Glacial sedimentary processes and environmental reconstruction based on lithofacies

Glacigenic sediments exposed in pits around Villeneuve, near Edmonton, Alberta, are subdivided into facies based on grain size, sedimentary structure, glacially-induced deformation and faulting, and groove marks. Two diamicton facies are recognised, one of which is interpreted as a primary till, deposited directly from glacier ice, and the other as a product of mass-movement. The diamicton facies are closely associated with current bedded facies interpreted as fluvioglacial deposits. The stratigraphic sedimentological and tectonic aspects of these fluvial deposits suggest subglacial deposition in channels and cavities. At any one place the glacier appears to have alternated between being attached to the bed, causing thrusting and sole marking, and being separated from the bed by a cavity in which fluvial and mass-movement sediments accumulated. The net result is a highly complex and laterally variable stratigraphy produced by a single glacial advance. The correct interpretation of such sequences is essential if lithostratigraphy is to be used to establish glacial history. In addition, the interpretations presented here have implications regarding the formation of soft zones in ‘till’. They indicate that the soft zones are beds of sorted sediment redeposited by mass-movement.     

Coarse-grained sediment gravity flow facies in a large supraglacial lake

Near Williams Lake, in the central interior of British Columbia, the Fraser River exposes long sections of late Pleistocene glaciolacustrine sediments selectively preserved within a bedrock trough. The dominant facies types are thick, normally graded gravels and sands that occupy steeply dipping multistorey channels up to 300 m wide and several tens of metres deep. Channels appear to have been simultaneously cut and filled by high density turbidity currents in a glacial lake floored by stagnant ice. Fining upward sediment gravity flow sequences up to 50 m thick may be the product of quasi-continuous ‘surging’ turbidity flows triggered by catastrophic meltwater discharges into the trough or retrogressive failure of ice-cored sediments. Large-scale post-depositional deformation structures, such as synclinal folds, normal faults, sedimentary dyke swarms and dewatering structures, record gravitational foundering of sediment and pore-water expulsion caused by the melt of underlying glacier ice. Melting of buried ice masses along the floor of the trough appears to have controlled the flow paths of turbidity currents by producing sub-basins within the overlying sediment pile. An idealized model of ‘supraglacial’ lacustrine sedimentation is developed that may be applicable to other glaciated areas with similar bedrock topography.     

Burial diagenesis and crystal diminution. The origin of crystal diminution in some limestones from South Wales

ABSTRACT Carboniferous speleothem calcites in un-metamorphosed limestones from South Wales exhibit crystal diminution (degrading neomorphism) textures. These textures result from processes which have been considered only important under metamorphic conditions. The textures are interpreted as the result of recrystallization associated with dislocation processes. These processes relate to low temperature creep associated with low strain rates extended over long periods of time. The textures described here occur in unusually large crystals but similar textures have been described in limestones from deep boreholes. Dislocation processes, recovery and recrystallization are likely to be important processes operating during deep burial diagenesis.     

ISLAND SOJOURNS

ABSTRACT. Islands have long held a central place in Western cultures' mythical geographies. They have been associated for centuries with heroic journeys and holy quests, imagined realms of magical transformations. Islands have also been sites of significant rites of passage, and they continue to perform this function in the modern secular world. Today, popular islomania is expressed in the frequency of seasonal sojourning on European and American archipelagos. No longer destinations of permanent residence, islands now provide access to a sense of temporal and spatial rootedness that is no longer available on mainlands. They loom large on the mental maps even of those who rarely, if ever, visit them.     

AFRICA IS COMING TO THE CAPE*

ABSTRACT. At the southern tip of Africa, culmination of one of the world'sgreat population shifts is there for the witnessing: a southward movement of Bantu‐speaking Black Africans, previously stalled in South Africa'sEastern Cape first by climatic factors and later by European‐imposed racial segregation. Cape Town, throughout its demographic history a “Coloured” and “White” city, is now Africanizing. Liberation from apartheid has brought rapid African influx, and the metropolitan population has more than doubled in less than twenty years. Sociocultural tensions and sociocultural possibilities ensue.     

Low-{{delta}}18O Rhyolites from Yellowstone: Magmatic Evolution Based on Analyses of Zircons and Individual Phenocrysts

The Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field is one of the largestcenters of rhyolitic magmatism on Earth. Major caldera-formingeruptions are followed by unusual low-