Ice-Sheet Erosion—A Result of Maximum Conditions?

Abstract

AbstractUnderstanding the relationship between the morphology of former ice-sheet beds and glaciological processes is handicapped by the difficulty of establishing which stage of a cycle of ice-sheet growth and decay is responsible for most erosion. Discussions at this conference and in the literature display a variety of opinions, some favouring periods of ice-sheet build up, others periods of fluctuations, and still others steady-state maximum conditions. Here it is suggested that there is geomorphological evidence which points to the dominance of maximum conditions.Along the eastern margins of the Laurentide and Greenland ice sheets there is a sharp discontinuity between Alpine relief which stood above the ice-sheet surface at the maximum and plateau scenery which was covered by the ice sheet. Often the two types of relief are adjacent and yet separated by an altitudinal difference of only 100–200 m. The existence of an abrupt rather than gradual transition from one relief type to the other suggests that most glacial sculpture must have taken place while the ice sheet was at its maximum extent. In other geomorphological situations where high mountains were submerged by ice sheets, the major erosional landforms are frequently found to relate to ice sheets rather than to local mountain glaciers, again suggesting the dominance of erosion during full ice-sheet conditions. Finally, the identification of patterns of glacial erosion on an ice-sheet scale in North America and Greenland points to erosion when the ice sheets were fully expanded, rather than to the variable flow conditions associated with growth or decay.If ice-sheet erosion is accepted as being a result of maximum conditions, then it places certain constraints on glacial theory, for example the need to develop theories of glacial erosion which apply beneath ice thicknesses of several thousand metres. It also suggests that the use of steady-state models of ice sheets is likely to be a profitable way of relating glaciological processes to the morphology of former ice-sheet beds.