Periglacial Landforms in Jotunheimen, Central Southern Norway, and Their Altitudinal Distribution

Jotunheimen in central South Norway is home of the highest peaks in Norway. It is characterised by omnipresent high-altitudinal plateaus creating a specific gross morphology and providing diverse natural environments for the periglacial process-system. A variety of periglacial landforms including different types of patterned ground, rock glaciers and ice-cored moraines, and solifluction features occur in Jotunheimen. Their altitudinal distribution is strongly controlled by the regional distribution of permafrost, but may also be influenced by other factors like topography, bedrock properties, sedimentology, or vegetation. The regional distribution of permafrost modelled on basis of meteorological parameters and ground temperature measurements accompanied by local air temperature records provide a good basis for the investigation of causal links between the altitudinal zonation of certain periglacial landforms and the lower limit of permafrost. Whereas the fluctuations of this lower limit of permafrost since Deglaciation are reasonably well constraint and its uppermost position during the Holocene Thermal Maximum followed by a subsequent late Holocene lowering seems confirmed, there is hardly any available chronological data on the periglacial landforms themselves. Exceptions are small-scale features on recently deglaciated glacier forelands, but other well-developed landforms seem to have formed shortly after Deglaciation and appear quite inactive today.