A commentary to ‘Asynchronous Little Ice Age glacial maximum extent in southeast Iceland’ by Chenet et al. (Geomorphology 114 (2010) 253–260); a case of Fláajökull

The validity of the generalized extreme value method and the Bayesian approach, used by Chenet et al. (2010) in lichenometric dating of the outermost LIA Fláajökull moraines in SE Iceland, is questioned. The technique produced the date of A.D. 1821 for the abandonment of the moraine which does not agree with historical data nor does it correlate with the hypsometry (size, equilibrium line altitude and slope) of the glacier. On the other hand, a simple technique based on the five largest thalli or the size–frequency-based analysis agree well with the historical data and show that the Little Ice Age glacier maximum occurred in the late nineteenth century.