The glaciers of the Montaña Palentina

The Montaña Palentina hosted glaciers of different sizes and types during the last glacial cycle. An extensive ice field was formed in the Alto Carrión in the Peña Prieta-Fuentes Carrionas Massif over a wide sector above 1800 m, from which glacier tongues with lengths of tens of kilometers developed, with fronts at c. 1300 m. Consequently, the Alto Carrión presents a varied and spectacular geomorphology of glacial, periglacial, and paraglacial origins. The lower average altitude of the Alto Pisuerga led to the development of mostly small cirque glaciers with short tongues few kilometers long. The Equilibrium Line Altitude in the Montaña Palentina was higher than other nearby mountains located closer to the Cantabrian and Atlantic coasts, possibly due to a greater aridity. The data confirm a local glacial maximum prior to the global Last Glacial Maximum, when another advance phase took place too. Several pulsations occurred between this phase and the Younger Dryas (the last recorded glacial phase) during the deglaciation process, with the phase ascribed to the Oldest Dryas standing out. A periglacial high mountain permafrost environment existed during the Holocene.