CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Clague, J.J.; and Menounos, B.
Date : 2007.
Title : Is the “Little Ice Age” still a meaningful term?
Publication : Quaternary International
Issue : 167-168. Supplement 1 - INQUA 2007 Abstracts.
Page(s) : 71.
Abstract
In 1939, Francois Matthes used the term “Little Ice Age” to identify a recent period of extended alpine ice cover – one during which glaciers were more extensive than at any other time in the past 10,000 years. Although Matthes did not specify the beginning and end of the Little Ice Age, the term was soon associated with glacier advances between about AD 1600 and AD 1850. However, as our understanding of late Holocene glacier activity improvedmany scientists began to apply the term “Little Ice Age” to a longer period, from about AD 1200 to the end of the 1800s. Indeed, many glaciers advanced close to their maximum Holocene limits in the thirteenth century. Matthes worked primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. In some mountain systems in the Southern Hemisphere, the advances of the past millennium were much less extensive than those of the early Holocene. This hemispheric difference in glacier activity raises questions about the appropriateness of the term “Little Ice Age” on a global scale. More importantly, high-resolution, tree-ring and varve records suggest that the ranges of climate and glacier change during the Little Ice Age, whether one defines it as beginning in the thirteenth century or the seventeenth century, is nearly as large as the corresponding ranges for the past 5000 years. Some glaciers in western North America advanced to positions close to subsequent Little Ice Age limits between 1700 and 1400 years ago, and another millennial-length period of repeated glacier advance and retreat (the “Tiedemann advance”) has been documented between about 3500 and 2000 years ago. As the real complexity of glacier behaviour on decadal and centennial timescales comes into sharper focus, terms such as “Little Ice Age,” although appealing, may become a barrier to communication and understanding.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology