Sedimentology and internal structure of murtoos - V-shaped landforms indicative of a dynamic subglacial hydrological system

Abstract

Knowledge about processes beneath ice sheets, and in particular the processes connected to subglacial hydrology, is crucial for an understanding of ice sheets and how they react in a warming climate. Recently, v-shaped subglacial landforms (murtoos) have been found in those parts of the former Fennoscandian Ice Sheet where rapid ice-margin retreat occurred. Based on their geomorphology and distribution, murtoos have been suggested to form where the bed experienced high influxes of meltwater. Here, we investigate the sedimentology and internal structure of murtoos at four localities in southern Sweden to better understand murtoo genesis. The excavated murtoos consist of heterogenous diamict showing reasonably strong fabrics interbedded with sorted sediments. Sediments show signs of ductile deformation and lquefaction. We interpret these landforms as subglacial landforms created by till deposition and sedimentation from meltwater with subsequent deformation. Cross-cutting relationships and inter-bedding of sorted sediments suggest a stepwise formation including periodic deformation events. We propose a model that is based on a dynamic subglacial meltwater system. We suggest that the subglacial environment is within the distributed system where the bed receives meltwater from repeated influxes of supraglacially derived meltwater. The processes suggested in this model of formation are strikingly similar to the character of glaciological and hydrological dynamics observed on the Greenland ice sheet today.