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The “Little Ice Age” and Its Geomorphological Consequences in Mediterranean Europe

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The Iceberg in the Mist: Northern Research in pursuit of a “Little Ice Age”

Abstract

Alpine glacier advances in the “Little Ice Age” took place in the decades around 1320, 1600, 1700 and 1810. They were the outcome of snowier winters and cooler summers than those of the twentieth century. Documentary records from Crete in particular, and also from Italy, southern France and southeast Spain point to a greater frequency in Mediterranean Europe’s mountainous regions of severe floods, droughts and frosts at times of “Little Ice Age” Alpine glacier advances. Deluges, when more than 200 mm of rain fall within 24 hours, are most frequent on mountainous areas near the coast. An instance is given of the geomorphological consequences of a great deluge which struck the Tech valley in the eastern Pyrenees on 17 October 1940. An increased frequency of deluges, probably at times when Alpine glaciers were advancing in the “Little Ice Age” and earlier in the Holocene, in areas known to be tectonically unstable and underlain by soft sediments, could better explain the occurrence of fluvial terraces in Mediterranean Europe sometimes known as the “younger fill”, than soil erosion resulting from deforestation.

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  1. Department of Geography, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK

    A. T. Grove

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  1. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, 80309-0450, Boulder, CO, USA

    Astrid E. J. Ogilvie

  2. Department of Research and Processing, Icelandic Meteorological Office, Bústaðavegur 9, ÍS-150, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Trausti Jónsson

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Grove, A.T. (2001). The “Little Ice Age” and Its Geomorphological Consequences in Mediterranean Europe. In: Ogilvie, A.E.J., Jónsson, T. (eds) The Iceberg in the Mist: Northern Research in pursuit of a “Little Ice Age”. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3352-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3352-6_5

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