Comparison of a sub-arctic pleistocene glacial outwash plain to modern day arctic glacial outwash plains; does latitude and climate determine depositional processes

• Main Author: Troop, Paul Raymond
• Other Authors: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Brady, Mara, Wakabayashi, Jon, Caputo, Mario
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/179373

Climate affects stream discharge and sediment supply on fluvial fans. Prior studies suggest river discharge, bedrock scouring and rock avalanches increase during glaciation; and river discharge and alpine sediments decrease as channel incision and over-bank flooding increases during an interglacial. A facies model of seven facies in twenty measured stratigraphic sections using Miall???s facies classification scheme was developed. Associations of facies and geometry of deposits were used to identify sedimentary structures in terms of their genetic significance. Gravel facies are interpreted as debris flows and interbedded sandy bedforms on a multi-channel flood plain. Sand facies are interpreted as aggrading channel bars, sandy bedforms and abandoned channels. A comparison of modern day glacial outwash plains at Arctic latitudes to a Pleistocene glacial outwash plain at a sub-arctic latitude demonstrated that mechanisms for producing a model of vertically successive gravel to sand facies are apparently similar enough to determine there is no detectable difference in the depositional processes and that the degree of clast roundness it is not wholly dependent on the length of the proglacial zone but is also influenced by the advance of valley glacial ice to its maxima limiting the length of the proglacial zone. Science and Mathematics