Search

Theory and experiments indicate that ice–bed separation during glacier slip over 2-D hard beds causes basal shear stress to reach a maximum at a particular slip velocity and decrease at higher velocities. We use the sliding theory of Lliboutry (1968) to explore how friction between debris particles in sliding ice and a rock bed affects this relationship between shear stress and slip velocity. Particle–bed contact forces and associated debris friction increase with increasing slip velocity, owing to increased rates of ice convergence with up-glacier facing surfaces. However, debris friction on diminished areas of the bed counteracts this effect as cavities grow. Thus, friction from debris alone increases only slightly with slip velocity, and for sediment particles larger than ~60 mm in diameter, debris friction peaks and decreases with increasing slip velocity. The effect on the sliding relationship is to steepen its rising limb and shift its shear stress peak to a slightly higher velocity. These results, which exclude the effect of debris friction on cavity size and debris concentrations above ~15%, indicate that the effect of debris in ice is to increase basal shear stress but not significantly change the form of the sliding relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geometric characteristics of the washboard moraines of the Des Moines Lobe (DML) of the Laurentide ice sheet agree with their proposed origin as crevasse-squeeze ridges, but study of their sediments is required to help further test this hypothesis. A 70-m-long, 3–5 m high section through a moraine ridge in central Iowa revealed till with irregular, isolated lenses of silt, sand, and gravel that dip to varying extents upglacier. The texture and density of the till are like those of the basal till of the DML studied elsewhere in Iowa, and preconsolidation pressures determined from tests on till and silt of the ridge indicate that it developed subglacially rather than at the glacier margin. Preconsolidation pressures additionally demonstrate that pore-water pressures in the bed supported most of the glacier's weight, which would have contributed to till mobility. Fabrics based on the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility of 3125 intact till specimens collected at 125 locations in the section indicate two end-member states of strain that varied with location in the ridge and caused sediment mounding: simple shear that was directed downglacier along shear planes inclined upglacier, together with pure shear where an overlying crevasse allowed the sediment bed to extend upward and laterally. Meltwater that likely flowed along the crevasse deposited sorted sediments that were incorporated in till, deformed, and rotated. This positive test of the crevasse-squeeze hypothesis indicates that the DML was in longitudinal extension near its margin, reinforcing previous arguments that the lobe surged. The predominance of fabrics caused by simple shear demonstrates that crevasse filling was underway before the surge had fully halted. This study should prompt caution in using similar transverse ridges, such as those geophysically imaged in some submarine glacier forefields, as indicators of retreat rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examines the responsibility of shear deformation for flow and transport of sediment of the Laurentide ice sheet's Lake of Michigan lobe in March 2009. Secular alterations in fabric azimuth over the till's thickness show that the bed combined with time and the distortion of the bed did not outmatch a few decimeters. Moreover, orientations of chief magnetic susceptibilities indicate that the state of strain was usually complex, diverting from bed-parallel simple shear.

Slow, stable shear of granular materials in landslides, beneath glaciers, and along fault surfaces is common, despite little or no intrinsic strengthening of such materials with increasing deformation rate. Compacted, water-saturated sediments, subjected to constant stresses in a ring-shear device, sheared slowly without unstable acceleration in repeated episodes that included pore dilation during shear, attendant pore-water-pressure decline, and consequent strengthening, followed by gradual pore-pressure recovery and weakening. Time-averaged shear velocities (2-800 mm/d) depended inversely on the magnitude of pore dilation with shear and were significantly lower for fine-grained sediment than for coarse-grained sediment, owing to different rates of pore-pressure diffusion in the two materials. When sediment had dilated to its critical-state (steady) porosity and therefore could not dilate further, shear accelerated catastrophically. These data indicate that porepressure decreases and consequent strengthening caused by shear-induced dilation may not only suppress rapid shear of landslide debris, subglacial till, and fault gouge, but may also result in slow episodic shear at rates that depend on both material porosity and hydraulic diffusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glacitectonically thrusted blocks of unlithified sediment are commonly inferred to have been frozen during thrusting, with implications for paleoclimate and glacier dynamics. We inferred strain patterns within thrusted blocks of glaciolacustrine mud in the Rubjerg Knude and Møns Klint glacitectonic complexes of coastal Denmark to try to assess whether the mud was frozen during thrusting. Fabrics based on the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) of the muds are interpreted with results of ring-shear experiments and models of AMS fabric development during layer-parallel shortening (LPS). In intact distal stratigraphy, fabrics indicate moderate LPS. Fabrics where thrusts have disrupted more proximal stratigraphy indicate rotation of mud sheets during thrusting with insufficient penetrative strain to reset the LPS fabric. The exception is within decimeters of faults at Rubjerg Knude where shear overprinted the LPS fabric. Although these data indicate that mud sheets were mostly rigid during thrusting, this is not necessarily evidence of permafrost. Critical-taper theory indicates that even a gentle slope of the proglacial surface away from the glacier margin would have allowed slip without internal deformation of thrust sheets, requiring only minimal pore-water pressures. • AMS fabrics indicate strain in glacitectonically thrusted mud sheets in Denmark. • Strain during thrusting did not reset LPS fabrics, except within decimeters of faults. • Thrust sheets behaved mostly rigidly during thrusting but were not necessarily frozen. • A sloping proglacial surface and moderate pore pressure can explain rigid behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]