Little Ice Age glacier advance in the Iberian Mountains. Synthesis and present-day knowledge
Authors
J.J. González
Universidad de Cantabria
R. Martín
Universidad de Saint Louis
E. Serrano
Universidad de Valladolid
Keywords:
Pequeña Edad del Hielo, Morfología glaciar, Cambios climáticos, Montañas Ibéricas
Abstract
“Little Ice Age glacier advance in the Iberian Mountains. Synthesis and present-day knowledge”. Little Ice Age glacier advance has been registered in three of the main Spanish high mountain areas: Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and Sierra Nevada. In Pyrenees the LIA glacierization is in 15 different massifs where there are up to 100 cirques, however nowadays the glaciers remain in the highest peaks. The Cantabrican glaciers, 6 in the Picos de Europa Massif, and the Sierra Nevada´s one, the southernest of Europe, were marginal and dependent on both geographical location and topoclimatical factors. We have found several LIA glaciers variations in the Iberian mountains: hystorical maximum (from the end of the c. XVII to the beginning of the c. XVIII), minor retreat, secondary regrowth (mid- c. XIX) and continuous retreat (from the end of the c. XIX to the beginning of the c. XX), followed by the almost complete extinction of the glaciers and the increase of the periglacial domain.
