Abstract
ABSTRACTA 1:5700 scale map of the recently deglaciated foreland of Skaftafellsjökull, Iceland as it appeared in 2007, depicts a typical active temperate glacial landsystem with a clear pattern of sequentially changing push moraine morphologies, including remarkable hairpin-shaped moraines, indicative of spatial and temporal variability in process-form regimes in glacier sub-marginal settings. Similar to other Icelandic glacier forelands, this demonstrates that the piedmont glacier lobes of the region have developed strong longitudinal crevassing and well-developed ice-marginal pecten during their historical recession from the Little Ice Age maximum moraines, likely driven by extending ice flow and poorly drained sub-marginal conditions typical of the uncovering of overdeepenings. Additionally, the localized development of a linear tract of kame and kettle topography is interpreted as the geomorphic and sedimentary signature of thrust stacked and gradually melting debris-rich glacier ice, a feature hitherto unrecognized in the Icelandic active temperate lobe landsystem signature.
Highlights
The aim of the mapping project presented here was to assess, at the scale of 1:5700 (Main Map), the spatial distribution of post-Little Ice Age glacial sediment– landform associations on the Skaftafellsjökull foreland (Figure 1), southern Iceland and to thereby test the hypothesis that the active temperate piedmont lobes of the southern Vatnajökull and Öræfajökull ice caps have produced similar landsystem signatures that record temporally changing, climatically and topographically controlled glacial process-form regimes
The glacial landsystem represented by the deglaciated foreland of Skaftafellsjökull is typical of the Icelandic south coast active temperate piedmont lobes but contains evidence of landform zonation, in the form of changing push moraine morphology, which records spatial and temporal change in process-form regimes over historical timescales
Evans et al 2016; Evans & Hiemstra, 2005). These features were overridden and fluted by the glacier during its advance to the Little Ice Age maximum but were not significantly modified and during later ice recession, they exerted a topographic control on the routing of glacial meltwater and the deposition of glacifluvial outwash in snout-parallel linear sandar tracts
Summary
The aim of the mapping project presented here was to assess, at the scale of 1:5700 (Main Map), the spatial distribution of post-Little Ice Age glacial sediment– landform associations on the Skaftafellsjökull foreland (Figure 1), southern Iceland and to thereby test the hypothesis that the active temperate piedmont lobes of the southern Vatnajökull and Öræfajökull ice caps have produced similar landsystem signatures that record temporally changing, climatically and topographically controlled glacial process-form regimes (cf. Chandler, Evans, & Roberts, 2016; Chandler, Evans, Roberts, Ewertowski, & Clayton, 2015; Evans & Orton, 2014; Evans, Ewertowski, & Orton, 2015; Jónsson et al, 2016). The occurrence on these glacier forelands of widespread sawtooth moraines with unusually long limbs/crevasse infills (Figure 1; Evans et al, 2015; Evans, Nelson, & Webb, 2010; Price, 1970) has been linked to the intensive development of longitudinal crevassing in lobate snouts, operating only over the most recent decades of ice recession and apparently linked to extending ice flow and poorly drained sub-marginal conditions Such conditions appear to have prevailed since recession into prominent overdeepenings (Cook & Swift, 2012) located behind overridden moraine arcs and are likely to dominate for several decades into the future if ice recession continues at its present rate (cf Bennett, Evans, Carbonneau, & Twigg, 2010; Chandler et al, 2015, 2016; Evans et al, 2015; Phillips, Finlayson, Bradwell, Everest, & Jones, 2014; Phillips, Finlayson, & Jones, 2013)
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