| 1. |
- Gohl, K., et al.
(författare)
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Expedition 379 methods
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program. - : International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). - 2377-3189. ; 379
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 2. |
- Gohl, K., et al.
(författare)
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Expedition 379 summary
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program. - : International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). - 2377-3189. ; 79
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Amundsen Sea sector of Antarctica has long been considered the most vulnerable part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) because of the great water depth at the grounding line, a subglacial bed seafloor deepening toward the interior of the continent, and the absence of substantial ice shelves. Glaciers in this configuration are thought to be susceptible to rapid or runaway retreat. Ice flowing into the Amundsen Sea Embayment is undergoing the most rapid changes of any sector of the Antarctic ice sheets outside the Antarctic Peninsula, including substantial grounding-line retreat over recent decades, as observed from satellite data. Recent models suggest that a threshold leading to the collapse of WAIS in this sector may have been already crossed and that much of the ice sheet could be lost even under relatively moderate greenhouse gas emission scenarios.Drill cores from the Amundsen Sea provide tests of several key questions about controls on ice sheet stability. The cores offer a direct offshore record of glacial history in a sector that is exclusively influenced by ice draining the WAIS, which allows clear comparisons between the WAIS history and low-latitude climate records. Today, relatively warm (modified) Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is impinging onto the Amundsen Sea shelf and causing melting under ice shelves and at the grounding line of the WAIS in most places. Reconstructions of past CDW intrusions can assess the ties between warm water upwelling and large-scale changes in past grounding-line positions. Carrying out these reconstructions offshore from the drainage basin that currently has the most substantial negative mass balance of ice anywhere in Antarctica is thus of prime interest to future predictions.The scientific objectives for this expedition are built on hypotheses about WAIS dynamics and related paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic conditions. The main objectives areTo test the hypothesis that WAIS collapses occurred during the Neogene and Quaternary and, if so, when and under which environmental conditions;To obtain ice-proximal records of ice sheet dynamics in the Amundsen Sea that correlate with global records of ice-volume changes and proxy records for atmospheric and ocean temperatures;To study the stability of a marine-based WAIS margin and how warm deepwater incursions control its position on the shelf;To find evidence for the earliest major grounded WAIS advances onto the middle and outer shelf;To test the hypothesis that the first major WAIS growth was related to the uplift of the Marie Byrd Land dome.International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 379 completed two very successful drill sites on the continental rise of the Amundsen Sea. Site U1532 is located on a large sediment drift, now called the Resolution Drift, and it penetrated to 794 m with 90% recovery. We collected almost-continuous cores from recent age through the Pleistocene and Pliocene and into the upper Miocene. At Site U1533, we drilled 383 m (70% recovery) into the more condensed sequence at the lower flank of the same sediment drift. The cores of both sites contain unique records that will enable study of the cyclicity of ice sheet advance and retreat processes as well as ocean-bottom water circulation and water mass changes. In particular, Site U1532 revealed a sequence of Pliocene sediments with an excellent paleomagnetic record for high-resolution climate change studies of the previously sparsely sampled Pacific sector of the West Antarctic margin.Despite the drilling success at these sites, the overall expedition experienced three unexpected difficulties that affected many of the scientific objectives:The extensive sea ice on the continental shelf prevented us from drilling any of the proposed shelf sites.The drill sites on the continental rise were in the path of numerous icebergs of various sizes that frequently forced us to pause drilling or leave the hole entirely as they approached the ship. The overall downtime caused by approaching icebergs was 50% of our time spent on site.A medical evacuation cut the expedition short by 1 week.Recovery of core on the continental rise at Sites U1532 and U1533 cannot be used to indicate the extent of grounded ice on the shelf or, thus, of its retreat directly. However, the sediments contained in these cores offer a range of clues about past WAIS extent and retreat. At Sites U1532 and U1533, coarse-grained sediments interpreted to be ice-rafted debris (IRD) were identified throughout all recovered time periods. A dominant feature of the cores is recorded by lithofacies cyclicity, which is interpreted to represent relatively warmer periods variably characterized by sediments with higher microfossil abundance, greater bioturbation, and higher IRD concentrations alternating with colder periods characterized by dominantly gray laminated terrigenous muds. Initial comparison of these cycles to published late Quaternary records from the region suggests that the units interpreted to be records of warmer time intervals in the core tie to global interglacial periods and the units interpreted to be deposits of colder periods tie to global glacial periods.Cores from the two drill sites recovered sediments of dominantly terrigenous origin intercalated or mixed with pelagic or hemipelagic deposits. In particular, Site U1533, which is located near a deep-sea channel originating from the continental slope, contains graded silts, sands, and gravels transported downslope from the shelf to the rise. The channel is likely the pathway of these sediments transported by turbidity currents and other gravitational downslope processes. The association of lithologic facies at both sites predominantly reflects the interplay of downslope and contouritic sediment supply with occasional input of more pelagic sediment. Despite the lack of cores from the shelf, our records from the continental rise reveal the timing of glacial advances across the shelf and thus the existence of a continent-wide ice sheet in West Antarctica during longer time periods since at least the late Miocene.Cores from both sites contain abundant coarse-grained sediments and clasts of plutonic origin transported either by downslope processes or by ice rafting. If detailed provenance studies confirm our preliminary assessment that the origin of these samples is from the plutonic bedrock of Marie Byrd Land, their thermochronological record will potentially reveal timing and rates of denudation and erosion linked to crustal uplift. The chronostratigraphy of both sites enables the generation of a seismic sequence stratigraphy for the entire Amundsen Sea continental rise, spanning the area offshore from the Amundsen Sea Embayment westward along the Marie Byrd Land margin to the easternmost Ross Sea through a connecting network of seismic lines.
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| 3. |
- Wellner, J.S., et al.
(författare)
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Site U1532
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program. - : International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). - 2377-3189. ; 379
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 4. |
- Wellner, J.S., et al.
(författare)
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Site U1533
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program. - : International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). - 2377-3189. ; 379
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Reinardy, Benedict T. I., et al.
(författare)
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Repeated advance and retreat of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet on the continental shelf during the early Pliocene warm period
- 2015
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Ingår i: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0031-0182 .- 1872-616X. ; 422, s. 65-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Diatom analysis of a sediment core recovered at IODP Site U1358 on the continental shelf off the Adélie Coast indicated that the lower section of the core contained an assemblage dating back to the Thalassiosira innura Zone of the lower Pliocene that ranges from 4.2 to 5.12. Ma. Based on lithological descriptions at both a macro- and micro-scale of this early Pliocene part of the core, four facies were interpreted from the diamictons representing the progressive advance and retreat of the grounding line over the site. Facies 1a and 1b contain a distinct directional signal from the orientation of the a-axis of clasts with several phases of fabric development along with both brittle and ductile deformation features that are common in sediments that have been subglacially deformed. Facies 1c and 1d are finely laminated and were deposited in open marine conditions. The four facies within the depositional model provide for the first time direct evidence for ice advancing across the shelf adjacent to the Wilkes Subglacial Basin on at least four occasions separated by three periods of open marine conditions indicating retreat of grounded ice inland of the site during a warmer than present early Pliocene. The times of open marine conditions are correlated with previous findings from the neighbouring rise sites that also indicated an oscillating ice margin. This has significant implications because firstly it suggests a dynamic East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) that is probably far more sensitive to climatic and oceanic forcing even during relatively short time periods than had previously been thought. Secondly it suggests that proxies used to interpret the advance and retreat of the grounding line from the rise can be linked with direct evidence of grounding line migration from the shelf. It also has important implications for the future behaviour and sensitivity of the EAIS under present continuing warming conditions. Together with results from the rise, this paper provides a crucial ice extent target for a new ice sheet model of this region during the Pliocene.
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| 7. |
- Böttner, Christoph, et al.
(författare)
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Pockmarks in the Witch Ground Basin, Central North Sea
- 2019
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Ingår i: Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 1525-2027. ; 20:4, s. 1698-1719
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Marine sediments host large amounts of methane (CH4), which is a potent greenhouse gas. Quantitative estimates for methane release from marine sediments are scarce, and a poorly constrained temporal variability leads to large uncertainties in methane emission scenarios. Here, we use 2-D and 3-D seismic reflection, multibeam bathymetric, geochemical, and sedimentological data to (I) map and describe pockmarks in the Witch Ground Basin (central North Sea), (II) characterize associated sedimentological and fluid migration structures, and (III) analyze the related methane release. More than 1,500 pockmarks of two distinct morphological classes spread over an area of 225 km2. The two classes form independently from another and are corresponding to at least two different sources of fluids. Class 1 pockmarks are large in size (>6 m deep, >250 m long, and >75 m wide), show active venting, and are located above vertical fluid conduits that hydraulically connect the seafloor with deep methane sources. Class 2 pockmarks, which comprise 99.5% of all pockmarks, are smaller (0.9–3.1 m deep, 26–140 m long, and 14–57 m wide) and are limited to the soft, fine-grained sediments of the Witch Ground Formation and possibly sourced by compaction-related dewatering. Buried pockmarks within the Witch Ground Formation document distinct phases of pockmark formation, likely triggered by external forces related to environmental changes after deglaciation. Thus, greenhouse gas emissions from pockmark fields cannot be based on pockmark numbers and present-day fluxes but require an analysis of the pockmark forming processes through geological time.
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| 8. |
- Chauhan, Teena, et al.
(författare)
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Chronology of Early to Mid-Pleistocene sediments in the northern North Sea : New evidence from amino acid and strontium isotope analyses
- 2022
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Ingår i: Quaternary Geochronology. - : Elsevier. - 1871-1014 .- 1878-0350. ; 71, s. 101336-101336
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sediments deposited during glacial-interglacial cycles through the Early to Mid-Pleistocene in the North Sea are chronologically poorly constrained. To contribute to the chronology of these units, amino acid racemization (AAR) and strontium (Sr) isotope analyses have been performed on samples from four shallow borings and one oil well along a transect in the northern North Sea. D/L Asp (aspartic acid) values obtained through reverse-phase liquid chromatography in the benthic foraminiferal species Elphidium excavatum is focused on because of consistent results and a good stratigraphic distribution of this benthic species. For the Early Pleistocene, an age model for the well 16/1–8, from the central part of the northern North Sea based on Sr ages allows for dating of the prograding wedges filling the pre-Quaternary central basin. A regional calibration curve for the racemization of Asp in Elphidium excavatum is developed using published ages of radiocarbon-dated samples and samples associated with the previously identified Bruhnes/Matuyama (B/M) paleomagnetic boundary and a Sr age from this study. Based on all the available geochronological evidence, samples were assigned to marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS) with uncertainties on the order of 10–70 ka. Sr ages suggest a hiatus of <2 million years (Ma) possibly due to non-deposition or low sedimentation between the Utsira Formation (Pliocene) and the Early Pleistocene. An increase in sedimentation rates around 1.5 ± 0.07 Ma (∼MIS 51) may partly be due to sediment supply from rivers from the south-east and partly due to the extension of ice sheet around 1.36 ± 0.07 Ma from the Norwegian coast to the central North Sea. A possible basin-wide glaciation occurred around 1.1 Ma (∼ MIS 32) (upper regional unconformity/top of unit Q4 in this study), resulting in erosion and regional unconformity. Two interglacials in the Norwegian Channel have been dated: the Radøy Interglacial to 1.07 ± 0.01 Ma (possibly MIS 31, the ‘super interglacial’), and the Norwegian Trench Interglacial to 0.50 ± 0.02 Ma (possibly MIS 13). A massive till unit identified at the same stratigraphic level in all shallow borings may partly represent an extensive MIS 12 glaciation. This study shows that the combined use of amino acid racemization data and Sr isotope chronology can refine the chronological ambiguities of Quaternary North Sea sediments related partly to the impact of glacial processes.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Holmes, Felicity Alice, 1995-
(författare)
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Glacier-Ocean Interactions in the Arctic : Contemporary calving and frontal melt from field observations, remote sensing, and numerical modelling
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Globally, glaciers are losing mass as a result of the changing climate, with this mass loss having a considerable societal impact through rising sea levels. Glaciers which terminate in the oceans are particularly vulnerable to changing external conditions as a result of high sensitivity at their marine margins. Both changing meteorological patterns as well as changing ocean heat content and transport have been previously identified as potential drivers for contemporary rapid glacier retreat and acceleration. However, uncertainties remain and provide motivation for studies which improve our process understanding. Here, we use a combination of field data, remotely sensed data, and targeted numerical modelling experiments to investigate marine terminating glacier response to external changes. This is done in order to address uncertainties around mass loss at the inaccessible glacier-ocean interface. In particular, focus is paid to the processes of submarine melt and calving, together referred to as frontal ablation. Submarine melt is the melting of glacier termini by warm ocean waters below the waterline, whilst calving is the breaking off of icebergs from glacier termini. The two processes are interlinked, with submarine melting undercutting the glacier terminus and contributing to calving, whilst calving events can expose larger areas of the glacier margin to submarine melt. To look for relationships between frontal ablation and external forcings, four glacier-fjord systems were studied to varying extents; two grounded glaciers in Svalbard (Kronebreen and Tunabreen) and two glaciers with floating ice tongues in Greenland (Ryder glacier and Petermann glacier). Both submarine melt and calving were examined at various different scales, both temporally and spatially. Specifically, analysis was carried out from the scale of individual calving events up to decadal long time series of glacier margin change. Much of the data used focused on specific glaciological variables such as satellite-derived velocities, margin positions, model simulations, and time-lapse photography of calving events. However, as glaciers and their adjacent fjord or ocean environments impact on each other, data such as water temperatures were also collected from glacier proximal fjord environments. The results from both the observational data and model experiments suggest that ocean temperatures are of great importance for the frontal ablation of glaciers in the Arctic, but that the relationship is complex. Heterogeneous glacier response to external forcings highlights how site specific factors such as bathymetry and fjord geometry can add an additional layer of complexity and make it challenging to scale up results from one glacier to an entire region. However, there are some strong indications that it is the presence of warm air temperatures in conjunction with warm ocean temperatures that is most important for driving frontal ablation - highlighting the need to situate glacier behaviour within a wider environmental context.
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| 12. |
- Karstens, Jens, et al.
(författare)
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Formation of the Figge Maar Seafloor Crater During the 1964 B1 Blowout in the German North Sea
- 2022
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Ingår i: Earth Science, Systems and Society. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2634-730X. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 1964, exploration drilling in the German Sector of the North Sea hit a gas pocket at ∼2900 m depth below the seafloor and triggered a blowout, which formed a 550 m-wide and up to 38 m deep seafloor crater now known as Figge Maar. Although seafloor craters formed by fluid flow are very common structures, little is known about their formation dynamics. Here, we present 2D reflection seismic, sediment echosounder, and multibeam echosounder data from three geoscientific surveys of the Figge Maar blowout crater, which are used to reconstruct its formation. Reflection seismic data support a scenario in which overpressured gas ascended first through the lower part of the borehole and then migrated along steeply inclined strata and faults towards the seafloor. The focused discharge of gas at the seafloor removed up to 4.8 Mt of sediments in the following weeks of vigorous venting. Eyewitness accounts document that the initial phase of crater formation was characterized by the eruptive expulsion of fluids and sediments cutting deep into the substrate. This was followed by a prolonged phase of sediment fluidization and redistribution widening the crater. After fluid discharge ceased, the Figge Maar acted as a sediment trap reducing the crater depth to ∼12 m relative to the surrounding seafloor in 2018, which corresponds to an average sedimentation rate of ∼22,000 m3/yr between 1995 and 2018. Hydroacoustic and geochemical data indicate that the Figge Maar nowadays emits primarily biogenic methane, predominantly during low tide. The formation of Figge Maar illustrates hazards related to the formation of secondary fluid pathways, which can bypass safety measures at the wellhead and are thus difficult to control.
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| 13. |
- Killingbeck, Siobhan F., et al.
(författare)
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Subglacial sediment distribution from constrained seismic inversion, using MuLTI software : examples from Midtdalsbreen, Norway
- 2019
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Ingår i: Annals of Glaciology. - : Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 0260-3055 .- 1727-5644. ; 60:79, s. 206-219
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fast ice flow is associated with the deformation of subglacial sediment. Seismic shear velocities, Vs, increase with the rigidity of material and hence can be used to distinguish soft sediment from hard bedrock substrates. Depth profiles of Vs can be obtained from inversions of Rayleigh wave dispersion curves, from passive or active-sources, but these can be highly ambiguous and lack depth sensitivity. Our novel Bayesian transdimensional algorithm, MuLTI, circumvents these issues by adding independent depth constraints to the inversion, also allowing comprehensive uncertainty analysis. We apply MuLTI to the inversion of a Rayleigh wave dataset, acquired using active-source (Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves) techniques, to characterise sediment distribution beneath the frontal margin of Midtdalsbreen, an outlet of Norway's Hardangerjokulen ice cap. Ice thickness (0-20 m) is constrained using co-located GPR data. Outputs from MuLTI suggest that partly-frozen sediment (Vs 500-1000 m s-1), overlying bedrock (Vs 2000-2500 m s-1), is present in patches with a thickness of ~4 m, although this approaches the resolvable limit of our Rayleigh wave frequencies (14-100 Hz). Uncertainties immediately beneath the glacier bed are <280 m s-1, implying that MuLTI cannot only distinguish bedrock and sediment substrates but does so with an accuracy sufficient for resolving variations in sediment properties.
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| 14. |
- Kylander, Malin E., 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Storm chasing : Tracking Holocene storminess in southern Sweden using mineral proxies from inland and coastal peat bogs
- 2023
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 299, s. 107854-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Severe extratropical winter storms are a recurrent feature of the European climate and cause widespread socioeconomic losses. Due to insufficient long-term data, it remains unclear whether storminess has shown a notable response to changes in external forcing over the past millennia, which impacts our ability to project future storminess in a changing climate. Reconstructing past storm variability is essential to improving our understanding of storms on these longer, missing timescales. Peat sequences from coastal ombrotrophic bogs are increasingly used for this purpose, where greater quantities of coarser grained beach sand are deposited by strong winds during storm events. Moving inland however, storm intensity decreases, as does sand availability, muting potential paleostorm signals in bogs. We circumvent these issues by taking the innovative approach of using mid-infrared (MIR) spectral data, supported by elemental information, from the inorganic fraction of Store Mosse Dune South (SMDS), a 5000-year-old sequence from a large peatland located in southern Sweden. We infer past changes in mineral composition and thereby, the grain size of the deposited material. The record is dominated by quartz, whose coarse nature was confirmed through analyses of potential local source sediments. This was supported by further mineralogical and elemental proxies of atmospheric input. Comparison of SMDS with within-bog and regionally relevant records showed that there is a difference in proxy and site response to what should be similar timing in shifts in storminess over the-100 km transect considered. We suggest the construction of regional storm stacks, built here by applying changepoint modelling to four transect sites jointly. This modelling approach has the effect of reinforcing signals in common while reducing the influence of random noise. The resulting Southern Sweden-Storm Stack dates stormier periods to 4495-4290, 3880-3790, 2885-2855, 2300-2005, 1175-1065 and 715-425 cal yr BP. By comparing with a newly constructed Western Scotland-Storm Stack and proximal dune records, we argue that regional storm stacks allow us to better compare past storminess over wider areas, gauge storm track movements and by extension, increase our understanding of the drivers of storminess on centennial to millennial timescales.
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| 15. |
- Paul, Seema, et al.
(författare)
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A shallow water numerical method for assessing impacts of hydrodynamics and nutrient transport processes on water quality values of Lake Victoria
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lake Victoria is the world’s largest tropical lake and the third-largest water body, providing significant water resources for surrounding environments including the cultural, societal, and livelihood needs of people in its basin and along the White Nile. The aim of this study was to use decade-long time series of measured lake flow in the lake system and phosphorus deposition to develop a suitable numerical model based on shallow water equations (SWE) for assessing water quality in Lake Victoria, an increasingly important tool under climate variation. Different techniques were combined to identify a numerical model that included: i) a high-resolution SWE model to establish raindrop diffusion to trace pollutants; ii) a two-dimensional (2D) vertically integrated SWE model to establish lake surface flow and vertically transported wind speed flow acting on lake surface water by wind stress; and iii) a site-specific phosphorus deposition sub-model to calculate atmospheric deposition in the lake. A smooth (non-oscillatory) solution was obtained by applying a high-resolution scheme for a raindrop diffusion model. Analysis with the vertically integrated SWE model generated depth averages for flow velocity and associated changes in water level profile in the lake system and showed unidirectional whole lake wind blowing from the southwest to northeast. The atmospheric phosphorous deposition model enabled water value assessment for mass balances with different magnitudes of both inflows and outflows demonstrating annual total phosphorus at 13,500 tons concentrating at mid-lake western and eastern parts. The model developed here is simple and suitable for use in assessing flow changes and lake level changes and can serve as a tool in studies of lake bathymetry and nutrient and pollution transport processes. Our study opens towards refining models of complex shallow-water systems.
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| 16. |
- Paul, Seema, et al.
(författare)
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A shallow water numerical method for assessing impacts of hydrodynamics and nutrient transport processes on water quality values of Lake Victoria
- 2024
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Ingår i: Heliyon. - : Elsevier BV. - 2405-8440. ; 10:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lake Victoria is the world’s largest tropical lake and the third-largest water body, providingsignificant water resources for surrounding environments including the cultural, societal, andlivelihood needs of people in its basin and along the White Nile. The aim of this study was to usedecade-long time series of measured lake flow in the lake system and phosphorus deposition todevelop a suitable numerical model based on shallow water equations (SWE) for assessing waterquality in Lake Victoria, an increasingly important tool under climate variation. Different tech-niques were combined to identify a numerical model that included: i) a high-resolution SWEmodel to establish raindrop diffusion to trace pollutants; ii) a two-dimensional (2D) verticallyintegrated SWE model to establish lake surface flow and vertically transported wind speed flowacting on lake surface water by wind stress; and iii) a site-specific phosphorus deposition sub-model to calculate atmospheric deposition in the lake. A smooth (non-oscillatory) solution wasobtained by applying a high-resolution scheme for a raindrop diffusion model. Analysis with thevertically integrated SWE model generated depth averages for flow velocity and associatedchanges in water level profile in the lake system and showed unidirectional whole lake windblowing from the southwest to northeast. The atmospheric phosphorous deposition modelenabled water value assessment for mass balances with different magnitudes of both inflows andoutflows demonstrating annual total phosphorus at 13, 500 tons concentrating at mid-lakewestern and eastern parts. The model developed here is simple and suitable for use in assess-ing flow changes and lake level changes and can serve as a tool in studies of lake bathymetry andnutrient and pollution transport processes. Our study opens towards refining models of complexshallow-water systems
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| 17. |
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| 18. |
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| 19. |
- Reinardy, Benedict T. I., et al.
(författare)
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Glacier thermal regime linked to processes of annual moraine formation at Midtdalsbreen, southern Norway
- 2013
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Ingår i: Boreas. - : Wiley. - 0300-9483 .- 1502-3885. ; 42:4, s. 896-911
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Glacier thermal regime is shown to have a significant influence on the formation of ice-marginal moraines. Annual moraines at the margin of Midtdalsbreen are asymmetrical and contain sorted fine sediment and diamicton layers dipping gently up-glacier. The sorted fine sediments include sands and gravels that were initially deposited fluvially directly in front of the glacier. Clast-form data indicate that the diamictons have a mixed subglacial and fluvial origin. Winter cold is able to penetrate through the thin (<10m) ice margin and freeze these sediments to the glacier sole. During winter, sediment becomes elevated along the wedge-shaped advancing glacier snout before melting out and being deposited as asymmetrical ridges. These annual moraines have a limited preservation potential of ~40 years, and this is reflected in the evolution of landforms across the glacier foreland. Despite changing climatic conditions since the Little Ice Age and particularly within the last 10 years when frontal retreat has significantly speeded up, glacier dynamics have remained relatively constant with moraines deposited via basal freeze-on, which requires stable glacier geometry. While the annual moraines on the eastern side of Midtdalsbreen indicate a slow steady retreat, the western foreland contains contrasting ice-stagnation topography, highlighting the importance of local forcing factors such as shielding, aspect and debris cover in addition to changing climate. This study indicates that, even in temperate glacial environments, restricted or localised areas of cold-based ice can have a significant impact on the geomorphic imprint of the glacier system and may actually be more widespread within both modern and ancient glacial environments than previously thought.
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| 20. |
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| 21. |
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| 22. |
- Reinardy, Benedict T. I., et al.
(författare)
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Pervasive cold ice within a temperate glacier : implications for glacier thermal regimes, sediment transport and foreland geomorphology
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Cryosphere. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1994-0416 .- 1994-0424. ; 13:3, s. 827-843
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study suggests that cold-ice processes may be more widespread than previously assumed, even within temperate glacial systems. We present the first systematic mapping of cold ice at the snout of the temperate glacier Midtdalsbreen, an outlet of the Hardangerjøkulen icefield (Norway), from 43 line kilometres of ground-penetrating radar data. Results show a 40m wide cold-ice zone within the majority of the glacier snout, where ice thickness is < 10 m. We interpret ice to be cold-based across this zone, consistent with basal freeze-on processes involved in the deposition of moraines. We also find at least two zones of cold ice up to 15m thick within the ablation area, occasionally extending to the glacier bed. There are two further zones of cold ice up to 30m thick in the accumulation area, also extending to the glacier bed. Cold-ice zones in the ablation area tend to correspond to areas of the glacier that are covered by late-lying seasonal snow patches that reoccur over multiple years. Subglacial topography and the location of the freezing isotherm within the glacier and underlying subglacial strata likely influence the transport and supply of supraglacial debris and formation of controlled moraines. The wider implication of this study is the possibility that, with continued climate warming, temperate environments with primarily temperate glaciers could become polythermal in forthcoming decades with (i) persisting thinning and (ii) retreat to higher altitudes where subglacial permafrost could be and/or become more widespread. Adversely, the number and size of late-lying snow patches in ablation areas may decrease and thereby reduce the extent of cold ice, reinforcing the postulated change in the thermal regime.
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| 23. |
- Reinardy, Benedict T. I., et al.
(författare)
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Streaming flow of an Antarctic Peninsula palaeo-ice stream, both by basal sliding and deformation of substrate
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Glaciology. - : International Glaciological Society. - 0022-1430 .- 1727-5652. ; 57:204, s. 596-608
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Acoustic sub-bottom profiler surveys on the northeast Antarctic Peninsula shelf indicate that parts of the seabed are underlain by an acoustically transparent layer that is thin on the inner shelf and becomes thicker and more extensive towards the outer shelf. Sedimentological and geophysical data are combined to construct a bed model where streaming ice flow, by both deformation and basal sliding, took place within cross-shelf troughs. The model suggests only limited deformation contributed to fast flow on the inner shelf, i.e. in the onset zone of ice streaming, where the bed was predominantly underlain by a stiff till. Thus, fast ice flow in this area might have been by basal sliding, with deformation confined to discontinuous patches of soft till <40cm thick. Towards the middle and outer shelf, extensive, thick sequences of soft till suggest a change in the dominant subglacial process towards widespread deformation. This downstream change from basal sliding to subglacial deformation is manifest in the transition from stiff-till dominance to soft-till dominance, while a downstream increase in ice flow velocity is evident from the complex geomorphic imprint on the inner shelf evolving to the more restricted set of bedforms on the outer shelf.
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| 24. |
- Reinardy, Benedict T. I., et al.
(författare)
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The sedimentary signature of ice-contact sedimentation and deformation at macro- and micro-scale: A case study from NW Scotland
- 2009
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Ingår i: Sedimentary Geology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0037-0738 .- 1879-0968. ; 221:1-4, s. 87-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies on the genesis of subaerial debris flows and associated deposits are relatively rare in the literature, especially in an ice-marginal context of moraine formation. The present contribution reports results from both the macro- and micro-scales of a subaerial depositional setting in order to contribute to closing this gap. At the macroscale, alternating loose, stratified, clast- and matrix-supported diamicts and finely laminated sand units indicate deposition of debris flows and fluvial units in a subaerial, ice-marginal setting that were stacked up to form a terrestrial ice-contact fan. Macroscale and micromorphological analyses show that this fan displays evidence of a three-phased formation: (a) overriding and glaciotectonisation of pre-existing sediments followed by retreat and burial of this core by (b) ice-contact fan deposition dominated by water-rich fluvial deposition with relatively little debris flow activity and (c) a switch to a gravitational sedimentation style with dominantly debris flow deposition and fewer and thinner fluvial units. Thin sections of both the diamict and laminated sand units show evidence of deposition of a mud and fine sand-rich slurry being expelled from the tops of advancing mass flows. Water-rich fine-grained slurries appear to have been progressively overridden and deformed in response to ductile shear occurring at the base of individual flows. Liquefaction and remobilisation of sand within laminated deposits occurred during such basal shear events, resulting in the injection of liquefied sediments into variably deformed laminated sands and clays. Deformation is more likely to have taken place through internal movement of the sediment due to changing porewater conditions and loading upon emplacement. Our approach confirms previous results that highlight the possibilities of increasing the accuracy of sedimentological investigations through combined sedimentological analyses at varying scales.
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| 25. |
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| 26. |
- Reinardy, Benedict T. I., et al.
(författare)
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Till genesis at the bed of an Antarctic Peninsula palaeo-ice stream as indicated by micromorphological analysis
- 2011
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Ingår i: Boreas. - : Wiley. - 0300-9483 .- 1502-3885. ; 40:3, s. 498-517
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sediment cores from cross-shelf troughs on the NE Antarctic Peninsula shelf recovered tills with variable shear strengths that represent different subglacial depositional regimes. In addition to detailed qualitative micromorphological descriptions, a quantitative method was applied, which revealed a higher abundance of boudins and intraclasts and a lower abundance of crushed and fractured grains in samples from the soft till compared with samples from the underlying stiff till. This is the first evidence of significant (micro-scale) differences between the two types of till and thus strengthens previous interpretations that were based primarily on shear strength. The differences between the soft and stiff till relate to a deforming continuum whereby the initial deposition of till as ice advanced across the shelf produced ductile structures before dewatering and compaction led to the formation of brittle structures such as crushed and fractured grains in the now stiff till. A change in ice-flow dynamics led to streaming flow and the deformation of the upper parts of the stiff till that was being reworked into a soft till. The soft till facilitated ice streaming, and progressive shearing led to the homogenization of the ice stream substrate, which was partially advected downstream. The resulting till thus contains poly-deformational structures, with deformation structures inherited from the stiff till being generally poorly preserved. Our micromorphological analysis of the soft till provides the first widespread sedimentological evidence of deformation across the palaeo-ice stream bed on the NE Antarctic Peninsula shelf.
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| 27. |
- Watts, Hannah, et al.
(författare)
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An Assessment of Geophysical Survey Techniques for Characterising the Subsurface Around Glacier Margins, and Recommendations for Future Applications
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Earth Science. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-6463. ; 10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Geophysical surveys provide an efficient and non-invasive means of studying subsurface conditions in numerous sedimentary settings. In this study, we explore the application of three geophysical methods to a proglacial environment, namely ground penetrating radar (GPR), seismic refraction and multi-channel analysis of surface waves (MASW). We apply these geophysical methods to three glacial landforms with contrasting morphologies and sedimentary characteristics, and we use the various responses to assess the applicability and limitations of each method for these proglacial targets. Our analysis shows that GPR and seismic (refraction and MASW) techniques can provide spatially extensive information on the internal architecture and composition of moraines, but careful survey designs are required to optimise data quality in these geologically complex environments. Based on our findings, we define a number of recommendations and a potential workflow to guide future geophysical investigations in analogous settings. We recommend the initial use of GPR in future studies of proglacial environments to inform (a) seismic survey design and (b) the selection of seismic interpretation techniques. We show the benefits of using multiple GPR antenna frequencies (e.g., 25 and 100 MHz) to provide decimetre scale imaging in the near surface (e.g., < 15 m) while also enabling signal penetration to targets at up to ∼40 m depth (e.g., bedrock). This strategy helps to circumvent changes in radar signal penetration resulting from variations in substrate conductivity or abundant scatterers. Our study also demonstrates the importance of combining multiple geophysical methods together with ground-truthing through sedimentological observations to reduce ambiguity in interpretations. Implementing our recommendations will improve geophysical survey practice in the field of glacial geology and allow geophysical methods to play an increasing role in the interpretation of glacial landforms and sediments.
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| 28. |
- Watts, Hannah, et al.
(författare)
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The sensitivity of seismic refraction velocity models to survey geometry errors, assessed using Monte Carlo analysis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Geophysics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0926-9851 .- 1879-1859. ; 208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Seismic refraction models should routinely be reported with their associated uncertainty. Tomographic solutions are widespread, but estimating uncertainties in these via Monte Carlo simulation places great demands on computer resource, hence this task is often omitted. By considering the Plus-Minus method of seismic refraction interpretation, we use Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the uncertainty in seismic refraction results and determine the sources of uncertainty that are most impactful on the reliability of the output model. Our analysis considers the impact of survey mislocation (i.e., geophones misplaced from a planned position) and interpretational problems (i.e., misidentification of first-break picks and uncertainty in identifying crossover distances) on the overall uncertainty in inferred unit thicknesses and seismic velocities. These are considered for synthetic data with varying subsurface velocity structure, and for field data collected at a shallow (< 50 m) bedrock site in north Wales (UK). Analysis of synthetic data shows that the impact of the aforementioned errors on thickness estimates is similar to 1000 times that on velocity estimates. Of all permutations tested, the most significant impact on thickness uncertainty was the accuracy of first-break picks, with the variance in target thickness estimates increasing roughly exponentially with first-break pick uncertainty. It is therefore prudent to minimise such uncertainty through appropriate survey practice (e.g., maximising source energy, taking multiple shots for stacking) and to properly define the resultant uncertainty in unit thickness and velocity estimates. The simplicity of the Plus-Minus method makes it an effective tool for highlighting the errors that would impact more sophisticated interpretation approaches, such as tomography or Full Waveform Inversion. The results from such analysis can be directly applied in straightforward environmental or engineering investigations and can be used to inform more advanced refraction methods. As such, the practice we highlight should be considered for any refraction interpretation.
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