Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3.8
0.4 ka, although a retreating glacier still survives in the northwestern cirque
of the mountain.
±
3.2.10 Lebanon
Moraines exist in the high mountains of Lebanon in the eastern Mediterranean.
Messerli (1966) reported the presence of moraines on both the highest peak in
Lebanon, Qornet es Saouda (3088 m asl), in the Jbel Liban, and also on Mount
Hermon (2814 m asl) in the south of the country. In both mountain areas, moraines
are present between altitudes of 2500 and 2750 m. Glaciers would have been quite
small on Mount Hermon, with lengths of less than 1 km. On Qornet es Saouda,
however, glaciers reached several kilometres in length in the Rjoum valley on the
northwestern flank of the mountain. Messerli (1966) tentatively suggested that two
different glaciations were recorded in the Lebanon. Very little, if any, glacial re-
search has been done in this area since the work of Messerli.
3.2.11 The glaciated Mediterranean islands
Corsica was extensively glaciated during the Pleistocene. Glacial features on the is-
land were first reported by Pumpelly (1859), and the most recent published studies
include those by Heybrock (1954), Letsch (1956) and Conchon (1986). Kuhlemann
et al.
(2005) used geomorphological evidence to reconstruct the former glaciers of
Corsica. Large ice fields and valley glaciers formed during the Wurmian glacial
maximum, and some glaciers were up to 14 km long. The ELA of the Wurmian
glaciers was between 1400 and 1750 m asl, with variations attributed to precipita-
tion differences. The Late Pleistocene age of the Corsican glacial landforms has
been confirmed by Kuhlemann
et al.
(2008) using
10
Be exposure dating.
In Crete, the southernmost of the large Mediterranean islands, evidence of glacia-
tion is limited and, in some areas, disputed. The clearest evidence of former glacia-
tion is on Mount Idi (or Mount Psiloritis, 2456 m asl), the highest mountain in
Crete. Here, Fabre and Maire (1983) recognized a cirque and associated moraines,
the latter at an altitude of c. 1945 m asl. Further to the west, in the White Mountains,
the evidence of glaciation is ambiguous, if present at all. Poser (1957), Bonnefont
(1972) and Boenzi
et al.
(1982) did not find evidence of glaciation. However,
Nemec and Postma (1993) have argued that the White Mountains were glaciated
during the Pleistocene. They studied a series of alluvial fans and argued that they
were formed by large water discharges associated with ice-cap melting (for more
details see review in Hughes
et al.
, 2006a).
On other Mediterranean islands there is no reported evidence of former glacia-
tion. Mount Etna (3329 m asl), on Sicily, is by far the highest mountain on the
Mediterranean islands, and indeed one of the highest mountains of the Mediter-
ranean region, yet no glacial evidence has been reported. However, this is not to say
