MULTIDISCIPLINARY INVESTIGATIONS ON THREE ROCK GLACIERS IN THE SWISS ALPS: LEGACIES AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

This paper recognizes the contribution of Professor Wilfried Haeberli for his inspiration and leadership in the field of permafrost science and his generous encouragement, both direct and indirect, to the ETH Researchers who have, through him, endeavoured to contribute to this fascinating research area. The multidisciplinary investigations described in this paper have focused on three rock glaciers, Muragl, Murtèl‐Corvatsch and Furggwanghorn, all of which have been subject to a varying degree of prior study, and which are continuing to attract new generations of researchers to understand and explain the processes and predict future behaviour. This paper marks a stage at which it is possible to summarize some advances in the state of the art and associated innovations that can be attributed to early motivation by Wilfried Haeberli and offers a tribute as well as gratitude for his ongoing feedback and advice. Some thoughts on the development of thermokarst due to water ponding and flow, and a conceptual model of geotechnical mechanisms that aim to explain some aspects of rock glacier kinematics, are also introduced.     

Experimental insights into laser diffraction particle sizing of fine‐grained sediments for use in palaeoceanography

Grain‐size measurements of fine‐grained sediments based on laser diffraction may contain spurious information due to the over‐estimation of the size and proportion of platy particles. Consequently, some regard the use of laser diffraction particle sizing in palaeoceanography inappropriate. Here, it is shown experimentally that such concerns are not warranted. Laser diffraction particle sizing is known to be fast, precise and allows for detailed particle sizing over a broad size range; it is therefore potentially a very powerful technique if the complications associated with it can be overcome. As most sediments are mixtures of different components transported by different mechanisms, inferences of past environmental parameters require decomposition of the grain‐size record in question. Useful decomposition can only be performed if changes in the contribution of the components are registered predictably by the measuring device. This study reports on mixing experiments which show that the Fritsch A22 laser diffraction particle sizer does indeed register small changes in the contribution of the mixing components in a predictable way. Mixing proportions estimated from the measurements do, however, differ from the initial mixing proportions, but these can be converted with only small errors. Application of the conversion equations to a North Atlantic grain‐size record that showed consistent slowdown of deep‐ocean circulation in response to millennial scale ice‐rafting events during the last glacial does not quantitatively affect the original inferences. Laser diffraction particle sizing of fine‐grained sediments therefore yields reproducible and useful data for palaeoceanographic reconstructions.     

Partial Melting and Assimilation of Dolomitic Xenoliths by Mafic Magma: the Ioko-Dovyren Intrusion (North Baikal Region, Russia)

A petrological study was carried out on Mg-skarn-bearing dunitecumulates that are part of the Neo-Proterozoic Ioko-Dovyrenintrusion (North Baikal region, Russia). Skarn xenoliths containbrucite pseudomorphs after periclase, forsterite and Cr-poorspinel. Fine-grained forsterite–spinel skarns occur withthe brucite skarns or as isolated schlieren. Field relationshipsreveal that the Mg-skarns formed from silica-poor dolomiticxenoliths by interaction with the mafic magma of the Ioko-Dovyrenintrusion. Rapid heating of dolomitic xenoliths by the maficmagma caused the decomposition of dolomite into calcite + periclase,releasing much CO₂. Further heating quantitatively melted thecalcite. A periclase-rich restite was left behind after extractionof the low-density, low-viscosity calcite melt. The extractedcalcite melt mixed with the surrounding mafic melt. This resultedin crystallization of olivine with CaO contents up to 1·67wt %. A local decrease in the silica concentration stabilizedCaAl₂SiO₆-rich clinopyroxene. Brucite/periclase-free forsterite–spinelskarns probably originated by crystallization from the maficmelt close to the xenoliths at elevated fO₂. The high fO₂ wascaused by CO₂-rich fluids released during the decompositionof the xenoliths. The above case study provides the first evidencefor partial melting of dolomite xenoliths during incorporationby a mafic magma. KEY WORDS: dunite; dolomite assimilation; partial melting     

A test of the englacial thrusting hypothesis of ''hummocky'' moraine formation: case studies from the northwest Highlands, Scotland

The melt-out of material contained within englacial thrust planes has been proposed to result in the formation of stacked moraine sequences with characteristic proximal rectilinear slopes. This model has been applied to explain the formation of Scottish Younger Dryas ice-marginal ('hummocky') moraines on the basis of these morphological characteristics. However, no sedimentological data exist to support this proposal. This article reviews hitherto proposed models of 'hummocky' moraine formation and presents detailed geomorphological and sedimentological results from the NW Scottish Highlands with the aims of reconstructing the dynamics of Younger Dryas glaciers and of testing the applicability of the englacial thrusting model. Exposures demonstrate that moraines represent terrestrial ice-contact fans throughout, with a variety of postdepositional deformation structures being identified in most cases, indicating that glacier retreat was incremental and oscillatory; proximal rectilinear slopes are interpreted as ice-contact faces formed after ice support was withdrawn during retreat. This evidence strongly suggests a temperate glacier regime and short glacier response times similar to those in present-day SW Norway or Iceland. It contradicts the thrusting model and the proposal that Svalbard might form a suitable analogue for Younger Dryas moraines in Scotland.