Jökull - 01.12.1982, Page 10

difierent glacial streams nunataks might have exist-
ed. Kjartansson’s map (1969) of Nordvesturland con-
tains numerous observations of glacial striae from
different parts of the peninsula, giving a more de-
tailed view of ice movement.
My own observations only cover the southwest-
ernmost peninsula, with the well known Látra-
bjarg, the westemmost point of Europe. They were
made during a stay from 6 to 9 July, 1976. The
higher parts of the peninsula consist of bare rock,
often heavily frostshattered.. Till is present only at
lower elevations. Thoroddsen (1906, p. 325) made an
interesdngobservation in the small bay of Keflavík,
which he considered to be part of an old glacial
cirque. He observed ,,a terrace, 66 m high, with
striated pebbles, which seems to be an old moraine,
reworked by the sea”. The “terrace” (Fig. 6) is
about 400x400 m, in its eastern part divided by a
creek. It has a core of bedrock. What Thoroddsen
did not observe is that the terrace is beautifully
drumlinized, with 8 to 10 ridges oriented north-
south and up to 2 m high. The ridges have been
modified by frost processes, and their surfaces are
covered by stone stripes. The drumlins were not
necessarily formed by a cirque glacier.
Glacial striae were observed at several places,
well preserved, however, only when protected by a
cover of till. At the road to the Látrabjarg light-
house not only is the bedrock surface striated, but
also the boulders in the till are striated in the same
direction.
The striae of the peninsula, observed to eleva-
tions of at least 200 m, demonstrate ice flow in all
directions from its central highlands. In accordance
with earlier interpretations the icemovements were
largely inherited from the ice retreat in the sur-
rounding sea, the level of which reached several tens
of m higher in the area than now. It is very probable
that the whole of this very peripheral peninsula was
covered by an isolated ice cap, at the end of the
glaciation.
Some observations from the sea bottom outside of
Vestfirdir may be added. In his Ph.D. thesis Kjartan
Thors (1974) came to the conclusion that the shelf
outside of Vestíirdir was shaped predominantly by
glacial processes. “Glacial outwash was attacked by
a transgressing sea and redistributed, although the
coarsest gravels were left more or less in situ. The
relict shelf surface has seen no terrigenous sedi-
mentation during the Holocene, but biological pro-
ductivity has continued to the present day.” (Letter
from Dr. Thors of 14.11. 1974).
NORTHEASTERN ICELAND
Thoroddsen (1906) recorded traces ofglaciation at
several localities in northeastern Iceland, such as
the impressive glaciofluvial terraces in the Vopna-
fjördur valley, tills and erratics on Langanes, and
glacial striae on Langanes, Fagranes and Melrakka-
slétta. Kjartansson (1955) added some new observa-
tions of glacial striae from Melrakkaslétta. Finally
the geological map oflceland, Sheet 7, compiled by
Saemundsson (1977) records a great number of striae
in the whole coastal area from Melrakkaslétta in the
northwest to Vopnafjördur in the southeast. My
own observations in the area were made on July 10
to 11, 1972, on Melrakkaslétta and Langanes and in
the Vopnafjördur district on August 21, 1974, this
time in the company with Sigurdur Thorarinsson.
My striae observations seem in the main to appear
on the geological map, to which the reader is referr-
ed.
The observations indicate that the whole north-
east coast of Iceland between Axarfjördur and Hér-
adsflói was inundated by the inland ice sheet. 'Fhe
radiating pattern of striae on Melrakkaslétta once
again reflects the pattern of deglaciation typical of
ice retreat in the sea. Langanes was overridden by
ice flowing from the south; this indicates a sign-
ificant ice thickness even in this northeasternmost
corner of Iceland.
SOUTHEASTERN ICELAND
Thoroddsen (1906) did not pay much attention to
traces of glacial activity in this region. However, he
gives some information about glacial striae from the
inner parts of the Berufjördur, Hamarsfjördur,
Alftafjördur and Hornafjördur areas. Kjartansson
(1962), in his comments on Trausti Einarsson’s
paper „An unglaciated area in Eastern Iceland”
refers to own observations of glacial striae on a
headland between Berufjördur and Hamarsfjördur
and on promontories in Alftafjördur and Lón. “In
all this area the fjord glaciers extending from the
inland ice-sheet seem to have coalesced in front of
the interjacent mountain ridges, to form an almost
uninterrupted brim of a piedmont glacier on the
coastal plain. The possibility that the glacial traces
referred to might be older than the last (or Wurm)
glaciation, is discussed and rejected.”
My own observations in the area were made
during several visits, starting in 1952. Roches mout-
8 JÖKULL 32. ÁR