The deglaciation of the Ésera valley since the Maximum Ice Extent in the Pyrenees

Authors

  • Ixeia Vidaller Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza
  • Ana Moreno Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza
  • Penélope González-Sampériz Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPE-CSIC), Zaragoza
  • Sergi Pla-Rabés Unitat d’Ecologia, Department de Biologia Animal, Biología Vegetal i Ecología, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
  • Toshiyuki Fujioka Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), Burgos
  • Juan Ignacio López-Moreno Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IPE-CSIC)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55407/geogaceta108713

Keywords:

Pyrenees, geochronology, paleoclimate, last deglaciation, glaciers

Abstract

The Ésera valley is a narrow U-shape valley located in the Central Pyrenees. It has been modelled by the glacial activity during the Last Glacial Cycle. The combination of several methods as cosmogenic exposure dating of glacial deposits and lacustrine core analyses in the Pllan d’Están proglacial lake has allowed to understand the complex dynamics of the Ésera glacier since the local glacial maximum extension (75 ka ago). After this maximum extension, the glacier retreated according with a warm interval within the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. A new glacial advance, likely corresponding with the Oldest Dryas (16 ka) was established from cosmogenic dates and subglacial sedimentation in the Pllan d’Están paleolake. From that time to nowadays, the Ésera glacier has retreated very quickly, especially during the Allerød period (13.8 ka). During the Little Ice Age, the Ésera glacier, divided in several smaller glaciers, left the thickest moraines conserved in this valley.

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Published

2025-06-20

How to Cite

Vidaller, I., Moreno, A., González-Sampériz, P., Pla-Rabés, S., Fujioka, T., & López-Moreno, J. I. (2025). The deglaciation of the Ésera valley since the Maximum Ice Extent in the Pyrenees. GEOGACETA, 77, 87–90. https://doi.org/10.55407/geogaceta108713

Issue

Vol. 77 (2025): January-June

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Artículos

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Copyright (c) 2025 Ixeia Vidaller, Ana Moreno, Penélope González-Sampériz, Sergi Pla-Rabés, Toshiyuki Fujioka, Juan Ignacio López-Moreno

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Until the year 2023 the author assigned the copyright to the Sociedad Geológica de España, but from 2024 the author retains the copyright and grants the Sociedad Geológica de España the right of first publication and non-exclusive distribution of each article in all current or future media, while transferring, also non-exclusively, the commercial rights for the distribution of the printed version of Geogaceta. On the other hand, the articles, from the year 2023, are available simultaneously with their publication, under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, which allows copying, transforming the work, but if any transformation is distributed, the new work must be distributed under the same license, and never for commercial purposes, while acknowledging the authorship and original publication in GEOGACETA, so that the only role of copyright is to give authors control over the integrity of their works and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.

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