Sedimentology and clast fabric of subaerial debris flow facies in a glacially-influenced alluvial fan

Abstract

A large alluvial fan (2 km 2), constructed between 11,000 and 7000 years B.P. at the mouth of Cinquefoil Creek in interior British Columbia, Canada, is identified as “glacially-influenced, debris flow-dominated”. The fan was rapidly constructed during and immediately after deglaciation when large volumes of glacial debris were resedimented downslope; fans of this type are widespread in the glaciated portion of the North American Cordillera. Diamict facies, deposited as debris flows, account for 48% of the fan volume, sheetflodd gravels 37%, and other facies 15%. Diamicts show three facies types; crudely-bedded facies containing rafts of soft sediment that are attributed to downslope collapse and mixing of heterogeneous glacial deposits. These occur within the core of the fan. Massive and weakly graded (inverse to normal) diamict facies, derived from the downslope flow of weathered volcanic bedrock, occur within a well-defined bed that can be traced across the entire fan. The occurrence of weakly graded facies as lateral equivalents to massive facies within the same bed, implies the partial development of turbulent, high-velocity “streams” within a viscous debris flow moving over a slope of 6°. Clast fabrics in these facies show weakly-clustered a-axes dipping up and downslope comparable to other debris flows and lahars. The Cinquefoil fan, its internal structure and facies, provides a good “modern” analogue for ancient diamictite sequences deposited in areas of active uplift, rifting and glaciation.