Deforming bed conditions on the Dánischer Wohld Peninsula, northern Germany

At the Dänischer Wohld Peninsula coastal sections (North West Germany), subglacial deformation was found at three scales. At the smallest scale, features typical of deforming bed tills were found, i.e. small boudins, tectonic laminations and low fabric strength till. At an intermediate scale, large lenses of glaciolacustrine sediments were found within subglacially deformed till. At the largest scale, there were large (over 5 m high) subglacial folds. We suggest that these styles of sedimentation/deformation were associated with a series of readvances during overall glacial retreat: subglacial deformation occurred during each advance and glaciolacus trine sedimentation occurred during each retreat. This led to glaciolacustrine sediments and deforming bed tills being folded together during subsequent readvances. Where the rheology was relatively weak, the lacustrine sediments were totally incorporated into the diamicton and lost their previous identity. However, where the glaciolacustrine sediments were relatively strong, they survived. We suggest that this style of deformation is typical of the conditions just upglacier from the ice margin and is associated with a relatively thick deforming layer and a high input of subglacial sediment. We conclude that the evidence found at this site provides further indications that the southern margins of the Fenno-Scandinavian ice sheet were coupled with the glacier bed and underwent deforming bed conditions.     

The vegetation and climate of northwest Iberia over the last 14,000 years

A new pollen record from an upland lake in north-west Spain, Laguna de la Roya, spans the last ca 14,500 yrs and includes clear evidence of a Weichselian Lateglacial event correlative with the Younger Dryas. Pollen-climate response surfaces have been used to make quantitative reconstructions of palaeoclimate conditions at this and two other sites in the region. These reconstructions indicate that the climate was dry and cool during both the Late Weichselian and the Younger Dryas; in contrast, conditions during the Lateglacial Interstadial were relatively moist. During the early Holocene the climate was more continental in character than it has been for the last three millenia. Human activity has had a substantial impact upon the upland vegetation around Laguna de la Roya only during the last two millennia.     

The Saharan debris flow: an insight into the mechanics of long runout submarine debris flows

New 3·5 kHz profiles and a series of piston cores from the north-west African margin provide evidence that the Saharan debris flow travelled for more than 400 km on a highly fluid, low-friction layer of poorly sorted sediment. Data suggest that the Saharan debris flow is a two-phase event, consisting of a basal, volcaniclastic debris flow phase overlain by a pelagic debris flow phase. Both phases were emplaced on the lower continental rise by a single large debris flow at around 60 ka. The volcaniclastic flow left a thin deposit less than 5 m thick. This contrasts with the much thicker (over 25 m) deposit left by the pelagic debris flow phase. We suggest that pelagic sediment, sourced and mobilized as debris flow from the African continental margin, loaded and destabilized volcaniclastic material in the vicinity of the western Canaries. When subjected to this loading, the volcaniclastic material appears to have formed a highly fluid sandy debris flow, capable of transporting with it the huge volumes of pelagic debris, and contributing to a runout distance extending over 400 km downslope of the Canary Islands on slopes that decrease to as little as 0·05°. It is likely that the pelagic debris formed a thick impermeable slab above the volcanic debris, thus maintaining high pore pressures generated by loading and giving rise to low apparent friction conditions. The distribution of the two debris phases indicates that the volcaniclastic debris flow stopped within a few tens of kilometres after escaping from beneath the pelagic debris flow, probably because of dissipation of excess pore pressure when the seal of pelagic material was removed.     

Triassic carbonate submarine fans along the Arabian platform margin, Sumeini Group, Oman

ABSTRACT The Sumeini Group formed along the passive continental margin slope that bounded the northeastern edge of the Arabian carbonate platform. With the initial development of this passive continental margin in Oman during Early to Middle Triassic time (possibly Permian), small carbonate submarine fans of the C Member of the Maqam Formation developed along a distally steepened slope. The fan deposits occur as several discrete lenticular sequences of genetically related beds of coarsegrained redeposited carbonate (calciclastic) sediment within a thick interval of basinal lime mudstone and shale. Repeated pulses of calciclastic sediment were derived from ooid shoals on an adjacent carbonate platform and contain coarser intraclasts eroded from the surrounding slope deposits. Sediment gravity flows, primarily turbidites with lesser debris flows and grain flows, transported the coarse sediments to the relatively deep submarine fans. Channel erosion was a major source of intraformational calcirudite. Two small submarine fan systems were each recurrently supplied with calciclastic sediment derived from point sources, submarine canyons. The northern fan system retrogrades and dies out upsection. The southern fan system was apparently longer-lived; calciclastic sediments in it are more prevalent and occur throughout the section. The proximal portions of this fan system are dominated by channelized beds of calcirudite which represent inner- to mid-fan channel complexes. The distal portions include mostly lenticular, unchannelized beds of calcarenite, apparently mid- to outer-fan lobes. Carbonate submarine fans appear to be rare in the geological record in comparison with more laterally continuous slope aprons of coarse redeposited sediment. The carbonate submarine fans of the C Member apparently formed by the funnelling of coarse calciclastic sediment into small submarine canyons which may have developed due to rift and/or transform tectonics. The alternation of discrete sequences of calciclastic sediment with thick intervals of ‘background’ sediment resulted from either sea-level fluctuations or pulses of tectonic activity.