Perspective Chapter: What Sort of Ice Dynamics Are Crevasse Fill Ridges Connected with? – Research Overview

Abstract

The chapter presents a discussion on crevasse fillings – one of a group of glacial forms whose formation is assigned by various authors to two peripheral dynamics of ice-sheet masses: stagnant ice and surging glaciers. Examples from literature of crevasse filling formation in these two states of dynamics are presented. The author makes an overview of documented in the literature examples of crevasse fillings forming in stagnant and surging ice and discusses the differences between the group formed in stagnant and the group formed in surging ice. In the conclusions, the author arguments assigning crevasse fillings to the surge dynamics of ice masses whereas glacial forms, which develop in stagnant ice crevasses, should not be termed crevasse fillings, but interpreted e.g. as kames, eskers and hummocky moraines.