Scanning electron microscopy of Pleistocene tills in Estonia   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

WILLIAM C. MAHANEY  VOLLI KALM 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》1995,24(1):13-29

Tills from four Pleistocene glaciations were recovered from drill cores in Estonia and subjected to particle size and microtexture analyses by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). All tills were deposited by thick continental ice-sheets following the transport of, at most, several hundred kilometers during four Fennoscandian glaciations. The main problem is to determine if the type and range of microtextures present on the grain surfaces are diagnostic of transport in continental ice. The frequency of occurrence of microtextures including fractures, abrasion, and relief features are used to test the ability of continental ice to damage quartz particles emplaced as till. The range of quartz dissolution and presence of coatings on grains are also used to reconstruct the paleoenvironment that existed prior to transport as well as to estimate diagenetic effects that occurred following emplacement. The available data indicate a high degree of reworking of quartz grains from one glaciation to another. While the shapes and microtextures of grains from source rocks are not known, the great range of fracture and abrasion microfeatures, and high frequency of occurrence on grains in all tills, indicate that glaciers are effective crushing agents. An increase in the prevalence of chemically etched grains from older to younger tills suggests that some grains ( c . 50%) escape crushing, either because of preservation in the ice and lack of grain-to-grain contact, or as a result of massive reworking of weathered grains following interglaciations.  相似文献   

Comparative scanning electron microscopy study of oriented till blocks, glacial grains and Devonian sands in Estonia and Latvia   总被引：7，自引：0，他引：7  

WILLIAM C. MAHANEY  VOLLI KALM 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2000,29(1):35-51

Samples of Middle Devonian (Eifelian age; 387–380 Ma) indurated and non‐cemented sandstone were compared with Pleistocene basal tills in Estonia and Latvia to test a hypothesis that glacial SEM (scanning electron microscopy) microtextures are distinctly different from those produced in a fluvial depositional environment. The deposits of Middle Devonian Aruküla Stage were emplaced in a continental water basin close to sea level and well away from any glacial source. Therefore, the SEM microtextures on quartz grains from the Aruküla Stage should show mainly the effect of stream transport. The basal tills are of Late Weichselian age deposited as ground moraine directly over the sandstone. Additional glaciofluvial and glaciolacustrine samples were included with the tills to determine whether glacial and fluvial‐lacustrine transport could be differentiated by the SEM microtextures. Samples of oriented blocks of till from a limited number of sites were studied without pretreatment to determine whether sand clast orientation could provide a method for determining glacial flow vectors. While there are some microtextural similarities between grains from glacial and glaciofluvial‐lacustrine depositional environments, the vast majority of grains from till deposits (50%–60%) are faceted, sharp edged, angular to subangular, and comprised of numerous and distinct microfeatures including abraded surfaces over microfractures, deep linear and curved troughs (striations), step features, and a preponderance of conchoidal and linear microfractures. Glaciofluvial and lacustrine grains contain abundant abrasion features and v‐shaped percussion cracks that make them very distinct from glacial grains. Fluvial transport produces primarily rounded grains, well abraded, with v‐shaped percussion scars dominating. Thus, it is possible to use microtextural differences between the three sample suites to identify particular depositional environments. Oriented till blocks provide information on sand clast orientation. Although carbonate coatings often obscure sand clasts in untreated blocks, it is possible to determine some microfabric information that can be useful in determining flow direction of the ice.  相似文献   

Quantification of SEM microtextures useful in sedimentary environmental discrimination   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

WILLIAM C. MAHANEY  REW STEWART  VOLLI KALM 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2001,30(2):165-171

Scanning electron microscopic imagery is often used to identify and discriminate among environments of sedimentation with the main aim of identifying individual microfeatures, or suites of microtextures, that are considered indicative of a particular depositional environment or geologic process. Because few microtextures are considered to represent a single geologic process it is necessary to analyze a large number of quartz sands and other mineralic grains with the objective of determining the frequency of occurrence of a range of microtextures within a distinct sample suite. Using percent frequency of occurrence of different microtextures from suites of fluvial, glaciofluvial and glacial sands from sites in Estonia and Latvia, we invoked statistical comparison of different sample suites using Euclidean distances. These provide a quantitative means of measuring the differences among different sediments and processes that formed them and also a quantification tool useful in assessing microtextures as a recorder of sedimentary environments.  相似文献