Micromorphological characteristics of glacimarine sediments: implications for distinguishing genetic processes of massive diamicts |
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| Authors: | Aoibheann A Kilfeather Colm Ó Cofaigh Julian A Dowdeswell Jaap J M van der Meer David J A Evans |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geography, Durham University, Science Site, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK;(2) Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1ER, UK;(3) Department of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS, UK |
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| Abstract: | Glacimarine diamicts are produced by diverse processes, and genetic differentiation is often problematic using macro-sedimentological
criteria alone. Micromorphology offers a potentially helpful tool in such investigations. Macroscopically massive diamict
samples of known glacimarine origin, from the Polar North Atlantic, Antarctica and north Irish Sea, were prepared for micromorphological
analysis to (1) identify microstructures unique to different modes of sedimentation and (2) interpret genetic processes from
those structures. The samples comprised examples of debris-flow, iceberg-turbate and suspension settling deposits from late
Quaternary glacier-influenced marine environments: tidewater glacier, sub- or pro-ice shelf and continental slopes in front
of ice stream termini. Results show two significant features of debris-flow sediments: a bimodal grain fabric of near-horizontal
and -vertical grains, and laminated clay and silt coatings on sand and pebble grains. Coatings are best developed in sediments
with finer grain-size distributions and in debris-flow sediments which have had relatively long run-out distances on trough-mouth
fans, suggesting continuous rotation of grains in a buoyant, turbulent aqueous environment. This is significant because it
precludes debris-flow delivery by plug flow. The micromorphology of iceberg turbate has not been described previously. It
contains structures similar to those described in tills, so that unambiguous identification of these sediments seems unlikely
based on micromorphological criteria alone. Suspension sediments range from fine-grained massive diamicts containing microfossils
to more heterogeneous coarser sediments characterised by abrupt textural variations, from ice-distal and ice-proximal glacimarine
environments respectively. The ice-proximal sediments contain fine vertical lineations marking the trajectories of dropstones
through wet matrix. These dropstone tracks have not been reported in previous studies. |
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