RECENT HISTORICAL FLUCTUATIONS OF THE GLACIER DU TAILLON, PYRÉNÉES

The Taillon Glacier in the French Pyrenees offers one of the most detailed records of recent glacier fluctuations in the region. A comprehensive collection of early maps, paintings, and photographs, together with short-term measurements relating to the ice margins and glacier behavior, have made possible a full reconstruction of the glacier's history since the end of the 19th century. The general pattern of ice-front retreat has been punctuated by a series of significant local readvances, dated 1886–1890, 1906–1911, 1926–1928, 1945, and 1964. The record is compared with the more detailed histories of glaciers from the Alps, and signals a surprising degree of sensitivity for the Taillon Glacier, given its overall size and state of survival. [Key words: Taillon Glacier, Pyrenees, Little Ice Age, glaciology.]