Ice wedges are widespread periglacial features in
the landscape of Adventdalen, Svalbard. The networks of ice
wedges have created areas with well-developed polygonal
terrains in the lowest fluvial terraces in this valley. We have
examined the sedimentological characteristics of the northern
and southern banks of the Advent river for palaeoenvironmental
purposes. The base of two sedimentary sections
reported radiocarbon dates of 3.3 and 3.9 ka BP, respectively.
The northern site is constituted by three very different
lithostratigraphical units, which suggests that their formation
should be related to different environmental and climate
conditions. By contrast, the southern section shows a
rather homogeneous composition, with no significant variations
in grain size and organic matter content. In both cases
the uppermost sediments are constituted by a thick aeolian
deposit. According to our data, warmer climate conditions
may have prevailed during the mid Holocene until 3.3 ka BP
with widespread peat formation in the valley bottom. Subsequently,
a period with alternating soil formation and aeolian
sedimentation took place from 3 to 2.5 ka BP, probably due
to increasing climatic severity. During the last millennium a
long-term cooling trend has favoured aeolian deposition in
the lowest part of Adventdalen.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio