Hydraulic-Jump and Hyperconcentrated-Flow Deposits of a Glacigenic Subaqueous Fan: Oak Ridges Moraine, Southern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

The Oak Ridges Moraine in southern Ontario is a poly- genetic moraine constructed of a number of coalesced deposits of gla- cifluvial and glacilacustrine origin. A detailed study of the facies ar- chitecture has been completed on a series of pit sections extending ; 300 m subparallel to the paleoflow direction. Eight major lithofacies and five facies associations have been described. These data have been interpreted to be upper-flow-regime hyperconcentrated-flood-flow de- posits emplaced under a regime of rapid flow expansion and loss of transport capacity within a plane-wall jet with an associated hydraulic jump. Deposition from the plane-wall jet with jump occurred in three zones of flow transformation: zone of flow establishment, transition zone, and zone of established flow. Massive gravels with unconsolidated sand intraclasts and open-work gravel / gravel-sand couplets were de- posited in the zone of flow establishment by hyperconcentrated and supercritical flows, respectively. Immediately downflow low-angle cross-stratified sand incised by steep-walled scours infilled by diffusely graded sand define the transition zone, the zone of maximum vortex erosion, and the distal limit of deposits emplaced under upper-flow- regime conditions. These strata record rapid bed aggradation from sediment-laden supercritical flows that episodically were scoured by large vortices generated within migrating hydraulic jumps. Strati- graphically upward and downflow strata consist only of lower-flow- regime sedimentary structures. Medium-scale, planar cross-strata and small-scale cross-lamination related to migrating 2-D dunes and cur- rent ripples, respectively, characterize the zone of established flow. The facies and sediment architecture suggest that this fan was deposited during a relatively short period of time (days, weeks) by energetic sed- iment-laden floods.