Commentary: Reply to commentary by Noormets and Kirchner on “Glacial history and depositional environments in little Storfjorden and Hambergbukta of Arctic Svalbard since the younger dryas” [Frontiers in Earth Science, (2022), 2211]

Abstract

The commentary by Noormets and Kirchner argues that the entire Terminal Moraine Complex (TMC) at the mouth of Hambergbukta would have formed by multiple glacier advances after the Younger Dryas. They pointed out that Joe et al. (2022) has overlooked the complex morphological features, especially the stacked debris flow lobes and flattened crest areas, of TMC to interpreted its formation. In this reply, we present an additional subbottom profiling data covering two sets (DFL-3 and DFL-2) of debris flow lobes defined by Noormets and Kirchner and further discuss for the the stacked debris lobes, the age model of the studied core, and iceberg-flattened crests of the TMC. Although a further investigation is necessary to better understand the behavior of the former tidewater glacier (Hambergbreen) in Hambergbukta, our conclusion is that the complex morphology of TMC could have formed during the latest Holocene including the Little Ice Age.