Loic Piret, Sebastien Bertrand, Carlos Moffat, Peter Feldens, Svenja Papenmeier, Helge Arz
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Pio XI Glacier (49°S) is the largest and one of the very few advancing glaciers in Patagonia. Satellite data indicate that the main glacier terminus transitioned from calving to land-based around 2010, effectively resulting in the formation of an ice-contact delta at the head of Eyre Fjord. Here, we investigate how this ice-contact delta formation affected sediment transport processes in Eyre Fjord. Sediment cores and seismic profiles collected along the fjord provide evidence for a relatively abrupt increase in the number and magnitude of turbidity currents, coeval with the formation of the ice-contact delta. This observation is supported by modern summer hydrographic observations and bathymetric data. We posit that the ice-contact delta formation resulted in sediment input being concentrated at specific subaerial locations across the fjord head, which favoured the development of plume-triggered turbidity currents. This suggests that a sudden increase in turbidite thickness in fjord sediment records could represent ice-contact delta development at fjord heads.
期刊介绍:
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms is an interdisciplinary international journal concerned with:
the interactions between surface processes and landforms and landscapes;
that lead to physical, chemical and biological changes; and which in turn create;
current landscapes and the geological record of past landscapes.
Its focus is core to both physical geographical and geological communities, and also the wider geosciences