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
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