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This article presents the results of archaeological survey of ice patches in the vicinity of the vast obsidian quarries and artifact scatters found near Goat Mountain and the Kitsu Plateau in Mount Edziza Provincial Park, Tahltan Territory. During the survey, over 50 perishable artifacts were found, including stitched birch bark containers, wooden walking staffs, carved and beveled sticks, an atlatl dart foreshaft, and a stitched hide boot. Radiocarbon ages on 13 of the perishable artifacts reveal that they span the last 7000 years. These finds were made against a massive and stunning backdrop of scattered obsidian artifacts: bifaces, cores, flakes, and raw material nodules. This project collaborated with the Obsidian Discoveries Tahltan Tene Mehodihi Youth Group Hike and the "Our Ancestors' Trail" museum exhibition. This collaboration resulted in connections between the archaeological results presented here, community learning, and artistic inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On August 25th, 2018, the Yukon Ice Patch Research Group recovered a 6,000-year- old segmented throwing dart from site JcUu-11 (Hare et al. 2004) located in the traditional territories of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Kwanlin Dun First Nation, Yukon Canada. The discovery was the result of a dramatic retreat of an ice patch over a period of 23 days. This discovery is the first entirely complete atlatl throwing dart retrieved from an archaeological site in arctic and subarctic North America. Beyond its remarkably state of preservation, the artifact offers insights on material use and artifact design that may have significant implications for archaeological interpretations of First Nations' hunting traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glacial archaeology is a developing field, brought on by climate change. High mountain ice is melting, which has led to the exposure of artifacts in North America, Mongolia, the Alps, and Scandinavia. The highest number of finds and sites in the world are reported from Innlandet County, Norway. We present our methods of finding and documenting glacial archaeological sites in Innlandet based on 15 years of experience. Sites are found using a combination of local information on the ground and remote sensing. Fieldwork takes place in three steps: an exploratory survey for assessment, systematic surveys for documentation, and monitoring in case of further ice retreat. The harsh environment makes the logistics very different from regular archaeology at lower elevations. Fieldwork methods are described in detail. The continuing retreat of mountain ice worldwide makes the Innlandet experience increasingly pertinent to the practice of field archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, high altitude ceremonial constructions were considered to be ritual remnant practices exclusively of the central and southern Andean mountains, while ancient religious offerings were not expected to be found at the highest elevations of the northern Andes, because snow-capped mountains represented an obstacle for ancient pilgrimage. This paper suggests that the ritual and sacrificial expressions of indigenous Andean people in the Ecuadorian Andes took place principally at the location of mountain oracles--known as huauquis or "brothers," at the foot of the mountains or at the bottom of glaciers. Continuity of sacrificial cults in both cases can be documented since pre-Hispanic time until the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, I investigated 21 ice patches in the Teton Mountains of Wyoming and located one pre-contact and several post-contact artifacts. The pre-contact artifact is a modified Pinus flexilis (whitebark or limber pine) stick that dates to 3158 to 2960 cal BP. The post-contact artifacts are one 1940s wallet, one carved Boy Scout walking stick, and two modified pine sticks that date to the contact/post-contact periods. I also collected paleobiological specimens, including wood samples from dead trees and bison bones that are used to reconstruct past tree line elevations, as proxies for paleoclimate regimes, and to reconstruct the pre-contact lifeways of bison in the higher elevations of the Greater Yellowstone Area. This article presents the combined results of these investigations and their implications for future ice patch research in the Tetons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frozen Pasts 5 (FP 5), the 5th International Glacial and Ice Patch Archaeology Conference, occurred 7-10 September 2021 at Chico Hot Springs Resort midway between Yellowstone National Park and Bozeman, Montana, USA (Figure 1). The Frozen Pasts meetings are international gatherings of interdisciplinary researchers focusing on glacial and ice patch archaeology and related environments. Originally planned for September 2020, FP5 was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Craig M. Lee and E. James Dixon organized the meeting, and Alden Yépez, Matthew Stirn and Rebecca Sgouros served on the Program Committee. In keeping with previous Frozen Pasts, the meeting included formal presentations, poster sessions, field trips, and supporting exhibits focusing on glacial and ice patch archaeology. However, the conference was also different from previous meetings in several respects, and it included strong representation and participation by members of local indigenous communities in the presentations and archaeological excursions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice patches are an irreplaceable archive of past events. With atypical melting now occurring around the world, it is important to be able to quantify and interpret the potential of what remains in areas of archaeological interest. A ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey was conducted at an archaeologically productive ice patch in the Greater Yellowstone Area to identify sediment layers in which archaeological materi als may be present. Numerous reflective surfaces were observed and interpreted as being organic-rich layers called lags. GPR did not reveal all lag surfaces that were easily identifiable in an ice core that was collected concurrently at the same ice patch. 400 MHz and 900 MHz antennas were used in the survey, but neither fully revealed the ba sal profile of the ice patch. This is likely the result of the short time-window in which the data were collected, as opposed to attenuation of the radar waves deep in the ice. Future applications of the technology are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years airborne and spaceborne remote sensing have developed into a widely applied tool for archaeologists. In glacial archaeology, it has been employed success fully, but could see a wider application among practitioners. This article summarizes common remote sensing approaches useful to archaeologists in cryogenic environments. It covers simple applications using easily accessible data in order to enable the practitioner to monitor melt and contextualize archaeological sites within a larger landscape setting. The improved resolution and availability of remote sensing data enhances its usefulness with regards to identifying, documenting and monitoring sites in frozen environments and is a valuable addition to most field research pertaining to glacial archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While pastoral cultures from Mongolia and the dry steppes of eastern Eurasia have had an outsized impact on Eurasian history, the region's geomorphology, reliance on organic materials, and a nomadic culture that lacks long-lasting architecture on the landscape have conspired to limit our knowledge of important anthropological pro cesses in the deep past. Frozen archaeological sites, including permafrost and finds from glaciers and ice patches, serve as a key exception to this rule, providing detailed snapshots into the ancient lifeways of Mongolia's mountain zones. However, these sites pose unique challenges for archaeological conservation, and rapid climate warm ing, paired with other issues like looting, threatens to degrade them faster than they can be identified, studied, or preserved. Here we summarize the known frozen herit age of Mongolia and highlight a recent to-date unpublished case study on salvaging and studying frozen archaeological sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rocky Mountain National Park contains a dense record of prehistoric Native American archaeological locales and biological resources, but questions remain about the past use of the Park's ice patches by ancient humans and animals. Our survey of 30 locations in the Park revealed that the majority of ice patches are small in size and contain lim ited evidence of past visitation by mobile peoples, but moderate use by game. In this paper, we present new radiocarbon dates for materials documented in the recently melted forefield of the ROMO 9 ice patch, a mid-sized ice body located in alpine tundra along the Continental Divide. Dated materials include timber-sized pine trees, keratin and bone collagen from large game (bighorn sheep, elk), and a possible wooden artifact made from Mountain mahogany. Results suggest most finds date to several periods of known neoglaciation, during the mid-Holocene (c. 4150 cal BP) and the Little Ice Age (c. 115 cal BP). Our results corroborate past findings on mid-Holocene timberline in the Colorado Front Range, as well as the paucity of archaeological evidence from small ice patches in Colorado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The find of a yet unknown type of birch bark container in the site of Schnidejoch (Bernese Alps, Switzerland) was a surprise, for in all the wetland or lakeshore sites of Europe no parallels to this unique object are known to date. First, when only a small part was discovered, it was supposed to have been part of an arrow quiver. However, with the final appearance of the ca. 170 cm long container, it needed a new interpreta tion. The yew bow found at the same site, 160.5 cm long, would fit perfectly inside. Two silex arrowheads found in the bottom confirm an association with archery. The find could be identified as the first Neolithic bow case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The geomorphological signature of tropical glaciers has the potential to provide important information on the response of ice masses in high‐mountain environments to climate warming. This study investigates the glacial geomorphology of Charquini Sur, Bolivia. Detailed geomorphological mapping was conducted both in the field and from satellite imagery in order to produce a 1:4000 scale geomorphological map of the glacier foreland. Sedimentological analyses (description of physical characteristics, clast shape and roundness, particle‐size distribution) provided additional insight into the landform–sediment assemblage. Glacial landforms are well preserved and include up to 11 moraine ridge suites, seven of which are cross‐valley frontal moraine arcs. These can be linked to an existing lichenometric chronology from previous work and record glacier recession since the local Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum in the late‐1600s. Lateral moraine ridges also record continuous thinning of the glacier over this time period. Smaller groups of parallel ridges are interpreted as annual moraines formed during recession. Intermorainic areas consist of flutings and a typically thin sediment cover of subglacial, supraglacial and glaciofluvial origin, with prominent ice‐moulded bedrock protuberances in places. Analysis of the landform–sediment assemblage provides an insight into the main controls on landform genesis in the basin and implies there have been temporal changes in ice‐marginal dynamics since the LIA. We present the first landsystem model for a tropical cirque glacier, documenting its behaviour since the LIA and providing an indication of glacier response in rapidly‐warming high‐mountain environments. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Tsugaru Strait is often referred to as Blakiston's Line in biogeography. Although this strait is thought to have become narrower during the Last Glacial Maximum, it did not close completely to form a land bridge. Sea‐level drawdown associated with cooling nevertheless weakened the influence of the Tsugaru Strait as a barrier to faunal migration. The currently accepted hypothesis is that only some large and highly mobile ungulates were able to migrate to Honshu over this strait to the exclusion of small mammals. However, this remains problematic as very few fossils corroborate this idea, and quantitative identification methods for use with tiny fragments of teeth have not been developed. In this study, we determine which of the species Lepus timidus (now distributed on Hokkaido and to the north) and Lepus brachyurus (now mainly distributed on Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) can accurately be identified within a sample of Late Pleistocene Lepus sp. fossils recently unearthed from the Shitsukari‐Abe cave to the immediate south of the Tsugaru Strait. This is because we are unable to exclude the possibility that these fossils are referable to L. timidus on the basis of site location alone. Thus, utilising images of mandibular third premolar teeth obtained via microcomputed tomography scanning, we report (a) linear measurements, (b) a survey of the frequency of appearance of nonmetric traits, and (c) principal component analysis using landmark methods. The results show that fossil representatives of the genus Lepus can be differentiated from extant L. timidus and closely resemble L. brachyurus. Considering the past allopatric distribution of the 2 species suggested by other studies as well as fossil records around the Tsugaru Strait, this result corroborates the existing hypothesis that only large and highly mobile ungulates were able to navigate the Tsugaru Strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we presented a reply to the comments on modern pollen rain and interpretations about the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) by D’Apolito et al. Carajás may be considered as a micro-hotspot of plant endemism, mainly related to edaphic conditions and presence of different micro-habitats for canga vegetation into ironstone domains. These plants developed several survival strategies, including morphological and physiological adaptations, which is difficult for comparisons with any other distinct biomes or ecosystems. Furthermore, inaccurate interpretation of pollen taxa and habitat types by the previous palynological studies in Carajás, which are keys points presented in Guimarães et al., were not questioned by D’Apolito et al. Therefore, incomplete pollen database, uncertainties about pollen descriptions and plant–pollen habitat, poor knowledge about pollen production and dispersion in edaphically conditioned areas, as well as missing of multiproxy evidences about geology, geomorphology, faciology, and geochemistry can make LGM interpretations a very challenging task. This can produce more noises than reliable signals of paleoclimate changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eroadaway represents a Late Glacial campsite, circa 12,600 cal bp, in the subalpine zone of the central Alaska Range. Reassessment of radiocarbon dates indicates that the age of the site is nearly 2800 years older than originally reported and places the reassessed age of the Eroadaway occupation in the Younger Dryas chronozone (12,900 to 11,700 cal bp). Eroadaway is viewed as a short-duration seasonal hunting camp where the maintenance and production of bifacial tools were the dominant activities. The site's distinctive thin bifacial projectile point technology is analyzed in terms of production technique and subsistence strategy, and a projectile point hafting model based on the Eroadaway points is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper synthesizes what is known about the physical and biophysical impacts of climate change and their consequences for societies and development under different levels of global warming in Central Asia. Projections show mean temperatures increasing by up to 6.5 °C compared to pre-industrial by the end of this century across the region. Associated physical impacts include altered precipitation regimes, more frequent heat extremes and increasing aridity. Increasing rates of glacial and snow melt could lead to greater river runoff, but also to greater seasonality of runoff in the short term and to decreasing water availability in the medium term to long term. These changes have negative implications for the water availability in the region and for conflicting water demands between agriculture and hydropower. Climate change could mostly decrease crop yields, challenging food security, but in more northern regions there could also be positive effects. Studies on climate change impacts on energy systems are scarce and yield conflicting results, but the more regional study shows decreasing prospects for hydropower. The health of the population is already sensitive to heat extremes and is projected to be exposed to more frequent and prolonged heat waves in the future, among other potential health impacts. While the evidence for a link between climate and migration is weak, the rural-to-urban migration can be especially expected to intensify. The paper concludes that Central Asia will be severely affected by climate change even if the global mean temperature increase is limited to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, due to the potential for impacts to occur simultaneously and compound one another as well as interactions with wider development challenges, while risks will be strongly amplified if this threshold is crossed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wedge-shaped microblade core technology found along the northern Pacific Rim has been regarded as a trait of hunter-gatherer adaptation during the Late Glacial and initial Holocene. Having recognized variable microblade core reduction methods among the technocomplexes in Hokkaido, by employing an optimization model in lithic technology, the present paper addresses the question of what role bifacial microblade core technologies played in foraging, through a comparative analysis of utility, cost of transportation, and failure rates between the larger (“ Sakkotsu ”) and smaller (“ Oshorokko ”) bifacial microblade core technologies in the Late Glacial Hokkaido. Results suggest that as opposed to the larger bifacial microblade core technology, the smaller bifacial microblade core technology was more effective for exploring unpredictable environment across the northern Pacific Rim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice patches and the alpine are important elements of the sociocultural landscape of the Greater Yellowstone Area, and they transcend the jurisdictional boundaries that divide the lands on which they occur. The ice patch record complements traditional sources of archaeological knowledge through the addition of well-dated organic artifacts, such as shafts from hunting tools, recovered in a readily recognizable context. This paper examines the types of wood used in the manufacture of hunting implements recovered at Greater Yellowstone Area ice patches through the analysis of nine unique wooden shafts and shaft fragments from five sites. Five shafts are birch ( Betula spp.), two are willow ( Salix spp.), one is fir ( Abies sp.), and one is pine ( Pinus sp.). The shafts included in this analysis range in age from 9230 ± 25 B.P. to 215 ± 20 B.P. Diagnostic Oxbow and Pelican Lake chipped stone projectile points recovered in association with ice patches provide additional temporal resolution regarding use of these features. One of the four sites that yielded wooden shafts contains a record of bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis ) hunting between 3885 ± 25 B.P. and 879 ± 23 B.P. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ice-marginal glaciated landscapes demarcate former boundaries of the continental ice sheets. Throughout circumpolar regions, permafrost has preserved relict ground ice and glacigenic sediments, delaying the sequence of postglacial landscape change that transformed temperate environments millennia earlier. Here we show that within 7 × 106 km2 of glaciated permafrost terrain, extensive landscapes remain poised for major climate-driven change. Across northwestern Canada, 60-100-km-wide concentric swaths of thaw slump-affected terrain delineate the maximum and recessional positions of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. These landscapes comprise ~17% of continuous permafrost terrain in a 1.27 × 106 km2 study area, indicating widespread preservation of late Pleistocene ground ice. These thaw slump, relict ground ice, and glacigenic terrain associations are also evident at the circumpolar scale. Recent intensification of thaw slumping across northwestern Canada has mobilized primary glacial sediments, triggering a cascade of fluvial, lacustrine, and coastal effects. These geologically significant processes, highlighted by the spatial distribution of thaw slumps and patterns of fluvial sediment mobilization, signal the climate-driven renewal of deglaciation and postglacial permafrost landscape evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on the analysis of the ground and near-rock surface air thermal conditions at the Forcadona glacial cirque (2227 m a.s.l.) located in the Western Massif of the Picos de Europa, Spain. Temperatures have been monitored in three distinct geomorphological and topographical sites in the Forcadona area over the period 2006–11. The Forcadona buried ice patch is the remnant of a Little Ice Age glacier located in the bottom of a glacial cirque. Its location in a deep cirque determines abundant snow accumulation, with snow cover between 8 and 12 months. The presence of snow favours stable soil temperatures and geomorphic stability. Similarly to other Cantabrian Mountains, the annual thermal regime of the soil is defined by two seasonal periods (continuous thaw with daily oscillations and isothermal regime), as well as two short transition periods. However, the results showed evidence of a significantly different annual thermal regime at the ground and near-rock surface air. Relatively stable soil thermal regimes were observed at the moraine and talus sites, while a more dynamic pattern was recorded at the rock wall site. Here, a higher interannual variability in the number of freeze–thaw days was also detected, which showed evidence of the important role of the snow cover as a ground surface insulator in the area. Seasonal frost conditions are widespread today in the high lands of the massif. No permafrost regime was detected in the area, though mean temperatures measured at 0.5 m depth at the Forcadona buried ice patch during 2006–07 (0.1 °C) suggest that permanent negative values may be reached at deeper layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryosat-2 altimetry, for the period July 2010 to January 2016, shows widespread melting of glaciers in the southern part of the British Columbia (BC) Coastal Mountain range in western Canada. The Interferometric Radar Altimeter on Cryosat-2 is in synthetic aperture mode in this area, recording elevations of suitably-sloping targets out to about 5 km cross-track from nadir and hence giving full coverage between tracks separated by 5 km. Average height change rates were computed for small, overlapping subregions covering the study area. Subregions at altitudes less than 1500 m showed rates clustered symmetrically about zero. These targets could be confirmed by visual inspection to be from rock, soil or vegetated targets. Above 2000 m, more than half the targets show a broader distribution, indicating reducing altitudes (melting) by up to 2 m.year−1. This second distribution is from the surface of glaciers. Melt rates above 1500 m decrease with increasing altitude and are lower before the start of 2013 than in the 3 years afterwards. Absence of negative melt rates (i.e., growing glacier heights over the full study period) is especially striking. The results show the capability of Cryosat-2 to measure individual and average melt rates on a timescale of 2–3 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a result of global warming and the subsequent retreat of the glaciers, artefacts have emerged from the ice of the Alps repeatedly. These objects from different epochs of the last 10,000 years are of great interest to archaeology and its neighboring fields of research. Prehistoric ice finds, like those found at the Similaun ("Ötzi") in 1991, make for scientific incentives. Such findings provide basic information about the previously unknown use of high alpine landscapes. The project "Glacial Archaeology in the Austrian Alps (GAAA)," carried out at the Insitute of Archaeologies at the University of Innsbruck, has the objective of providing a three-column system: A GIS-based prediction model of areas where finds can be expected, surveys and public relations to lay the foundations for future archaeological research of the glacial areas of Austria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic deterioration lasting until the 19th century brought about a marked advance of the glaciers with some serious consequences for the population. The theologian and writer Beda Weber (1798–1859) attempted to explain the phenomenon of the progressive downward shift of the treeline in the Schnals Valley: 'With astonishment the inhabitants of the Schnals Valley witnessed the extinction of the forests from high up down towards the valley (A phenomenon which occurs in many principal valleys and is not yet fully explained). They saw it as the gradual extinction of the World, and to them it seemed that even now the light was becoming dimmer'. Since the middle of the 19th century climate change has been observed, with warming leading to a retreat of the glaciers and a gradual thawing of the permafrost soils. This dramatic process has already been monitored and recorded in various glaciers in South Tyrol. In recent years the rapid retreat of the glaciers has continued unhindered. Numerous reports of finds prompted the South Tyrol provincial heritage service, the Amt für Bodendenkmäler, to carry out archaeological investigations, which have revealed important new aspects relating to the use of the high altitude regions by people in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper metallurgy and bow and arrow technology are widely considered hallmark traits of the Late Prehistoric Period in the northwest of North America (Yukon and Alaska). In recent years, a number of osseous arrow points have been recovered from melting alpine ice patches in the northwest, some with evidence of copper utilization. This article reports on the construction and radiocarbon dating of three osseous arrowheads recovered from Yukon-Alaska ice patches and documents the use of handheld energy-dispersive x-ray florescence (EDXRF) technology to discriminate native copper implements, as well as detect absorbed copper residues from other osseous points. We also reference several other bladed arrow points discovered at ice patches in Yukon and neighboring Alaska to develop a tentative timeline for the use of copper end-blades with osseous arrow points in the northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1984 and the early 1990s the remains of a man were recovered from the edge of the Upper Theodul Glacier. The man died around AD 1600 while crossing the Theodul Pass (3301 m.a.s.l.) near Zermatt, one of the most important trade routes in the Pennine Alps at the time. He was called the "mercenary from the Theodul Pass" because of the weapons found alongside him. In 2006 his remains and the associated artifacts were incorporated into the collection of the Valais History Museum and specialists from various disciplines examined the collection for several years. The examination results give an unexpected glimpse into the life of a well-to-do traveller in early post-medieval period revealing rare preserved objects from this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mountainous and ice-free terrains of the maritime Antarctic generate complex mosaics of snow patches, ranging from tens to hundreds of metres. These can only be accurately mapped using high-resolution remote sensing. In this paper we evaluate the application of radar scenes from TerraSAR-X in High Resolution SpotLight mode for mapping snow patches at a test area on Fildes Peninsula (King George Island, South Shetlands). Snow-patch mapping and characterization of snow stratigraphy were conducted at the time of image acquisition on 12 and 13 January 2012. Snow was wet in all studied snow patches, with coarse-grain and rounded crystals showing advanced melting and with frequent ice layers in the snow pack. Two TerraSAR-X scenes in HH and VV polarization modes were analysed, with the former showing the best results when discriminating between wet snow, lake water and bare soil. However, significant overlap in the backscattering signal was found. Average wet-snow backscattering was --18.0 dB in HH mode, with water showing --21.1 dB and bare soil showing --11.9 dB. Single-band pixel-based and object-oriented image classification methods were used to assess the classification potential of TerraSAR-X SpotLight imagery. The best results were obtained with an object-oriented approach using a watershed segmentation with a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, with an overall accuracy of 92% and Kappa of 0.88. The main limitation was the west to north-west facing snow patches, which showed significant error, an issue related to artefacts from the geometry of satellite imagery acquisition. The results show that TerraSAR-X in SpotLight mode provides high-quality imagery for mapping wet snow and snowmelt in the maritime Antarctic. The classification procedure that we propose is a simple method and a first step to an implementation in operational mode if a good digital elevation model is available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous spectacular archaeological discoveries worldwide related to melting ice patches and the emerging field of glacial archaeology, governing processes related to ice patch development during the Holocene and their sensitivity to climate change are still largely unexplored. Here we present new results from an extensive 6-year (2009-2015) field experiment at the Juvfonne ice patch in Jotunheimen in central southern Norway. Our results show that the ice patch has existed continuously since the late Mesolithic period. Organic-rich layers and carbonaceous aerosols embedded in clear ice show ages spanning from modern at the surface to ca. 7600 cal years BP at the bottom. This is the oldest dating of ice in mainland Norway. The expanding ice patch covered moss mats appearing along the margin of Juvfonne about 2000 years ago. During the study period, the mass balance record showed a strong negative balance, and the annual balance is highly asymmetric over short distances. Snow accumulation is poorly correlated with estimated winter precipitation, and single storm events may contribute significantly to the total winter balance. Snow accumulation is approx. 20% higher in the frontal area compared to the upper central part of the ice patch. There is sufficient meltwater to bring the permeable snowpack to an isothermal state within a few weeks in early summer. Below the seasonal snowpack, ice temperatures are between --2 and --4 °C. Juvfonne has clear ice stratification of isochronic origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), glaciers in the Alps reached a maximum extent, and broad sections of the foreland were covered by ice. In this study, we simulated the alpine ice cap using a glacier flow model to constrain the prevailing precipitation pattern with a geomorphological reconstruction of ice extent. For this purpose we forced the model using different temperature cooling and precipitation reduction factors. The use of the present-day precipitation pattern led to a systematic overestimation of the ice cover on the northern part of the Alps relative to the southern part. To reproduce the LGM ice cap, a more severe decrease in precipitation in the north than in the south was required. This result supports a southwesterly advection of atmospheric moisture to the Alps, sustained by a southward shift of the North Atlantic storm track during the LGM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]