Jökull - 01.12.1990, Page 35

Figure 2. An index map with the individual research
veas (1-7) indicated: 1) North Iceland. 2) Northwest
Iceland. 3) West Iceland. 4) Northeast Iceland. 5)
East Iceland. 6) South Iceland and 7) Southwest
Iceland. —Lega þeirra landsvœða (1-7), sem þessi
8rein fjallar um: 1) Norðurland. 2) Norðvesturland.
3) Vesturland. 4) Norðausturland. 5) Austurland. 6)
Suðurland og 7) Suðvesturland.
Alftanes advance in Southwest Iceland. The Kópa-
sker and Ekruhom localities were later proposed as
type sites“ for the Kópasker stage and the Saurbær
stage in an Icelandic chronostratigraphical arrange-
ment, which comprised two stadials; the Álftanes and
Búði stages corresponding to the Older and Younger
Dryas stadials in Northwest Europe, and two intersta-
dials; the Kópasker and Saurbær stages corresponding
to the Bplling and Allerpd interstadials in Northwest
Europe (Th. Einarsson, 1979).
RECENT STUDIES OF THE DE-
glaciation
During the last 10-15 years several geologists
have been studying different aspects of Late Weich-
selian deglaciation and sea-level changes in different
Parts of Iceland. This account reviews the main re-
sults and conclusions from studies in North, Northeast,
East, South, Southwest, West and Northwest Iceland
(Fig. 2). Although the aims and methods of these stud-
les are somewhat different, their results throw some
new light upon and enable conclusions to be drawn
conceming the deglaciation history of Iceland at the
end of the Weichselian glaciation and the beginning of
the Holocene.
NORTH ICELAND
In his study of Late Weichselian deglaciation his-
tory of the Skagafjörður district in the westem part
of North Iceland, Víkingsson (1976, 1980) concluded
that the deglaciation of the area was accelerated by
calving and that it proceeded without any regional
interruptions. Furthermore, he inferred that end-
moraines found within the study area only reflected lo-
cal readvance or standstill of the glacier margin. Vík-
ingsson (1980) described three major deltas in Skaga-
fjörður; at Sauðárkrókur, Reynistaður and Vindheima-
melar, which were all formed when relative sea-level
stood about 45 m a.s.l. (Fig. 3). The deltas are not
synchronous formations and they indicate that glacial
isostatic recovery of the land kept pace with eustatic
rise of sea-level along with a southward recession of
an ice margin in Skagafjörður. Absolute dates are as
yet not available conceming the deglaciation history
of Skagafjörður, but Víkingsson (1980) proposed an
Allerpd age for the deglaciation of the area and for
the formation of the marine limit at about 45 m a.s.l.
Morivaki (1990) determined the height of the marine
limit on the Skagi peninsula west of Skagafjörður and
in the Húnaflói area west thereof to 50-60 m a.s.l. and
suggested that the marine limit was reached concur-
rently with a glacier advance in Younger Dryas time
(Fig. 3).
Comprehensive geomorphological, sedimentolog-
ical and lithostratigraphical studies of sediments
within the Fnjóskadalur drainage basin in central
North Iceland (Fig. 3) have elucidated the Weichselian
glacial history of the area (Norðdahl 1981,1983). The
main features of the stratigraphical arrangement in
Fnjóskadalur are several different and repeated depo-
sitional environmental phases that have been assigned
to nine stages of glacier readvance (stadials) and seven
stages of glacier retreat (interstadials), which together
comprise the Fnjóskadalur Sequence. The Fnjóska-
dalur Sequence and thus the glacial history have been
divided into three main phases (Norðdahl 1983).
The maximum phase includes the culmination of
JÖKULL, No. 40, 1990 33