A model of glacial tectonics, applied to the ice­pushed ridges in the Central Netherlands

Abstract

During a detailed structural geological and geomorphological survey of ice-pushed ridges around the Gel­derse Vallei (centre of the Netherlands) several questions arose about the origin of these landforms. The Gelderse Vallei is a Saalian glacial basin filled with younger sediments, 40 km long and up to 20 km wide, running NNW-SSE. Thrust sheets which build up the ice-pushed ridges on either side of the valley were transported away from the centre of the basin. They are up to 25 m thick and are pushed to a level about 100 m above the decollement. The thrust sheets, mainly consisting of coarse sand layers, moved as rigid masses, while only the finegrained basal layers deformed by heterogeneous simple shear. Pore water pressure plays an important role by greatly reducing the sliding friction in the decollement layer. Once a glacial thrust sheet is formed, the weight of the upward moving frontal part (the toe) offers a resistance to movement, which can not be overcome by the basal shear stress of the glacier alone. Basal shear stresses in most glaciers are in the order of 0.1 MPa (1 bar) and appear to be incapable of lifting a toe of the size found in most ice-pushed ridges in the Netherlands. The article presents a model of a system ice lobe - substratum, which is to a large degree controlled by gravitational forces. The dilemma may be solved by the concept of the gradient stress field under the marginal area of an ice lobe. This concept was first formulated by Rotnicki (1976). Because ice thickness decreases towards the margin, the substratum is subjected to a decreasing load in the same direction. If the increments of stress difference under a slab of ice in the marginal zone are summed, a gradient stress is arrived at which is di­rected towards the ice edge. An estimate of the forces involved in the static equilibrium around the glacier margin indicates that the contribution by the gradient stress field is sufficient to move the toe. In the model proposed in the article, the energy to move and imbicate glacial thrust sheets around the margins of an ice lobe, is supplied by the continuous flow of ice into the ice lobe. The dimensions of ice­pushed ridges are thus to a high degree functions of the thickness of the ice lobe or icecap. The Gelderse Vallei ice lobe will have been at least 250 m thick to be able to form the ridges. The basal shear stress contributes less to the tectonic transport, the larger the thrust sheets and the high­er the ice-pushed ridges.