共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 31 毫秒
1.
冰盖数值模拟是一种基于多源观测数据,通过构建并求解冰流动力学方程组,理解冰流运动物理机制以及诊断和预估其演化过程的方法,目前已被广泛应用于冰盖变化研究。本文简要介绍了极地冰盖数值模拟方法,归纳综述了近十余年我国学者在极地冰盖数值模拟方面的研究进展,厘清我国在冰盖数值模拟领域遇到的瓶颈和关键问题。阐述了如何与我国的极地冰盖科考优势区域深度结合,协同多源强化观测和数值模拟,研发和改进冰盖模式,提高冰盖模拟能力,对定量估算极地冰盖的物质平衡及其对未来海平面上升的影响做出实质贡献。通过逐步发展冰盖模式的研究能力,有望将来在冰盖关键动力过程和机制的科学认识上有所突破。 相似文献
2.
海冰动力学数值方法研究进展 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1
在海冰动力学数值模拟和预测研究中,人们将海冰视为连续介质分别建立了欧拉坐标下的有限差分（FD）方法、拉格朗日坐标下的光滑质点流体动力学（SPH）方法、欧拉和拉格朗日坐标相结合的质点网格法（PIC）,近年来又发展了基于非连续介质的颗粒流（GF）方法。对以上几种海冰动力学数值方法的特点和适用性进行了讨论,结果表明：FD、PIC和SPH方法可适用于中长期海冰动力学数值模拟,但SPH方法的计算效率需进一步提高;GF方法在不同尺度下的海冰动力学数值模拟中的计算精度均有很强的适用性,但目前较适用于小尺度下海冰动力学基本特性的数值试验研究,计算时效还不能满足实际海冰数值模拟和预测的要求。为进一步提高海冰动力学模拟的精度和适用性,在不同时空尺度下分别发展与其相适应的数值方法是必要的。 相似文献
3.
Glaciers, ice sheets and ice caps represent tectonic systems driven by gravity. Their movement can be studied in real time and the rheological properties and strength of ice determined from laboratory experiments and field measurements. All glacial ice has primary stratification, exhibited by variations in grain size, bubble content and debris content. As it deforms, with deformation dominated by plastic flow and recrystallization, accompanied locally by fracture under tension, a suite of structures develops that reflects the primary fabric of the ice and the anisotropy that develops as a result of cumulative deformation. Initial variations in solid impurity content and strain dependent anisotropy as a result of a crystallographic fabric give rise to effective viscosity increases or decreases compared to isotropic polycrystalline ice of about a factor of ten. Foliation develops from inherited (mostly stratification) or introduced (mostly ice veins or fracture traces) fabric elements and from dynamic recrystallization. It is largely dependent on the accumulated strain, which is highest at the base and near the margins of glaciers, ice sheets and ice streams. Folds develop largely passively due to initial amplification of irregularities in the primary stratification, to variations in flow with time or to inhomogeneous flow associated with shear zones and ductile accommodation around open fractures. Buckle folds and boudinage, mostly on a small scale, occur where viscosity contrast is large, mostly in basal ice. Thrusting and wrench faulting are documented in surging glaciers but theoretically most unlikely and rare or absent elsewhere. Many structures interpreted as faults are not due to shear failure but rather result from shear displacements during opening and closing of tensile fractures. 相似文献
4.
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
5.
An important feature of natural ice, in addition to the obvious relevance of glaciers and ice sheets for climate-related issues, is its ability to creep on geological time scales and low deviatoric stresses at temperatures very close to its melting point, without losing its polycrystalline character. This fact, together with its strong mechanical anisotropy and other notable properties, makes natural ice an interesting model material for studying the high-temperature creep and recrystallization of rocks in Earth's interior. After having reviewed the major contributions of deep ice coring to the research on natural ice microstructures in Part I of this work (Faria et al., 2014), here in Part II we present an up-to-date view of the modern understanding of natural ice microstructures and the deformation processes that may produce them. In particular, we analyze a large body of evidence that reveals fundamental flaws in the widely accepted tripartite paradigm of polar ice microstructure (also known as the “three-stage model,” cf. Part I). These results prove that grain growth in ice sheets is dynamic, in the sense that it occurs during deformation and is markedly affected by the stored strain energy, as well as by air inclusions and other impurities. The strong plastic anisotropy of the ice lattice gives rise to high internal stresses and concentrated strain heterogeneities in the polycrystal, which demand large amounts of strain accommodation. From the microstructural analyses of ice cores, we conclude that the formation of many and diverse subgrain boundaries and the splitting of grains by rotation recrystallization are the most fundamental mechanisms of dynamic recovery and strain accommodation in polar ice. Additionally, in fine-grained, high-impurity ice layers (e.g. cloudy bands), strain may sometimes be accommodated by diffusional flow (at low temperatures and stresses) or microscopic grain boundary sliding via microshear (in anisotropic ice sheared at high temperatures). Grain boundaries bulged by migration recrystallization and subgrain boundaries are endemic and very frequent at almost all depths in ice sheets. Evidence of nucleation of new grains is also observed at various depths, provided that the local concentration of strain energy is high enough (which is not seldom the case). As a substitute for the tripartite paradigm, we propose a novel dynamic recrystallization diagram in the three-dimensional state space of strain rate, temperature, and mean grain size, which summarizes the various competing recrystallization processes that contribute to the evolution of the polar ice microstructure. 相似文献
6.
7.
《Quaternary Science Reviews》2007,26(5-6):585-597
This paper examines ice-sheet wide variations in subglacial thermal regime and ice dynamics using the landform record exposed on the beds of former mid-latitude ice sheets (the Laurentide, Cordilleran, Fennoscandian and British-Irish Ice Sheets). We compare the landform patterns beneath these former ice sheets to the flow organisation beneath parts of the contemporary Antarctic Ice Sheet inferred from RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP) data. The evidence preserved in the landform record and observed on contemporary ice masses can be grouped into four major ice-dynamical components that collectively define the subglacial thermal organisation (STO) of ice sheets. These ice-dynamical components are frozen-bed patches, ice streams, ice-stream tributaries and lateral shear zones. Frozen-bed patches appear at a wide range of spatial scales, spanning four orders of magnitude. In some areas, frozen-bed zones comprise large proportions of the bed (e.g. near the ice divide in continental areas), whilst in other areas they constitute isolated “islands” in areas dominated by thawed-bed conditions. Ice streams, narrow zones of fast flow in ice sheets that are otherwise dominated by slow sheet flow, are also common features of Quaternary ice sheets. Tributaries to ice streams flow at velocities intermediate between full ice-stream and sheet flow, and may divert ice drainage from one primary ice-stream corridor to an adjacent one. Sharp lateral boundaries between landforms indicate sliding and non-sliding conditions, respectively. These lateral boundaries represent important discontinuities in the glacial landscape and mark the location of shear zones between thawed-bed ice streams and intervening frozen-bed areas. We use the landform evidence in the area around Great Bear Lake, Canada to trace the evolution of an ice-stream web through time, demonstrating that frozen-bed patches are integral components of this complex system. We conclude that frozen-bed patches are important for the stability of ice sheets because they laterally constrain and isolate peripheral drainage basins and their ice streams. 相似文献
8.
The glacial geomorphological record provides an effective means to reconstruct former ice sheets at ice sheet scale. In this paper we document our approach and methods for synthesising and interpreting a glacial landform record for its palaeo-ice flow information, applied to landforms of Ireland. New, countrywide glacial geomorphological maps of Ireland comprising >39,000 glacial landforms are interpreted for the spatial, glaciodynamic and relative chronological information they reveal. Seventy one ‘flowsets’ comprising glacial lineations, and 19 ribbed moraine flowsets are identified based on the spatial properties of these landforms, yielding information on palaeo-ice flow geometry. Flowset cross-cutting is prevalent and reveals a highly complex flow geometry; major ice divide migrations are interpreted with commensurate changes in the flow configuration of the ice sheet. Landform superimposition is the key to deciphering the chronology of such changes, and documenting superimposition relationships yields a relative ‘age-stack’ of all Irish flowsets. We use and develop existing templates for interpreting the glaciodynamic context of each flowset – its palaeo-glaciology. Landform patterns consistent with interior ice sheet flow, ice stream flow, and with time-transgressive bedform generation behind a retreating margin, under a thinning ice sheet, and under migrating palaeo-flowlines are each identified. Fast ice flow is found to have evacuated ice from central and northern Ireland into Donegal Bay, and across County Clare towards the south-west. Ice-marginal landform assemblages form a coherent system across southern Ireland marking stages of ice sheet retreat. Time-transgressive, ‘smudged’ landform imprints are particularly abundant; in several ice sheet sectors ice flow geometry was rapidly varying at timescales close to the timescale of bedform generation. The methods and approach we document herein could be useful for interpreting other ice sheet histories. The flowsets and their palaeo-glaciological significance that we derive for Ireland provide a regional framework and context for interpreting results from local scale fieldwork, provide major flow events for testing numerical ice sheet models, and underpin a data-driven reconstruction of the Irish Ice Sheet that we present in an accompanying paper – Part 2. 相似文献
9.
John T. Andrews 《Quaternary Science Reviews》1982,1(1):1-30
Pleistocene ice sheets can be reconstructed through three separate approaches: (1) Evidence based on glacial geological studies, such as erratic trains, till composition, crossing striations and exposures of multiple tills/nonglacial sediments. (2) Reconstructions based on glaciological theory and observations. These can be either two- or three-dimensional models; they can be constrained by ‘known’ ice margins at specific times; or they can be ‘open-ended’ with the history of growth and retreat controlled by parameters resting entirely within the model. (3) Glacial isostatic rebound after deglaciation provides a measure of the distribution of mass (ice) across a region. A ‘best fit’ ice sheet model can be developed that closely approximates a series of relative sea level curves within an area of a former ice sheet; in addition, the model should also provide a reasonable sea level fit to relative sea level curves at sites well removed from glaciation.This paper reviews some of the results of a variety of ice sheet reconstructions and concentrates on the various attempts to reconstruct the ice sheets of the last (Wisconsin, Weischelian, Würm, Devensian) glaciation. Evidence from glacial geology suggests flow patterns at variance with simple, single-domed ice sheets over North America and Europe. In addition, reconstruction of ice sheets from glacial isostatic sea level data suggests that the ice sheets were significantly thinner than estimates based on 18 ka equilibrium ice sheets (cf. Denton and Hughes, 1981). The review indicates it is important to differentiate between ice divides, which control the directions of glacial flow, and areas of maximum ice thickness, which control the glacial isostatic rebound of the crust upon deglaciation. Recent studies from the Laurentide Ice Sheet region indicate that the center of mass was not over Hudson Bay; that a major ice divide lay east of Hudson Bay so that flow across the Hudson Bay and James Bay lowlands was from the northeast; that Hudson Bay was probably open to marine invasions two or three times during the Wisconsin Glaciation; and that the Laurentide Ice Sheet was thinner than an equilibrium reconstruction would suggest. 相似文献
10.
This paper describes a nonlinear elasto-plastic simulation of freezing and thawing of rock. A mathematical formulation is described in which deformation, fluid flow and heat flow are fully coupled. A non-linear elasto-plastic constitutive relationship is presented and a two dimensional (plane stress) numerical modeling is performed based on the finite element method applied to thermo-poro-elastoplasticity. It is assumed that the Mohr-Coulomb's failure criterion is valid for yield locus and plastic potential. The numerical scheme employed in the code accommodates phase change of pore-water from liquid to solid (ice). The primary aim of this paper is to compare the temperature transfer and deformation prediction obtained from the numerical code with those obtained from the freezing and thawing experiments. It is found from the numerical simulation that a relatively good prediction can be made of temperature transfer and deformation behavior. The numerical code has also been applied to a hypothetical cavern problem to demonstrate its applicability. 相似文献
11.
We have developed a new approach for the numerical modeling of deformation processes combining brittle fracture and viscous flow. The new approach is based on the combination of two meshless particle-based methods: the discrete element method (DEM) for the brittle part of the model and smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) for the viscous part. Both methods are well established in their respective application domains. The two methods are coupled at the particle scale, with two different coupling mechanisms explored: one is where DEM particles act as virtual SPH particles and one where SPH particles are treated like DEM particles when interacting with other DEM particles. The suitability of the combined approach is demonstrated by applying it to two geological processes, boudinage, and hydrofracturing, which involve the coupled deformation of a brittle solid and a viscous fluid. Initial results for those applications show that the new approach has strong potential for the numerical modeling of coupled brittle–viscous deformation processes. 相似文献
12.
《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2022,133(6):603-615
As mobile diamicton sediments move across already deposited sediments whether on land or into oceans generated by either glaciers/ice sheets or landslides, a series of soft-sediment deformation processes occur. These sediments carry signatures of processes at both macro- and micro scales. The processes occur across thin layers of sediment, it is at the microsedimentological scale that deformation structures are detected and is the subject of this paper. Examination of numerous diamicton thin sections of both known glacigenic and non-glacigenic sediments illustrate a myriad of microstructures. Microstructures can be subdivided into brittle, ductile, porewater induced and plasmic fabrics. These fabrics are part of a spectrum of development from grain stacks, to microshear to rotations and, in addition, domains are likely to occur due to scavenging and are all part of a repeating cycle of deformation as sediment is added, eroded, re-transported into the accumulating sediment pile. Diamictons can be subdivided into several levels of abundance of microstructure types from very common to rare to being absent. In general, other than ‘tile’ structures, all diamictons have all types of microstructures. A table is presented illustrating the differentiation of various type of diamictons in terms of microstructure type abundancies in relation to individual environments in which diamictons occur around the past margins of glaciated continents. A distinction can be successfully drawn that allows diamictons to be distinguished and differentiated. 相似文献
13.
为了提高极地重力数据处理的质量,降低巨厚冰层对重力数据解释的影响,将极地大陆冰盖引起的重力异常从叠加异常中剥离出来成为极地重力数据处理的重要步骤之一。针对该问题,本文建立两个极地大陆冰层构造模型,对不同模型进行正演获得对应布格重力异常,再尝试利用三种位场分离方法,包括趋势分析法、向上延拓法和优化滤波法,对冰层引起的重力异常进行剥离试验,基于模型试验结果对比分析不同位场分离方法对极地冰层重力效应剥离的应用效果。模型试验结果显示,趋势分析法在冰层界面起伏较平缓情况下效果较好,但当冰层界面起伏复杂时难以用数学表达式精确拟合区域场,因此易在结果中引入虚假异常;向上延拓法在局部场源较浅的异常分离中效果较好,但由于极地模型冰盖深度较深及延拓高度选取不合理,在试验中出现了分离不足的情况;优化滤波法在相对复杂模型中分离效果相对好,但由于频段选取的主观性,使得该方法也易出现分离不足或过度情况。综合上述模型试验表明,在剥离极地冰盖引起的重力异常时,由于极地冰盖厚度起伏等地质情况复杂多变,应结合实际地质情况及其他可获得的地球物理资料进行综合分析,选择适用于具体情况的分离方法。 相似文献
14.
Although analysis of clast macrofabrics has been used to differentiate between different types of glacial diamictons and to determine palaeo‐ice flow directions, no account appears to have been made of preferred clast orientations inherited from the parental source material. Clast macrofabrics in tills are typically interpreted as having developed in response to an imposed subglacial deformation and as such provide a link between the sedimentary record and glacier dynamics. They rely on the assumption that any preferred clast orientation is a result of deformation/flow. The results of the micromorphological study of the Langholm Till exposed at North Corbelly near Dumfries (southwestern Scotland) clearly demonstrate that bedrock structure can influence clast orientation (macrofabric) within diamictons. In the lower part of the till, the orientation of elongate clasts preserves the geometry of the tectonic cleavage present within the underlying bedrock. The intensity of this steeply inclined, ‘inherited’ clast fabric decreases upward through the till, to be replaced by a more complex pattern of successive generations of clast microfabrics developed in response to deformation/flow. These results indicate potential limitations of applying clast macrofabric or microfabric analysis in isolation to establish till genesis or palaeo ice‐flow directions. Consequently, due account should be made of other glacial palaeo‐environmental and ice flow indicators, as well as rockhead depth and morphology in relation to the selection of fabric measurements sites. © British Geological Survey/Natural Environment Research Council copyright 2007. Reproduced with the permission of BGS/NERC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
15.
古气候数值模拟:进展评述 总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5
数值模拟是古气候研究的一个重要内容。过去30年来,古气候数值模拟研究在相当程度上深化了我们对古气候变化机制的理解。在轨道尺度上,数值模拟证明了冰后期气候系统变化主要是对地球轨道参数变化的响应,同时揭示了温室气体、植被、海洋、冰盖等反馈因子的重要性。针对短尺度气候变化,数值模拟揭示出大洋传送带对北大西洋淡水注入的敏感性。在构造尺度上,数值模拟揭示了气候系统对于高原抬升、海道开合、大陆漂移导致的古地理变化、大气CO2浓度变化和太阳常数变化等的响应,揭示了气候系统突变对驱动因子阈值的敏感性。目前,古气候模拟研究中还存在分辨率不高、模拟结果与记录不完全吻合、模拟的边界条件不清楚等诸多问题。今后古气候模拟研究的改进有赖于模式的改进和计算机运算速度的提高,也有赖于对变化机制的更深理解和对边界条件更精确的重建。 相似文献
16.
The nature of the drainage system beneath ice sheets is crucial to their dynamic behaviour but remains problematic. An experimentally based theory of coupling between groundwater and major channel systems is applied to the esker systems in the area occupied the last ice sheet in Europe, which we regard as a fossil imprint of major longitudinal drainage channels. We conclude that the large-scale distribution and spacing of major eskers is consistent with the theory of groundwater control, in which esker spacing is partly controlled by the transmissivity of the bed.It is concluded that esker patterns reflect the large-scale organisation of the subglacial drainage pattern in which channel development is coupled to groundwater flow and to the ice sheet's dynamic regime. The theory is then used to deduce: basal meltwater recharge rates and their spatial variability from esker spacing in an area in which the ice sheet was actively streaming during its final retreat; patterns of palaeo-groundwater flow and head distribution; and the seasonally varying magnitude of discharge from stream tunnels at the retreating ice sheet margin. Major channel/esker systems appear to have been stable at least over several hundred of years during the retreat of the ice sheet, although major dynamic events are demonstrably associated with major shifts in the hydraulic regime.Modelling suggests: that glaciation can stimulate deep groundwater circulation cells that are spatially linked to channel locations, with groundwater flow predominantly transverse to ice flow; that the circulation pattern has the potential to create large-scale anomalies in groundwater chemistry; and that the spacing of channels will change through the glacial cycle, influencing water pressures in stream tunnels, subglacial hydraulic gradients and effective pressure. If the latter is reduced sufficiently, it could trigger enhanced bed deformation, thus coupling drainage to ice sheet movement. It suggests the possibility of distinctive phases of sediment deformation and drumlin mobilisation during a glacial cycle. 相似文献
17.
《Journal of Structural Geology》2001,23(2-3):355-378
Folds form by ductile deformation typically involving continuous flow. In the elastico-frictional regime, such deformation may be accomplished by cataclastic flow involving collective movement on a population of fractures and zones. The Canyon Range (CR) syncline, part of the CR thrust sheet in west-central Utah, developed in this regime. The CR syncline is composed of thick-bedded quartzite units with a small material contrast between layers, limiting limb rotation by flexural slip alone. Thus, fracture populations developed to accommodate fold tightening by limb rotation and thinning, and the formation of transverse zones across the fold. Several generations of fracture and deformation zone (DZ) networks are recognized from mesoscopic and microscopic evidence, and can be related to stages of folding. The net result of the large number of distributed fractures and deformation zones is a continuous deformation that is homogeneous at the scale of the outcrop. All these lines of evidence suggest that large-scale cataclastic flow accommodated folding by allowing rigid mesoscopic blocks to slide along bounding DZs.Along its length, the CR syncline consists of several segments bounded by transverse zones with different mechanisms accommodating fold tightening in adjacent segments. In one segment, fold tightening progressed by limb rotation, and then out-of-the-core thrusting. In contrast, fold tightening in the adjoining segments occurred by rotation and thinning of one limb and possible hinge migration, with the steeply dipping to overturned limb showing progressive thinning of units on a megascopic scale and progressive increase in the thickness and density of deformation zones at all scales. 相似文献
18.
系统地总结了不同时间尺度内火山活动影响气候的机理,回顾了不同区域冰芯记录火山喷发物质沉积信号的研究历史,阐述了不同气候模式对火山活动影响气候的数值模拟结果,并指出了相关研究中存在的不确定性.结果表明:火山活动通过释放大量的火山物质气溶胶影响气候波动,在年际至年代际时间尺度上,这种影响是显著的;然而,在更长的时间尺度上这种影响是否仍然存在,尚需更多研究的证实.冰芯中火山喷发物质沉积记录为研究历史时期火山活动及其气候影响提供了必要的参考资料,相关的气候模式利用该沉积记录较好地模拟了火山活动对区域乃至全球尺度气候的影响,为我们认识火山活动影响气候变化的机理提供了重要的理论支持,同时也为研究未来火山活动对气候的可能影响提供了参照.但是,冰芯中火山喷发物质沉积记录研究及数值模式模拟结果中尚存在诸多的问题和不确定性. 相似文献
19.
FLEMMING JØRGENSEN JAN A. PIOTROWSKI 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2003,32(1):242-255
Ice streams are major dynamic elements of modern ice sheets, and are believed to have significantly influenced the behaviour of past ice sheets. Funen Island exhibits a number of geomorphological and geological features indicative of a Late Weichselian ice stream, a land-based, terminal branch of the major Baltic Ice Stream that drained the Scandinavian Ice Sheet along the Baltic Sea depression. The ice stream in the study area operated during the Young Baltic Advance. Its track on Funen is characterized by a prominent drumlin field with long, attenuated drumlins consisting of till. The field has an arcuate shape indicating ice-flow deflection around the island's interior. Beneath the drumlin-forming till is a major erosional surface with a boulder pavement, the stones of which have heavily faceted and striated upper surfaces. Ploughing marks are found around the boulders. Exact correspondence of striations, till fabric and drumlin orientation indicates a remarkably consistent flow direction during ice streaming. We infer that fast ice flow was facilitated by basal water pressure elevated to the vicinity of the flotation point. The ice movement was by basal sliding and bed deformation under water pressure at the flotation level or slightly below it, respectively. Subglacial channels and eskers post-dating the drumlins mark a drainage phase that terminated the ice-stream activity close to the deglaciation. Identification of other ice streams in the Peribaltic area is essential for better understanding the dynamics of the land-based part of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet during the last glaciation. 相似文献
20.
Marie E. Busfield Daniel P. Le Heron 《Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Geologists' Association》2013
The Chuos Formation is a diamictite-dominated succession of Cryogenian age, variously interpreted as the product of glaciomarine deposition, glacially related mass movement, or rift-related sediment remobilisation in a non-glacial environment. These interpretations have wide ranging implications for the extent of ice cover during the supposedly pan-global Neoproterozoic icehouse. In the Otavi Mountainland, northern Namibia, detailed analysis of soft-sediment deformation structures on the macro- and micro-scale support glacitectonic derivation in response to overriding ice from the south/south-east. Overall, the upward increase in strain intensity, predominance of ductile deformation features (e.g. asymmetric folds, rotational turbates and necking structures, clast boudinage, unistrial plasmic fabrics) and pervasive glacitectonic lamination support subglacial deformation under high and sustained porewater pressures. In contrast, soft-sediment structures indicative of mass movements, including flow noses, tile structures, and basal shear zones, are not present. The close association of subglacial deformation, abundant ice-rafted debris and ice-contact fan deposits indicate subaqueous deposition in an ice-proximal setting, subject to secondary subglacial deformation during oscillation of the ice margin. These structures thus reveal evidence of dynamic grounded ice sheets in the Neoproterozoic, demonstrating their key palaeoclimatic significance within ancient sedimentary successions. 相似文献