Styles of ice‐marginal deformation at Hagafellsjökull‐Eystri, Iceland during the 1998/99 winter‐spring surge

Abstract

This paper describes the internal architecture of a push moraine formed by a winter‐spring surge of Hagafellsjökull‐Eystri (Iceland) in 1998/99. The sedimentary architecture of this push moraine consists of a multilayered slab of glaciofluvial sediments with a monoclinal structure that has been displaced laterally by the advancing ice margin. The crest and ice‐distal face of the moraine consist of subhorizontal sediment sheets, while the ice‐proximal face dips steeply (45° to 90°) towards the ice margin. The core of the moraine consists of frozen sediment and thin slabs of glacier ice are embedded in its proximal face. The sediment slabs are characterized by both brittle and ductile styles of deformation. We argue that the observed variation in deformation style is dependent on whether the glacial foreland was frozen or unfrozen at the time of displacement. Frozen foreland would behave in a brittle fashion, while unfrozen foreland is likely to have deformed in a more ductile manner. The associated spatial variations in the degree of foreland freezing could be explained by variation in ice‐marginal snow cover. We conclude that the thermal regime of the foreland, and the timing of the ice advance, is of importance to the style of internal deformation found within ice‐marginal push moraines.