Patterned Ground on an Active Medial Moraine, Jotunheimen, Norway

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Ballantyne, C. K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1979
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Norway; Storbreen; glacier; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000014386; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000014386

Abstract Sorted circles and nets formed on the surface of the principal medial moraine on Storbreen, Jotunheimcn, Norway, are described. These consist of “islands” of coarse sand, granules, and small pebbles, surrounded by pebbles and cobbles and underlain by small domes of glacier ice. It is suggested that patterned ground formation on the moraine results from differential ablation in areas of thin (<200 mm) debris cover near the glacier snout, where melting is relatively rapid. It is unlikely that supraglacial patterned ground could survive deposition.