Jökull - 01.12.1985, Page 13

strandir coast and, furthermore, seems to have been of
the opinion that the ice cap had not extended far
beyond the present coast. He also thought that the ice
cap had been continuous and that nunataks could only
have existed between the outlet glaciers, close to the
edge of the ice cap.
Thoroddsen’s views were later modified by Thór-
arinsson (1937), who suggested that during the last
glaciation the Vestfirdir peninsula was characterized by
small ice-fields on the plateaux between the fjords,
while the whole central area was covered by a large
continuous ice cap. Outlet glaciers flowed from the
central highlands through the fjords, gradually leaving
more space for local glaciers and nunataks. Thórarins-
son also drew attention to observations made by
Keilhack (1933) and Iwan (1936) on the number and
distribution of cirques on Vestfirdir. These become
more numerous towards the mouths of valleys and
fjords.
Later workers (Th. Einarsson 1961,1963, 1967,1968,
John 1977a, Hoppe 1968, 1983, Andersen 1981) have to
a large extent echoed Thórarinsson’s (1937) results,
though with some modifications. Andersen (1981) and
Hoppe (1983) suggested a larger extent of the ice onto
the shelf during the Weichselian maximum than can be
inferred from Thórarinsson’s (1937) or Th. Einarsson’s
(1967, 1968) results.
Th. Einarsson (1961) and Steindórsson (1962, 1963)
suggested the possibility of relatively large ice-free areas
on Vestfirdir during the Weichselian. Sugden and John
(1976) used Vestfirdir as an example of glacial land-
scape evolution in mountains near the periphery of an
ice sheet; a point of view which recognizes ice-free areas
in environments with predominantly alpine-type glacial
erosion. John (1975) recognized three different types of
glacial erosion on Vestfirdir. He included Hornstrandir
among alpine-type landscapes, where glaciation was
characterized by a high density of glaciers with a low to
moderate discharge. In a later paper (John 1977a) he
stated that it was unlikely that there were any large
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