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Rates of Holocene chemical weathering, `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion and implications for Schmidt-hammer dating at a glacier—foreland boundary, Fåbergstølsbreen, southern Norway

Department of Geography, School of the Environment and Society, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK, g.owen{at}swansea.ac.uk

John A. Matthews

Department of Geography, School of the Environment and Society, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK

Paul G. Albert

Department of Geography, School of the Environment and Society, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK

Average rates of Holocene chemical weathering and `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion of bedrock are estimated across the glacier—foreland boundary of an outlet glacier of the Jostedalsbreen ice-cap, southern Norway. Estimates are derived from two types of evidence: (1) the heights of quartz veins above adjacent surfaces of granitic or granodioritic gneiss; and (2) Schmidt-hammer R-values of rock hardness. Average and maximum rates of surface lowering of gneiss surfaces by chemical weathering are 1.63 and 3.61 mm/ka, respectively, whereas many quartz veins exhibit negligible weathering after c. 9700 years. `Little Ice Age' glacial erosion rates are at least two orders of magnitude greater than the chemical weathering rates, except in a narrow marginal zone inside, but close to, the `Little Ice Age' limit, where patches of weathered surface survive. Bedrock surfaces outside and well inside the `Little Ice Age' glacier—foreland boundary are shown to have potential for improved calibrated-age dating using R-values, compared with moraine surfaces.

Key Words: Chemical weathering rates • glacial erosion rates • denudation • differential weathering • Schmidt-hammer • bedrock surfaces • calibrated-age dating • glacier foreland • `Little Ice Age' • neoglaciation • Holocene • Norway.

The Holocene, Vol. 17, No. 6, 829-834 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0959683607081419


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