首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
相似文献
 共查询到20条相似文献,搜索用时 484 毫秒
1.
Detailed geomorphological mapping has revealed evidence for the development of plateau icefields in the central fells of the English Lake District during the Loch Lomond (Younger Dryas) Stadial (ca. 12.9–11.5 ka). The largest plateau icefield system, which covered an area of approximately 55 km2 (including outlet glaciers), was centred on High Raise. To the west, smaller plateau icefields developed on Grey Knotts/Brandreth and Dale Head, covering areas of 7 km2 and 3 km2 respectively. The geomorphological impact of these plateau icefields appears to have been minimal on the summits, where the survival of blockfields and other frost‐weathered debris (mostly peat‐covered) implies the existence of at least patches of protective, cold‐based ice. Ice‐moulded bedrock at some plateau edges, however, documents a transition to wet‐based, erosive conditions. Prominent moraine systems were produced by outlet glaciers, which descended into the surrounding valleys where their margins became sediment traps for supraglacial debris and inwash. In some valleys, ice‐marginal moraines record successive positions of outlet glaciers, which actively backwasted towards their plateau source. This interpretation differs from that of previous workers, who assumed an alpine style of glaciation, with reconstructed glaciers emanating from corries and valley heads. It is likely that plateau icefields were more common at this time in upland Britain than hitherto has been appreciated. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

2.
Research into the Quaternary geology of the NW Himalaya has concentrated on the elucidation of the glacial sequence. However, whilst the main ranges of the Himalaya have been subjected to numerous glaciations and are now an obvious alpine glaciated terrain, much of the landscape in Zanskar and Ladakh is more equivocal and does not appear to have been glaciated during this time. These landscape facets may therefore have a much older origin and relate to preglacial events.In Zanskar, the main ice source in all glaciations was the strongly glaciated and still glacierized north slope of the main Himalaya. This ice then flowed generally northwards in the valleys of the Zanskar river and its tributaries leaving between them a landscape supporting only a few and scattered minor local glaciers. Evidence of early glaciation has been found on isolated valley-side remnants >200 m above the present rivers. Reconstruction of these preglacial valley cross profiles show them to be generally broad and shallow, with gentle slopes. This is in distinct contrast to the present major valley systems which can usually be divided into two parts—a lower unglaciated fluvially eroded section, such as the Lungnak (Tsarap Lingti Chu) Gorge and an upper broad glacial section, such as the Stod (Doda) valley.Down-valley extent of glaciation is defined by the upper ends of unglaciated fluvial gorges. Laterally, the glaciers were confined progressively to their valleys. Inevitably there is only evidence of successively smaller subsequent glaciations, but the tectonic uplift of the southern ranges may have been a factor in this forming an increasing barrier to the snow-bearing monsoon winds.  相似文献   

3.
Glaciated landscapes consist of complex assemblages of landforms resulting from ice flow dynamic regimes and ice-sheet history, superimposed over, and in turn modifying, preglacial topography, lithology and geological structure. Insights into the formation of glaciated landscapes can, in principle, be obtained by analysing modern ice-sheet beds, but terrain analyses beneath modern ice sheets are restricted by the inaccessibility of the bed. It is, however, possible to quantify roughness, the vertical variation of the subglacial interface with horizontal distance, along two-dimensional images of the bed obtained from radio-echo sounding (RES). Here we collate several case studies from Antarctica, where roughness calculations have been used as a glaciological tool to infer basal processes and ice-sheet history over large (>500 km2) areas. We present two examples from West Antarctica, which demonstrate the utility of bed roughness in determining the presence and extent of subglacial sediments, glacial dynamics and former ice-sheet size. We also present two examples from East Antarctica, which illustrate how roughness provides knowledge of ice-sheet dynamics in the interior and pre-Quaternary ice-sheet histories. In modern ice-sheet settings, characterising bed roughness along RES tracks has the twin advantages of being relatively simple to calculate while producing informative subsurface data, and is especially powerful at furthering understanding when coupled with knowledge of ice flow from field, satellite and modelling investigations. The technique also offers significant potential for the comparison of modern and former ice-sheet terrains, contributing to an improved understanding of the formation and evolution of glaciated landscapes.  相似文献   

4.
Twenty-two new radiocarbon ages from Skagit valley provide a detailed chronology of alpine glaciation during the Evans Creek stade of the Fraser Glaciation (early marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 2) in the Cascade Range, Washington State. Sediments at sites near Concrete, Washington, record two advances of the Baker valley glacier between ca. 30.3 and 19.5 cal ka BP, with an intervening period of glacier recession about 24.9 cal ka BP. The Baker valley glacier dammed lower Skagit valley, creating glacial Lake Concrete, which discharged around the ice dam along Finney Creek, or south into the Sauk valley. Sediments along the shores of Ross Lake in upper Skagit valley accumulated in glacial Lake Skymo after ca. 28.7 cal ka BP behind a glacier flowing out of Big Beaver valley. Horizontally laminated silt and bedded sand and gravel up to 20 m thick record as much as 8000 yr of deposition in these glacially dammed lakes. The data indicate that alpine glaciers in Skagit valley were far less extensive than previously thought. Alpine glaciers remained in advanced positions for much of the Evans Creek stade, which may have ended as early as 20.8 cal ka BP.  相似文献   

5.
The glacial landscape beneath the Maudheimvidda ice sheet in East Antarctica was most probably formed during a more temperate phase of Antarctic glaciation than the present. Overdeepened glacial cirques and U-shaped valleys are found in the Heimefrontfjella and Vestfjella mountain ranges. These glacial landforms, located beneath the ice sheet, have been mapped with radio-echo sounders. The present ice sheet covering these landforms is cold and frozen to its bed, and has a negligible erosive effect on the substrate. Ice sheet thickening during the Quaternary glacial periods is not believed to have caused any significant increase in erosion at the investigated sites. Instead, the glacial morphology was most likely formed by smaller, temperate glaciers when the Antarctic climate was warmer than at present. Datings of foraminifera and ash layers from the Transantarc-tic Mountains indicate that the present cold ice sheet was formed 2.5 Ma years ago. Other studies imply that a cold Antarctic ice sheet has lasted even longer. The glacial landforms in Maudheimvidda may thus be of a pre-Quaternary age.  相似文献   

6.
Brenda L. Hall   《Quaternary Science Reviews》2009,28(21-22):2213-2230
A history of Holocene glaciation in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic affords insight into questions concerning present and future ice-sheet and mountain-glacier behavior and global climate and sea-level change. Existing records permit broad correlation of Holocene ice fluctuations within the region. In several areas, ice extent was less than at present in mid-Holocene time. An important exception to this is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which has undergone continued recession throughout the Holocene, probably in response to internal dynamics. The first Neoglacial ice advances occurred at 5.0 ka, although some sites (e.g., western Ross Sea) lack firm evidence for glacial expansion at that time. Glaciers in all areas underwent renewed growth in the past millennium, and most have subsequently undergone recession in the past 50 years, ranging from near-catastrophic in parts of the Antarctic Peninsula to minor in the western Ross Sea region and sections of East Antarctica. This magnitude difference likely reflects the much greater warming that is taking place in the Antarctic Peninsula region today as compared to East Antarctica.  相似文献   

7.
Large embankments, typically several kilometers in lateral extent and many tens of meters high, choke the mouths of each alpine valley of the central Cascade Range, Washington State, U.S.A., at or near their junctions with the Puget Lowland. They comprise till and bedded gravel, sand, and silt, aggraded into ice-dammed lakes. The embankments lie within the late-Pleistocene Cordilleran ice-sheet limit and so do not mark the location of the ice-maximum terminus. Reconstruction of the subglacial hydraulic potential field indicates that these ice-dammed lakes would have drained subglacially via spillways located near the junction of each alpine valley and the Lowland. Physical processes tended to stabilize the grounding line for each ice tongue close to its respective spillway location. Because sedimentation rates are highest adjacent to the grounding line, subaqueous sedimentation formed a growing embankment there. In some valleys, subsequent subaerial lake drainage or decay of the active-ice dam resulted in late-stage deposition of deltas or valley trains. This analysis of ice-water behavior is based on physical principles that should be generally applicable to any environment where glaciers terminate against ice-dammed bodies of water.  相似文献   

8.
The Pleistocene, and possibly also other, older glaciations, are believed to have resulted from a combination of terrestrial and astronomical factors. Preceding glaciation, orogenesis and uplift increased the Earth's albedo and decreased temperature. Lowering of temperature below a certain threshold value permitted the astronomical cause to become operative. While smaller glaciations may have been largely or entirely patterned by the astronomical cause or causes, terrestrial factors had an important effect in determining the course of the larger glaciations. Two time-delay factors are believed to have been responsible for the oscillatory pattern of glaciation: these are plastic iceflow, and crustal warping.Summer insolation variation in the high latitudes is believed to be a more likely astronomical cause than variation of solar radiation.  相似文献   

9.
The style of Pleistocene outwash sedimentation in the foreland of the central European Mountains (the Carpathians and Sudetes) was controlled to a large extent by the topography. The deposits of three outwash plains formed in various morphological situations in front of the Upper Odra Lobe during the Odranian glaciation (older Saalian) are described here to show the conditions of their development and to reveal the relation between outwash plain sedimentology and proglacial topography. One outwash plain was formed between the mountain front and the ice-sheet margin, which advanced into the zone of fore-mountain alluvial fans. This outwash, deposited parallel to the ice margin, was under the considerable influence of extraglacial rivers flowing from the mountains. The second outwash was deposited in a small valley dipping away from the ice sheet and successively buried by glaciofluvial sediments. It evolved from a narrow valley sandur to an unconfined outwash plain. The third one was formed in a relatively broad, dammed valley dipping towards the ice sheet, where proglacial lake base level controlled the pattern of outwash channels as well as the character of the sedimentation. The studied outwash plains have different sedimentary successions. Their sedimentary profiles differ from each other even in the neighbouring valleys, indicating that distinct depositional conditions existed at the same time in closely spaced areas. It is suggested that the glaciomarginal deposition was controlled mostly by the orientation of the valleys and the inter-valley areas relative to the ice-sheet front. Size and morphology of valleys and interfluves were also important. Depending on their orientation, the outwash plains were fed by meltwaters in various ways; the dip of their surfaces was markedly different and the dynamics of the proglacial river systems were diverse.  相似文献   

10.
Modern pollen-vegetation relationship has been analyzed in respect to vegetational distribution and pollen dispersal from sub-alpine and alpine ecological regimes within the higher reaches of the Gangotri glacier valley. The results in general cope with the local ecological conditions of the sites within the valley. Above the tree line limits, the pollen frequency of arboreal taxa is found lower than those of non-arboreal taxa. In contrast the pine-birch forest area at Chirbasa represented the frequency of arboreal pollen (AP) more than that of non-arboreal pollen (NAP) due to over representation of Pinus wallichiana (conifer). Pollen grains of extra-local arboreal elements, mostly conifers have also been recorded here with fair amount of temperate broad-leaved arboreal taxa viz. Quercus, Alnus, Corylus, Carpinus, Ulmus, Juglans etc. that have been transported by the upthermic winds from their growing limits at lower altitudes to the study sites at higher altitudes. Non-arboreal taxa viz. marshy/aquatic, steppe and of other herbaceaous taxa, represents the existing ecological regimes of their respective sites within the valley. Differential pollen preservation has been observed between the moss cushion and sediment samples from the same site that may be due to the direct exposure of moss cushions to air, thus showing more concentration of wind pollinated pollen-spores as compared to surface sediments.  相似文献   

11.
Predicting the future response of ice sheets to climate warming and rising global sea level is important but difficult. This is especially so when fast-flowing glaciers or ice streams, buffered by ice shelves, are grounded on beds below sea level. What happens when these ice shelves are removed? And how do the ice stream and the surrounding ice sheet respond to the abruptly altered boundary conditions? To address these questions and others we present new geological, geomorphological, geophysical and geochronological data from the ice-stream-dominated NW sector of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS). The study area covers around 45 000 km2 of NW Scotland and the surrounding continental shelf. Alongside seabed geomorphological mapping and Quaternary sediment analysis, we use a suite of over 100 new absolute ages (including cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages, optically stimulated luminescence ages and radiocarbon dates) collected from onshore and offshore, to build a sector-wide ice-sheet reconstruction combining all available evidence with Bayesian chronosequence modelling. Using this information we present a detailed assessment of ice-sheet advance/retreat history, and the glaciological connections between different areas of the NW BIIS sector, at different times during the last glacial cycle. The results show a highly dynamic, partly marine, partly terrestrial, ice-sheet sector undergoing large size variations in response to sub-millennial-scale climatic (Dansgaard–Oeschger) cycles over the last 45 000 years. Superimposed on these trends we identify internally driven instabilities, operating at higher frequency, conditioned by local topographic factors, tidewater dynamics and glaciological feedbacks during deglaciation. Specifically, our new evidence indicates extensive marine-terminating ice-sheet glaciation of the NW BIIS sector during Greenland Stadials 12 to 9 – prior to the main ‘Late Weichselian’ ice-sheet glaciation. After a period of restricted glaciation, in Greenland Interstadials 8 to 6, we find good evidence for rapid renewed ice-sheet build-up in NW Scotland, with the Minch ice-stream terminus reaching the continental shelf edge in Greenland Stadial 5, perhaps only briefly. Deglaciation of the NW sector took place in numerous stages. Several grounding-zone wedges and moraines on the mid- and inner continental shelf attest to significant stabilizations of the ice-sheet grounding line, or ice margin, during overall retreat in Greenland Stadials 3 and 2, and to the development of ice shelves. NW Lewis was the first substantial present-day land area to deglaciate, in the first half of Greenland Stadial 3 at a time of globally reduced sea-level c. 26 kabp , followed by Cape Wrath at c. 24 kabp. The topographic confinement of the Minch straits probably promoted ice-shelf development in early Greenland Stadial 2, providing the ice stream with additional support and buffering it somewhat from external drivers. However, c. 20–19 kabp , as the grounding-line migrated into shoreward deepening water, coinciding with a marked change in marine geology and bed strength, the ice stream became unstable. We find that, once underway, grounding-line retreat proceeded in an uninterrupted fashion with the rapid loss of fronting ice shelves – first in the west, then the east troughs – before eventual glacier stabilization at fjord mouths in NW Scotland by ~17 kabp. Around the same time, ~19–17 kabp , ice-sheet lobes readvanced into the East Minch – possibly a glaciological response to the marine-instability-triggered loss of adjacent ice stream (and/or ice shelf) support in the Minch trough. An independent ice cap on Lewis also experienced margin oscillations during mid-Greenland Stadial 2, with an ice-accumulation centre in West Lewis existing into the latter part of Heinrich Stadial 1. Final ice-sheet deglaciation of NW mainland Scotland was punctuated by at least one other coherent readvance at c. 15.5 kabp , before significant ice-mass losses thereafter. At the glacial termination, c. 14.5 kabp , glaciers fed outwash sediment to now-abandoned coastal deltas in NW mainland Scotland around the time of global Meltwater Pulse 1A. Overall, this work on the BIIS NW sector reconstructs a highly dynamic ice-sheet oscillating in extent and volume for much of the last 45 000 years. Periods of expansive ice-sheet glaciation dominated by ice-streaming were interspersed with periods of much more restricted ice-cap or tidewater/fjordic glaciation. Finally, this work indicates that the role of ice streams in ice-sheet evolution is complex but mechanistically important throughout the lifetime of an ice sheet – with ice streams contributing to the regulation of ice-sheet health but also to the acceleration of ice-sheet demise via marine ice-sheet instabilities.  相似文献   

12.
A numerical ice-sheet model was used to reconstruct the Late Weichselian glaciation of the Eurasian High Arctic, between Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya. An ice sheet was developed over the entire Eurasian High Arctic so that ice flow from the central Barents and Kara seas toward the northern Russian Arctic could be accounted for. An inverse approach to modeling was utilized, where ice-sheet results were forced to be compatible with geological information indicating ice-free conditions over the Taymyr Peninsula during the Late Weichselian. The model indicates complete glaciation of the Barents and Kara seas and predicts a “maximum-sized” ice sheet for the Late Weichselian Russian High Arctic. In this scenario, full-glacial conditions are characterized by a 1500-m-thick ice mass over the Barents Sea, from which ice flowed to the north and west within several bathymetric troughs as large ice streams. In contrast to this reconstruction, a “minimum” model of glaciation involves restricted glaciation in the Kara Sea, where the ice thickness is only 300 m in the south and which is free of ice in the north across Severnaya Zemlya. Our maximum reconstruction is compatible with geological information that indicates complete glaciation of the Barents Sea. However, geological data from Severnaya Zemlya suggest our minimum model is more relevant further east. This, in turn, implies a strong paleoclimatic gradient to colder and drier conditions eastward across the Eurasian Arctic during the Late Weichselian.  相似文献   

13.
Ice-proximal sedimentological features from the northwestern Barents Sea suggest that this region was covered by a grounded ice sheet during the Late Weichselian. However, there is debate as to whether these sediments were deposited by the ice sheet at its maximum or a retreating ice sheet that had covered the whole Barents Sea. To examine the likelihood of total glaciation of the Late Weichselian Barents Sea, a numerical ice-sheet model was run using a range of environmental conditions. Total glaciation of the Barents Sea, originating solely from Svalbard and the northwestern Barents Sea, was not predicted even under extreme environmental conditions. Therefore, if the Barents Sea was completely covered by a grounded Late Weichselian ice sheet, then a mechanism (not accounted for within the glaciological model) by which grounded ice could have formed rapidly within the central Barents Sea, may have been active during the last glaciation. Such mechanisms include (i) grounded ice migration from nearby ice sheets in Scandinavia and the central Barents Sea, (ii) the processes of sea-ice-induced ice-shelf thickening and (iii) isostatic uplift of the central Barents Sea floor.  相似文献   

14.
Examination of organic sediments lying on top of and within moraine limits in three Cairngorm corrics gives a minimum moraine age. According to previous suggestions the moraines originate either from the 'Little Ice Age' of the 16th–19th centuries or the Loch Lomond Stadial of 10,800–10,300 B.P. Radiocarbon dates and biostratigraphy show that the sediments have been accumulating undisturbed in the corries for 6,000–9,000 radiocarbon years, thus invalidating the 'Little Ice Age' hypothesis. The last known glaciation is therefore the Loch Lomond Advance and hence the moraine ridges are likely to date from that time.  相似文献   

15.
This is a synthesis of the glacial history of the northern Urals undertaken using published works and the results of geological surveys as well as recent geochronometric and remote sensing data. The conclusions differ from the classical model that considers the Urals as an important source of glacial ice and partly from the modern reconstructions. The principal supporting evidence for the conventional model – Uralian erratics found on the adjacent plains – is ambiguous because Uralian clasts were also delivered by a thick external ice sheet overriding the mountains during the Middle Pleistocene. Alternative evidence presented in this paper indicates that in the late Quaternary the Ural mountains produced only valley glaciers that partly coalesced in the western piedmont to form large piedmont lobes. The last maximum glaciation occurred in the Early Valdaian time at c. 70–90 ka when glacial ice from the Kara shelf invaded the lowlands and some montane valleys but an icecap over the mountains was not formed. The moraines of the alpine glaciation are preserved only beyond the limits of the Kara ice sheet and therefore cannot be younger than MIS 4. More limited glaciation during MIS 2 generated small alpine moraines around the cirques of the western Urals (Mangerud et al. 2008: Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 1047). The largest moraines of Transuralia were probably produced by the outlet glaciers of a Middle Pleistocene ice sheet that formed on the western plains and discharged across the Polar Urals. The resultant scheme of limited mountain glaciation is possibly also applicable as a model for older glacial cycles.  相似文献   

16.
T. Hughes   《Quaternary Science Reviews》2009,28(19-20):1831-1849
Three facts should guide ice-sheet modeling. (1) Ice height above the bed is controlled by the strength of ice-bed coupling, reducing ice thickness by some 90 percent when coupling vanishes. (2) Ice-bed coupling vanishes along ice streams that end as floating ice shelves and drain up to 90 percent of an ice sheet. (3) Because of (1) and (2), ice sheets can rapidly collapse and disintegrate, thereby removing ice sheets from Earth's climate system and forcing abrupt climate change. The first model of ice-sheet dynamics was developed in Australia and applied to the present Antarctic Ice Sheet in 1970. It treated slow sheet flow, which prevails over some 90 percent of the ice sheet, but is the least dynamic component. The model made top-down calculations of ice velocities and temperatures, based on known surface conditions and an assumed basal geothermal heat flux. In 1972, Joseph Fletcher proposed a six-step research strategy for studying dynamic systems. The first step was identifying the most dynamic components, which for Antarctica are fast ice streams that discharge up to 90 percent of the ice. Ice-sheet models developed at the University of Maine in the 1970s were based on the Fletcher strategy and focused on ice streams, including calving dynamics when ice streams end in water. These models calculated the elevation of ice sheets based in the strength of ice-bed coupling. This was a bottom-up approach that lowered ice elevations some 90 percent when ice-bed coupling vanished. Top-down modeling is able to simulate changes in the size and shape of ice sheets through a whole glaciation cycle, provided the mass balance is treated correctly. Bottom-up modeling is able to produce accurate changes in ice elevations based on changes in ice-bed coupling, provided the force balance is treated correctly. Truly holistic ice-sheet models should synthesize top-down and bottom-up approaches by combining the mass balance with the force balance in ways that merge abrupt changes in stream flow with slow changes in sheet flow. Then discharging 90 percent of the ice by ice streams mobilizes 90 percent of the area so ice sheets can self-destruct, and thereby terminate a glaciation cycle.  相似文献   

17.
The Pekulney Mountains and adjacent Tanyurer River valley are key regions for examining the nature of glaciation across much of northeast Russia. Twelve new cosmogenic isotope ages and 14 new radiocarbon ages in concert with morphometric analyses and terrace stratigraphy constrain the timing of glaciation in this region of central Chukotka. The Sartan Glaciation (Last Glacial Maximum) was limited in extent in the Pekulney Mountains and dates to 20,000 yr ago. Cosmogenic isotope ages > 30,000 yr as well as non-finite radiocarbon ages imply an estimated age no younger than the Zyryan Glaciation (early Wisconsinan) for large sets of moraines found in the central Tanyurer Valley. Slope angles on these loess-mantled ridges are less than a few degrees and crest widths are an order of magnitude greater than those found on the younger Sartan moraines. The most extensive moraines in the lower Tanyurer Valley are most subdued implying an even older, probable middle Pleistocene age. This research provides direct field evidence against Grosswald’s Beringian ice-sheet hypothesis.  相似文献   

18.
The Taymyr Peninsula constitutes the eastern delimitation of a possible Kara Sea basin ice sheet. The existence of such an ice sheet during the last global glacial maximum (LGM), i.e. during the Late Weichselian/Upper Zyryansk, is favoured by some Russian scientists. However, a growing number of studies point towards a more minimalistic view concerning the areal extent of Late Weichselian/Upper Zyryansk Siberian glaciation. Investigations carried out by us along the central Byrranga Mountains and in the Taymyr Lake basin south thereof, reject the possibility of a Late Weichselian/Upper Zyryansk glaciation of this area. Our conclusion is based on the following: Dating of a continuous lacustrine sediment sequence at Cape Sabler on the Taymyr Lake shows that it spans at least the period 39-17 ka BP. Even younger ages have been reported, suggesting that this lacustrine environment prevailed until shortly before the Holocene. The distribution of these sediments indicates the existence of a paleo-Taymyr lake reaching c. 60 m above present sea level. A reconnaissance of the central part of the Byrranga Mountains gave no evidence of any more recent glacial coverage. The only evidence of glaciation - an indirect one - is deltaic sequences around 100-120 m a.s.l., suggesting glacio-isostatic depression and a large input of glacial meltwater from the north. However, 14C and ESR datings of these marine sediments suggest that they are of Early Weichselian/Lower Zyryansk or older age. As they are not covered by till and show no glaciotectonic disturbances, they support our opinion that there was no Late Weichselian/Lower Zyryansk glaciation in this area. We thus suggest that the Taymyr Peninsula was most probably glaciated during the early part of the last glacial cycle (when there was only small- to medium-scale glaciation in Scandinavia), but not glaciated during the later part of that cycle (which had the maximum ice-sheet coverage over north-western Europe). This fits a climatic scenario suggesting that the Taymyr area, like most of Siberia, would come into precipitation shadow during times with large-scale ice-sheet coverage of Scandinavia and the rest of north-western Europe.  相似文献   

19.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE QUATERNARY GEOLOGY OF THE LADAKH RANGE, NORTHWEST INDIAN HIMALAYA  相似文献   

20.
Pebble counts of the lithology of glacial sediments in the King Valley show that the content of distantly derived erratics of many sections decreases upwards in near surface sediments. Two factors that contribute to this lithological stratification are dilution of the erratic content of surface sediments by locally derived rocks and lithological stratification of debris within the Pleistocene King Glacier. The common diluting mechanism appears to have been slope detritus derived from the valley sides and small hills that crop out on the valley floor. Lithological stratification of debris in the King Glacier resulted from the altitude of the equilibrium line of the King Glacier relative to the position and altitude of the rock source areas and the thermal regime at the ice-bed interface. The Jurassic dolerite and Permian sediments that crop out above the equilibrium line altitude were transported in subglacial and englacial positions. In contrast, below the equilibrium line sediments that accumulated and were transported in a supraglacial position contained no erratic lithologies. When deposited, the supraglacial sediments formed a siliceous, non-erratic cover over sediments that were transported in subglacial and englacial positions. The model of the mode of sediment transport in the King Valley may have application to areas of alpine glaciation where the distribution of some rock types is restricted to areas above the equilibrium lines of glaciers.  相似文献   

设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号