Abstract

The dynamics and paleo‐glaciology of ice sheet interiors during the last deglaciation are poorly constrained, hindering ice sheet model reconstructions. We provide direct evidence of Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) interior behavior during deglaciation through surface exposure dating. Our results demonstrate early thinning of the FIS, prior to the Younger Dryas (YD, 12.8–11.7 ka). Interior thinning in central Norway was concurrent with retreat along the coastline, exposing ice‐free mountainous tracts, potentially as early as 20–15 ka. The FIS then formed moraines in these ice‐free tracts during the YD. This is contrary to current hypotheses advocating a landscape fully covered by cold, inactive ice during this period. Present empirical and model reconstructions fail to capture rapid interior downwastage, increasing uncertainties in ice sheet volume estimates and sea level contributions.

Plain language summary

The decay of past ice sheets provides an analogue for the retreat of present‐day ice sheets, due to rapidly changing climate conditions experienced then and now. One limitation with ice reconstructions is, however, that they rarely contain dated evidence for how the ice sheet interiors behaved during their termination. In a new reconstruction of the geometry of the southern part of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS), we overcome this limitation. We document that areas at the heart of the southern ice dome, previously thought to be consumed by thick ice, were in fact ice‐free 12,000 years ago suggesting that the FIS was considerably thinner than thought and that previous estimates of the ice sheet’s volume need to be recalculated.