Eiríksjökull plateau icefield landsystem, Iceland

Evans, D.J.A.; Ewertowski, M.; Orton, C.

Abstract

A 1:9500 scale map of the Eiríksjökull plateau icefield and its post-Little Ice Age (LIA) foreland geomorphology and surficial geology is presented as a modern exemplar of an asymmetrically developed mountain glacier typical of the style of glacierization that dominated during mid-latitude Quaternary cold stages. Features regarded as diagnostic for this setting include (a) ice-cored hummocky terrain, indicative of controlled moraine construction in polythermal snouts, and localized breach lobe development, incremental stagnation and rock glacierization, all indicative of a debris-charged glacier snout; (b) fluted till and moraines, indicative of temperate basal ice conditions up-ice from polythermal glacier margins and (c) glacifluvial and debris flow deposits, occurring as steep fans emanating from glacier snouts at the plateau edge and in ice-contact fans or ramps fed directly by debris-covered glacier margins at the LIA. Although this plateau icefield landsystem is similar to those previously reported from Iceland, a remarkable debris-covered snout/ice-cored moraine complex on the foreland of Klofajökull is a more extreme example of the depositional zone that characterizes the valleys surrounding the more sediment-starved plateau ice dispersal centres.

Citation

Evans, D., Ewertowski, M., & Orton, C. (2016). Eiríksjökull plateau icefield landsystem, Iceland. Journal of Maps, 12(5), 747-756. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2015.1072448

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 8, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Aug 3, 2015
• Publication Date: Oct 19, 2016
• Deposit Date: Aug 27, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 3, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Maps
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-5647
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 747-756
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2015.1072448
• Keywords: Plateau icefield, Glacial landsystem, Eiríksjökull.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1423686