Abstract
AbstractMoraine ridges have formed annually at Skálafellsjökull, south-east Iceland since about A.D. 1912. These ridges are asymmetrical with a steeper distal slope, and their surface morphology reflects their internal structure. Most ridges are formed at the glacier margin, and they form a series of concentric arcs about it. Their plan form reflects small details of the ice-front morphology. Some ridges are composed of boulders released from the ice by ablation and swept together by glacier re-advances, but most have a core of deformed till. Those which were ice-cored have a surface veneer of resedimented debris consisting of ice-slope colluvium and sediment-flow deposits. Lodgement tills at Skálafellsjökull have a two-layer structure, with a weak upper horizon apparently formed by dilation during subglacial shearing of the till. Ridges are composed of this sheared material and overlie undisturbed lodgement till at depth. Subglacial shearing results in a discharge of till towards the glacier margin and its accumulation there when glacier retreat ceases in winter. Till may also be extruded from beneath ice at the margin as a result of loading by the ice, and subsequently bulldozed into a ridge by a winter readvance of the glacier.
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