Glaciodynamically upthrusted bands of englacially transported debris in the Pleistocene of central Poland

• Published in: Sedimentology
• Main Author: Ruszczyńska‐Szenajch, Hanna
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2001
• Subjects: Stratigraphy; Geology; General Medicine; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3091.2001.00380.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-3091.2001.00380.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-3091.2001.00380.x

Two kinds of buried structures are described from Dzirżenin, north‐east of Warsaw, where they occur within a glaciofluvial landform: (1) narrow till ridges, showing vertically oriented structures, excavated from stratified gravel and sands; and (2) a narrow vertical zone of massive gravelly/sandy material, involving vertically oriented lens‐like layers composed of massive sand with pebbles, or of diamicton. The gravelly/sandy zone is also closely surrounded by stratified glaciofluvial sediments. In spite of their vertical position and internal deformation, the till ridges and gravelly/sandy zone show non‐tectonic contacts with the surrounding, stratified, undisturbed sediments. The glaciofluvial sediments that occur immediately next to the structures under discussion are characterized by the occurrence of comparatively coarse material and interbeddings of diamicton, which wedge out away from these structures. The gravelly/sandy zone separates different kinds of water‐laid deposits. The buried structures are interpreted as former debris‐laden bands, thrust upwards within the frontal part of the ice sheet and then transformed into still‐frozen debris ridges projecting over the already dead ice. Further melting of the decaying ice resulted in abundant glaciofluvial sedimentation, and the debris ridges also supplied material for the deposition of the neighbouring stratified deposits. One of the ridges separated different glaciofluvial environments. The glaciofluvial sediments completely buried the ice‐cemented ridges, which were finally transformed by a melting‐out process into the till ridges and the gravelly/sandy zone. The former are interpreted as having been transformed from upturned debris‐laden bands with a high concentration of debris or from the bands composed of frozen‐up sediment slabs. The gravelly/sandy zone is interpreted as having (most probably) been deposited from upturned bands characterized by a lesser concentration of debris.