Jökull


Jökull - 01.12.1956, Page 10

Jökull - 01.12.1956, Page 10
Fig. 6. The moraine amphitheatre of Kvi- árjökull seen from E. Photo S. Thorarinsson 13 July 1951. SVÍNAFELLSJÖKULL. Area below the 1100 m con- tour 1904 .............. 15.0 km2 Area below the 1100 m con- tour 1945 .............. 12.5 „ Total areal loss 1904—1945 .. 2.5 „ (16.7%) Frontal areal loss 1904—1945 0.7 „ ( 4.7%) Max. linear recession 1904— 1945 ................... 0.45 km Average thinning o£ tongue along the present 100 m contour 1904—1945 ......... 65 m KVÍÁRJÖKULL The most striking feature of Kvíárjökull, the biggest of the three southern outlets of Öræfa- jökull, is the enormous moraine amphitheatre bordering the entire lowland part of the glacier tongue (fig. 6). On the western side of the glacier the marginal moraine, Kvíármýrar- kambur, reaches a height of nearly 100 m above the outside plain. Corresponding height of the eastern ridge, Kambsmýrarkambur, is ab. 70 m. In front of the glacier tongue the river Kvíá has cut a breach through the moraine ridge and. flows there at present, but for long periods the bulk of the meltwater has flowed through a breach in Kambsmýrarkambur. That river, Kvíá eystri, is since 1935 practically non existing. In a paper published in this issue of Jökull, Flosi Björnsson, a farmer in Kvísker, a farm situated 3 km east of Kvíárjökull, gives an account of the variations of Kvíárjökull since the 1790’s (cf. also Thorarinsson 1943, p. 30). As his paper is in Icelandic, I sum up his results. From Sveinn Pálsson’s description o£ his ascent of Öræfajökull Aug. llth 1794 Björnsson concludes that the glacier was at that time somewhat thicker than ab. 1900. He also states that the maximum extension of the glacier dur- ing the 19th century was ab. 1870, when the glacier quite filled the moraine amphitheatre and its margins were so high that one autumn blocks of ice broke off from the western margin and rolled down the outer slopes of Kvíármýr- arkambur. Ab. 1890 tlie thickness and extension of the glacier tongue was somewhat less than ab. 1870. Shortly before 1903 the glacier ad- vanced a little and increased somewhat in height. From 1904 to ab. 1915 the glacier reced- ed and thinned very slowly. Ab. 1920 or shortly before 1920 the glacier again began to advance and grow in thickness, 1921 and 1922 the thick- ness increased rapidly. Ab. 1927 the SE part of the glacier front became stagnant and soon started receding, while the SW part advanced ab. 300 m 1931—34, gliding over a dead ice cake within the encl moraines (cf. Todtmann 1936). Since 1934 the frontal variations of Kví- árjökull, according to Eythórsson measurements, have been as follows (quoted from the same 8

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Jökull

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