Sedimentary Processes and Buried Ice Phenomena in the Pro-Glacial Areas of Spitsbergen Glaciers

Abstract

AbstractObservations at the snouts of several glaciers in Spitsbergen indicate that, between their present apparent limits and the moraines dating from the maximum Holocene extent of ice, wide areas of outwash deposits underlain by dead glacier ice occur. Such ice was visible at a number of localities. Indirect evidence of dead ice includes kettle-holes, collapse structures and, in one case, a subglacial melt stream emerging as a fountain within one such plain. Aufeis, formed in early winter, can sometimes also be preserved in the long term if covered by fluvio-glacial material. The presence of such ice has implications for the interpretation of soft-sediment structures in glacigenic successions. Previously, many folds and faults have been interpreted as resulting from active ice overriding or pushing the sediment. Simple ablation beneath the sedimentary layer in question also gives rise to similar structures.