
INTRODUCTORY:
In his paper on the glaciology of Spitsbergen,
based on studies made in 1931, Ahlmann stated
that the stage from which the present regression
of the Spitsbergen glaciers has taken place “i»
— at least for many of the glaciers — quite
close to their maximum extension since the last
glaciation of the Quaternary Ice Age” (Ahl-
mann 1933, p. 185).
In a paper published in 1935 and mainly
based on studies of the outlet glaciers of Dranga-
jökull carried out in 1931, Eythórsson writes:
“My observations of glacier margins in Iceland
and of their terminal moraines have more and
more convinced me that the stage from which
the glaciers are now receding must have been
a very advanced one, compared with the max-
imal extension they have reached within the
historical time in Iceland (i.e. the last 1000
years) and probably since the close of the Ice
age” (Eythórsson 1935, p. 136).
Further studies of the lateral and frontal
moraines of glaciers in the glaciated districts
around the northernmost Atlantic led Ahlmann
and myself to the conclusion that the moraines
which were formed during the advance of the
glaciers in the first half of the 18th and about
the middle of the 19th centuries (in some cases
as late as ab. 1890) mark their maximum ex-
tension in historical and probably even in Post-
glacial Time (Thorarinsson 1936, p. 194; 1944,
p. 148; 1952, p. 8; Ahlmann 1948, p. 67 ff.).
Tephrochronological studies at Hagavatn pro-
ved clefinitely that the recent terminal moraines
from which the Hagafellsjökull eystri has been
rececling during the last few decades, mark the
maximum extension of that glacier during the
whole Postglacial Time (Thorarinsson 1949, p.
250). But in the same paper I stated that tliere
are in front of some of the glacier tongues of
Vatnajökull terminal moraines, “which might
indicate, that in early Subatlantic Time these
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