Deglaciation and proglacial lakes

Glaciers and ice sheets are important constituents of the Earth's land surface. Current worldwide retreat of glaciers has implications for the environment and for civilisation. There are a range of geomorphic changes occurring in cold environments and it is anticipated that these will be accentuated as a consequence of climate change. In particular, the number and size of proglacial lakes is currently increasing as a result of deglaciation and their significance for the physical environment and for society is becoming increasingly apparent. This article provides an overview of the major interdependent relationships between climate change, glaciers and proglacial lake development. In particular, it describes the key processes and impacts associated with proglacial lake evolution with reference to examples drawn from the European Alps, North America, the Himalayas, the Andes, Greenland, New Zealand and Iceland.     

GIS‐based reconstruction of Late Weichselian proglacial lakes in northwestern Russia and Belarus

Reconstructing ice‐lake histories is of considerable importance for understanding deglacial meltwater budgets and the role of meltwater reservoirs for sea‐level rise in response to climate warming. We used the latest data on chronology and ice‐sheet extents combined with an isostatically adjusted digital elevation model to reconstruct the development of proglacial lakes in the area of the Karelian ice stream complex of the Late Weichselian Scandinavian Ice Sheet on the East European Plain. We derived the deglacial ice lake development in seven time‐slices from 19 to 13.8 ka, assuming the individual ice‐marginal positions to be isochronous throughout the studied domain. Modelling is based on mapping of critical drainage thresholds and filling the depressions that are potentially able to hold meltwater. Such an approach underestimates the real dimensions of the ice lakes, because the role of erosion at the thresholds is not considered. Our modelling approach is sensitive to the (local) ice‐margin location. Our results prove the southward drainage of meltwater during the glacier extent maxima and at the beginning of deglaciation whereas rerouting to the west had taken place already around 17.5 ka, which is some 1.5 ka earlier than hitherto supposed. The total ice‐lake volume in the study area was lowest (~300 km³) during the maximum glacier extent and highest (~2000 km³) during the highstand of the Privalday Lake at c. 14.6 ka. At 14.6–14.4 ka, the Privalday Lake drained to the early Baltic Ice Lake. The released ~1500 km³ of water approximately corresponds to 20% of the early Baltic Ice Lake water volume and therefore it is unlikely that it was accommodated there. Thus, we argue that the additional meltwater drained through the Öresund threshold area between the early Baltic Ice Lake and the sea, becoming a part of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet's contribution to the Meltwater Pulse 1A event.     

A local clay-varve chronology and proglacial sedimentary environment in glacial Lake Peipsi, eastern Estonia

Ten cores consisting of varved clay from the northern part of Lake Peipsi in eastern Estonia have been correlated using varve thickness variations and specific marker varves into a 375-year floating varve chronology. Continuous sedimentation during gradual ice recession is concluded from a clear transition from proximal to distal varves. Cyclic variations in varve thickness are caused mainly by thickness changes of clayey winter layers. This is interpreted to indicate increased influx of finer material due to faster melting of the glacier. The cyclic pattern of thickness change is explained by alternating periods of increased and decreased melting of the ice. Simultaneous accumulation of varved clay in glacial Lake Peipsi and in the Luga and Neva basins of Russia is concluded from the good visual correlation between the mean varve thickness diagrams for the three chronologies. Because the varve chronologies from northwestern Russia have been tentatively correlated to the Swedish varve chronology, the timing of the clay accumulation in glacial Lake Peipsi is placed between c . 13 500 and 13 100 varve years BP.     

A decade of sedimentation in ice-contact, proglacial lakes, Bering Glacier, AK

Bathymetric surveys during the 1991–2000 decade in two ice-contact, proglacial lakes on the eastern sector of Bering piedmont lobe captured the buildup effects of the 1993–1995 surge. Following ice-front advance of 1.0–1.5 km into Tsivat and Tsiu Lakes, the basins were significantly altered by surge-related sedimentation including the impact of a subglacial outburst into Tsivat Lake. The subsequent changes in basin shape, size, and morphology were monitored by six bathymetric surveys. Measured changes in water depth serve as a proxy for determining increments of sediment accumulation.

Upwelling, ice-front vents fed by subglacial tunnels transported suspended fine sediment directly into the lake system. The rate of suspension settling within both lakes varied from 0.6 to 1.2 m year⁻¹ prior to the surge. Suspended load during surge years increased sixfold from 1.7 to 13.9 g l⁻¹, accompanied by increased sediment accumulation of 2.2–3.1 m year⁻¹. Vent-related aggradation and subsequent filling of Tsivat Lake caused sediment bypassing to Tsiu Lake, where encroachment by delta growth contributed to a postsurge rate of bottomset accumulation of 3.0 m year⁻¹.

The total sediment influx from subglacial sources is represented by the sum of bathymetrically determined accumulation, plus an estimated volume of sediment that remained suspended, thus passing through the lake system. Total sediment flux along the eastern Bering piedmont lobe from 1991 to 2000 is approximately 227 million cubic meters.     

Turbidite stratigraphy in proglacial lakes: Deciphering trigger mechanisms using a statistical approach

Turbidites embedded in lacustrine sediment sequences are commonly used to reconstruct regional flood or earthquake histories. A critical step for this method to be successful is that turbidites and their trigger mechanisms are determined unambiguously. The latter is particularly challenging for prehistoric proglacial lake records in high-seismicity settings where both earthquake-generated and flood-generated turbidites interrupt the background varved sedimentation. This calls for a new method to allow efficient and objective identification and classification of turbidites. This study examined turbidites in five long (9 to 17 m) sediment cores from Eklutna Lake, a proglacial lake in south-central Alaska, using standard core logging and grain-size data. A novel statistical approach is presented, in which varve-thickness distributions were first analyzed to objectively identify the thickest turbidites and distinguish them from background sedimentation. For each turbidite, a selection of variables were then measured, including: basal grain-size, thickness, magnetic susceptibility and spectrophotometric variables. Triggering mechanisms were discriminated by a combination of principal component analysis and clustering, and by calibration with historical events. Using this approach, a 2250 year long lake-wide event stratigraphy was constructed, with 94 prehistoric events, including 24 earthquake and 70 flood events. Basal grain-size and thickness variables turn out to be the most effective proxies for discrimination. This statistical approach is a powerful and new method to identify turbidites and their triggering mechanisms in long prehistoric sediment records. It opens up new prospects for palaeoseismological, palaeohydrological and palaeoclimate studies in proglacial lakes worldwide.     

Late Wisconsinan deglaciation and proglacial lakes development in the Charlevoix region,southeastern Québec,Canada

The Charlevoix region, in southeastern Québec, is characterized by a dramatic landscape formed by the junction of the Laurentian Highlands, the Charlevoix Astrobleme and the St Lawrence Estuary. At the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the region was completely covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS). The complex topography of the region was the stage of many of the major deglacial events of southern Quebec (e.g. Goldthwait Sea Invasion, St Lawrence Ice‐Stream, Saint‐Narcisse Episode). We present a detailed reconstruction of the pattern of retreat of the LIS in the Charlevoix region based on the interpretation of ice‐marginal features (e.g. moraines, fans) and glaciolacustrine landforms and deposits, two extensive field campaigns, and the interpretation of high‐resolution 3D digital aerial photographs and LiDAR data. Our results indicate five moraine complexes in the region: the Rochette, the Brûlée, the Sainte‐Anne, the Saint‐Narcisse and the Mars‐Batiscan complexes. Deltas, fans, fine‐grained sediments, littoral deposits, drainage breaches and deposits were used to identify 91 palaeo‐proglacial lakes. The identification of these lakes and their relation to moraine complexes enabled the reconstruction of six stages of lake development during the Charlevoix deglaciation. The development of proglacial lakes occurred in all types of terrain (highlands, lowlands, transitory levels above marine limit). We conclude that local topography had a decisive effect on promoting both moraine deposition and lake development. We suggest that similar topographical regions (hilly‐mountainous) that were affected by major ice‐margin stabilizations during glacial retreat should have experience small lakes dominating valleys and topographical lows.     

塔里木盆地库车坳陷中生界构造古地理分析

运用区域地面地质、地震、钻测井等资料的综合分析,对库车坳陷中生界的盆地结构、构造样式、中生界各层序原始地层厚度和沉积相分布、古隆起形态、区域构造演化等方面进行研究,重建了库车坳陷中生代盆地构造古地理,并对盆地原型成因进行分析。库车坳陷残留中生界总体上为北厚南薄、北剥南超的地质结构,北部强烈角度不整合在南天山海西期褶皱带,南部微角度不整合面在寒武-奥陶系之上,南部边缘沿着温宿-西秋-牙哈古隆起有基底断裂活动。北部单斜带为冲积扇和辫状河三角洲,克拉苏构造带为深湖,南部沿着古隆起带为缓坡三角洲、浅湖。库车坳陷中生代原型盆地位于南天山海西期造山带和塔里木克拉通边缘过渡带之上,地壳均衡可能是盆地沉降的主要动力。南缘古隆起带在南天山洋扩张期为塔里木克拉通台地与被动大陆边缘的台地边缘,南天山洋闭合期为前陆隆起带,发育基底断裂和断块差异活动,在中生代有继承性活动,晚新生代新天山挤压隆升使古隆起带发生挤压变形,成为新天山逆冲变形造山楔的前锋。     

Orogenic Movements and Palaeogeographic Development in West Hunan

正 With 5 Plates The region here described as West Hunan includes the drainage area of Yuanshui~1 and Lishui~2 together with their tributaries. As a result of several years' research in this area, the writer has gathered     

中国洋板块地层分布及构造演化

以大地构造相研究为主导,以《中国沉积大地构造图(1∶2 500 000)》编图为研究平台,对洋板块地层类型进行了初步划分,简述了中国新元古代以来洋板块地层分布及其构造演化规律。本文阐述了北方的古亚洲洋的洋陆转换从西往东具穿时现象,西部主要在早、晚石炭世之间,东部主要在中、晚二叠世之间;宽坪-佛子岭混杂岩带是华北与扬子之间大洋消亡的产物;中央造山带从北部的祁连-阿尔金到南部的昆仑-秦岭,洋陆转换从北向南依次完成：西昆仑北-阿尔金-祁连-祁曼塔格为晚奥陶世末,西昆仑南-东昆仑-秦岭为早三叠世末;青藏高原中部的龙木错-双湖、班公湖-怒江、昌宁-孟连蛇绿混杂岩带一起构成了原-古特提斯大洋连续演化、分阶段增生至最终消亡的对接带,洋壳持续时代自寒武纪-早白垩世;江绍-郴州-钦防混杂岩带是扬子陆块与华夏增生造山系之间华南洋最终消亡的对接带,主碰撞期是晚奥陶世-早志留世。     

Terminal Precambrian Palaeogeographic Framework of China1

Abstract The original locations and relationships of four plates within the mainland of China from 800 to 600 Ma during the terminal Precambrian were reconstructed based on the palaeomagnetic and geological data. The Tarim, Yangtze and Cathaysian plates were once linked (in 800-700 Ma) and located in the same low-latitude zone of the northern hemisphere. But later, in 700-600 Ma, the Tarim plate was separated from the Yangtze-Cathaysian plate. The Sino-Korean plate was always far away from the Yangtze plate, both being separated by oceanic crust, and lay in the high-latitude zone of the northern hemisphere. The above-mentioned palaeogeographic framework directly led to complete differences in respect to distribution of low- latitude glaciation, sedimentary facies, palaeoclimate, palaeobiogeography and stratigraphic sections between the North and South China domains during the terminal Precambrian.     

Maps and mapping in Estonia

Estonia may be taken as an example of how cartography has developed in the national languages of the Baltic States. Late in the 17th century the first survey of Estonian and Latvian territories was carried out by the Swedes. Masterpieces of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century are the Atlas of Livonia by L. A. Mellin and a special map of Livonia by C. G. Rücker. The first maps in Estonian appeared more than one hundred years ago. The short period of independence, 1918–1940, was one of rapid development in cartography, interrupted by occupation of the Baltic States by the USSR. Maps were destroyed or declared secret; use of maps was limited. From the beginning of the 1990s, a rapid renaissance of national cartography began.     

Palaeogeographic reconstruction of the 1.55 Ma synchronous isolation of the Ryukyu Islands,Japan, and Taiwan and inflow of the Kuroshio warm current

In the Quaternary, the Ryukyu Islands evolved from a continental margin arc to an island arc by backarc spreading of the Okinawa Trough, accompanied by subsidence and isolation of the islands, a process that has continued to the present. Trough-parallel half grabens were filled with marine siltstone. Similar sediments filling orthogonal fault-controlled and west-draining non-tectonic valleys record island separation. New Quaternary nannofossil biostratigraphic data date the deposition of the marine siltstone at 1.552 ± 0.154 Ma. At that time, the entire 1000 km-long island chain comprising the Ryukyu Islands separated from the Asian continent by rifting extending from the Okinawa Trough to the Tsushima Strait. The Tokara, Kerama, and Yonaguni gaps, branched or transverse rifts of the Okinawa Trough, separate the island chain into subgroups of the Osumi, Amami, Okinawa, and Yaeyama islands, and Taiwan. The shallow Taiwan Strait separated Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. The Kuroshio warm current that previously ran offshore of the continental margin arc began to enter the opening backarc basin through the Yonaguni gap and to exit through the Tokara gap, flowing along the axis of the Okinawa Trough. Under influence of the warm current and because of entrapment of continentally sourced detrital sediments by the Okinawa Trough, coral reefs formed around each island. These reefs make up a unit called the Ryukyu limestone. Subsidence continued through the deposition of this limestone, resulting in further isolation of each island. Some islands did not separate from the mainland but emerged above sea level later as a result of volcanic edifice construction or forearc uplift. Following initial isolation, the Japanese islands and Taiwan may have been connected to the mainland by land bridges during some sea level low stands related to glacial periods, whereas the other islands remained isolated. Based on ages of isolation of each island, a Quaternary palaeogeographic map and ‘phylogenetic tree’ of the islands can be drawn showing the separation time of each island from the mainland and from each other. This information should be useful for phylogenetic molecular biologists studying evolution of Ryukyu endemic species and vicariant speciation and could facilitate analysis of the DNA substitution rate.     

河南省中二叠世山西期古地理特征*

河南省中二叠统山西组发育了一套以陆源碎屑含煤岩系为特色的滨海相、三角洲相沉积,是河南省晚古生代的重要含煤地层。基于地层厚度、砂泥比等值线的变化趋势分析以及指相化石和沉积组合类型的分布特征,可以确定出4种沉积相：潟湖（海湾）相、潮坪相、障壁岛相和三角洲相;划分出3种岩相区：三角洲泥岩及砂岩相区,海湾（潟湖）—潮坪粉砂岩及泥岩相区和障壁岛—潮坪—潟湖（海湾）砂岩及泥岩相区。当时的沉积古地理特征表现为：豫西南为伏牛古陆,豫西为中条古陆,总体地势呈北西高,南东低,中部有一水下隆起区;海水由西北向东南方向退去;物源主要来自盆地西侧的中条古陆;最大厚度沉积区位于东北部及东部。     

Patterns of Late Pleistocene proglacial fluvial sedimentation in the SE Lithuanian Plain

We investigated proglacial fluvial sedimentation processes in the SE Lithuanian Plain by means of lithofacies analysis. The main parameters on which interpretations were based, were depositional structures of sandy sediments, paleohydraulic parameters and grain-size distribution. The development of the SE Lithuanian Plain illustrates the phenomenal shift of proglacial fluvial sedimentation from outwash plain to ice-marginal river during the ice retreat of the last glaciation. Three facies assemblages of braidplain deposits and two facies assemblages of palaeovalley deposits were distinguished in the sandy plain by means of qualitative and quantitative sedimentological research. This raises the question how the commonly accepted development of a SE orientated outwash plain could turn into an almost perpendicular (SW running) ice-marginal river. The vertical and lateral transitions of outwash plain facies present a classical example of braidplain evolution on slightly inclined lowlands, with well expressed proximal, middle and distal parts. Mid- and side-channel (point-bar) deposits of the proglacial valley point, however, which is unusual for proglacial fluvial systems, to a meandering character of the ice-marginal river. River types of various scale show a change from braided into meandering in the proglacial subenvironment. Lithofacies analysis and paleohydraulic parameters show distinct differences of the hydrodynamic regime during the first stage of the sandy plain development: from sedimentation on an outwash plain in a proglacial valley to sedimentation on a braidplain in a wide ice-marginal valley. The outwash system is characterized by a distinct downstream decrease in energy, whereas the ice-marginal river maintained most of its power and velocity.     

Traces produced by chironomid larvae in sediments of an ice-contact proglacial lake

Scdimentological studies of a small ice-contact proglacial lake at Briksdal. southwest Norway, have led to the discovery of two types of tubular traces developed on the surfaces of material collected in sediment traps. The traces are described and attributed, with certainty, to the burrowing activities of chironomid midge larvae.     

Subglacial to proglacial sediment transition in a shallow ice-contact lake

A complete subglacial to glacial-lacustrine facies transition is described from a temporary exposure in the Lake Michigan bluffs of southeastern Wisconsin. This transition occurs where a Late Woodfordian terminal moraine intersects the bluff line and grades from basal meltout till to chaotic diamicton to rhythmites over an abrupt 90 m lateral distance. The boundary of the subglacial meltout deposits is marked by an abrupt increase in pebbles and cobbles, which cluster at specific horizons, producing an incipient stratification. Thereafter, the diamicton develops contorted flow structures with progressive segregation into coarse and fine-grained fractions, ultimately into well-stratified rhythmites.     

The peculiarities of Jewish settlement in Estonia

The development of Jewish settlement in Estonia can be divided into three historical stages: formation of settlement; adaption and integration; and formation of the new, Soviet type of settlement. Jewish settlement can be viewed together with the Estonian settlement system. Populated places of different ranks can be distinguished, depending on the size and functions of the Jewish communities. The functions depend greatly on the existence of ethnic institutions, and their sphere of activities. These institutions can be congregations, schools, cultural societies, etc., whose hinterland is limited to their close surroundings.     

陕北地区中侏罗世延安期古地理特征*

在系统收集陕北地区中侏罗统延安组野外露头、钻井、测井、古生物等资料的基础上,对延安组沉积期的沉积环境及其层序地层格架进行分析,并恢复了各层序沉积期的岩相古地理格局。将延安组划分为3个三级层序,分层序绘制了关键单因素的等值线图,恢复了各层序沉积期的岩相古地理格局。层序Ⅰ沉积早期主要为河流沉积;随着盆地沉降的加剧,中部地区逐渐变为湖泊沉积,东北部河流沉积演变为三角洲沉积;层序Ⅱ沉积时期基本继承了层序Ⅰ晚期的沉积格局,古地理格局相对较稳定;层序Ⅲ沉积期,盆地基底不断抬升,湖泊逐渐萎缩成局限湖,河流沉积、三角洲沉积分别在研究区中部、东北部大规模发育。