Genesis of dispersal plumes in till

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Hooke, Roger LeB., Cummings, Don I., Lesemann, Jerome-Etienne, Sharpe, David R.
• Other Authors: Fisher, Timothy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2013
• Subjects: Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2013-0018; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/cjes-2013-0018; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjes-2013-0018

In regions formerly covered by continental ice, till sheets may contain distinctive clastic particles derived from local bedrock sources such as ore bodies. Such particles, especially in thicker tills, may be distributed in three-dimensional dispersal trains or plumes. Developments in our understanding of glacial erosion, entrainment, and deposition over the past two or three decades help clarify formation of these plumes. Much of the debris in the basal ice of ice sheets is likely incorporated at places where water is freezing onto the base of the ice sheet. This water, largely a product of melting of basal ice further upglacier, has migrated downglacier under the influence of a gradient in the hydraulic potential controlled primarily by the ice surface slope and secondarily by basal topography and thermal regime. Refreezing occurs over a substantial distance along flow, so as the ice moves away from an ore body, material eroded from the body is later elevated above the bed by refreezing of more meltwater, incorporating additional material derived from the country rock. Broadening and mixing of the plume, both vertically and horizontally, can occur by shear in the ice, by shifting ice flow directions, by collisions between particles, and by folding of basal ice layers. Further downflow, where net basal melting resumes, the debris is deposited by meltout or lodgement. Many idiosyncrasies of dispersal plumes are likely caused by non-steady-state changes in basal thermal regime.