Flow Tills and Related Deposits on Some Vestspitsbergen Glaciers

Abstract

AbstractThree outlet glaciers of the highland ice of Ny Friesland are described, in which englacial debris, derived from the glacier bed, occurs in thick bands which dip steeply up-glacier. As the glacier wastes down this debris is released on the surface to form thick supraglacial tills, which may remain on the glacier surface, or flow down it and onto bedded deposits which fringe the glacier in the proglacial zone. A frequent result of this latter process is the production of multi-till sequences which result from a single glacier retreat phase rather than multiple advance and retreat. The sedimentological features and fabrics of englacial debris bands and flow tills are described, and a mechanism for the formation of “controlled” and “uncontrolled” hummocky moraine is suggested. Many flow tills are identical to the compact fine-grained tills common in lowland glacial deposits of Pleistocene age in Europe and North America, and it is suggested that some of the latter could be flow tills.