GLACIATION, EROSION, AND LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION OF ICELAND

Abstract

Stratigraphic and sedimentological studies indicate that Iceland has experienced over 20 glaciations during the last 4–5 Myr, in reasonable agreement with the number of glaciations reconstructed from the ∂18O record in deep-sea sediment. The pattern of glacial erosion was to a large part controlled by constructive volcanic processes resulting in increased topographic relief after 2.5 Myr. Between 2.5 and 0.5 Ma valleys up to 400 m deep were excavated into the Tertiary basalts of eastern and south Iceland with an average erosion rate of 10–20 cm ka−1. During the last 0.5 million years rates of erosion increased to 50–175 cm ka−1, with an additional 200 to over 1000 m of valley excavation. Previous estimates of the rate of landscape erosion during the Holocene vary widely, from 5 to 70,000 cm ka−1. We present new studies that define the rates of landscape denudation during the major part of the Holocene (the last 10,200 years): one based on the Iceland shelf sediment record, the other from the sediment record in the glacier-fed lake, Hvítárvatn. Both studies indicate average Holocene erosion rates of about 5 cm ka−1 similar to our erosion rate estimate for 4–5 Ma old strata that has not been subjected to regional glaciation.