The sedimentological death mask of a dying glacier

Autor(en)
Daniel Paul Le Heron, Christoph Kettler, Arian Wawra, Martin Schoepfer, Bernhard Grasemann
Abstrakt

The Pasterze is Austria's largest glacier, and it is experiencing rapid downwasting and retreat. A mosaic of complex sedimentary deposits has been produced in recent years which have not hitherto been studied, yet provide excellent lessons into the facies distribution expected from a dying valley glacier. In this paper, a new glaciological–geomorphological–geological map is presented for the glacier in July 2021. Freshly exposed (since 2018) tills and flutes constitute a subglacial sediment–landform assemblage. An ice-marginal sediment–landform assemblage comprises meltwater streams, a delta system and proglacial lake terrace deposits. The supraglacial assemblage, meanwhile, includes fossil englacial channel deposits revealed by ablation, together with debris bands, rockfall deposits and supraglacial channel deposits. Collectively, these sediment–landform assemblages constitute the building blocks of a dying glacier landsystem.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Geologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Universität Wien
Journal
Depositional Record
Band
8
Seiten
992-1007
Anzahl der Seiten
16
ISSN
2055-4877
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/dep2.205
Publikationsdatum
09-2022
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
105121 Sedimentologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Environmental Science (miscellaneous), Geology, Oceanography, Palaeontology, Stratigraphy
Link zum Portal
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/the-sedimentological-death-mask-of-a-dying-glacier(74db2f84-be06-487a-b701-48046a488d7c).html