0000000000699570
AUTHOR
Sylvain Clerc
Subglacial to proglacial depositional environments in an Ordovician glacial tunnel valley, Alnif, Morocco
Abstract This paper presents the sedimentary analysis of an exceptional Ordovician glacial tunnel valley in the eastern part of the Anti-Atlas. The valley infill comprises two major glacial erosion surfaces (striated pavements) each overlain by a fining-upward glacial unit. These units are composed of five distinct facies associations, recording the evolution from subglacial to proglacial environments, and an additional sixth facies association, overtopping the tunnel valley infill, and associated with post-glacial environments. The tunnel valley infill also records a transitional environment between the subglacial and proglacial settings, which is compared with the Antarctic ice-sheet marg…
Porewater pressure control on subglacial soft sediment remobilization and tunnel valley formation: A case study from the Alnif tunnel valley (Morocco)
25 pages; International audience; In the eastern part of the Moroccan Anti-Atlas Mountains, the Alnif area exposes a buried Ordovician glacial tunnel valley (5 km wide, 180 m deep) cut into preglacial marine sediments. The preglacial sedimentary sequence, deposited in a marine environment, is characterized by a typical "layer-cake" configuration of permeable (sand) and impermeable (clays and early-cemented sandstones) layers. At the base of the tunnel valley, a discontinuous and fan-shaped glacial conglomeratic unit 10 to 15 m thick occurs, erosively deposited over preglacial marine sediments. The conglomeratic unit is composed of preglacial intraclasts embedded within a sandy matrix. Both …
Depositional model in subglacial cavities, Killiney Bay, Ireland. Interactions between sedimentation, deformation and glacial dynamics
Subglacial meltwater drainage and sedimentary processes play a major role in ice-sheet dynamic but there is a lack of study of subglacial environment because modern ice-sheet beds remain inaccessible. Previous authors already intended to provide diagnostic criterion and recent investigations suggest that fluid pressure variations are a key factor in subglacial environment. This paper investigated the late Devensian sedimentary record in order to describe subglacial sedimentological facies associations and deformation features related to fluid overpressures. We used an integrated approach, based on stratigraphy, sedimentology and deformations styles to demonstrate a subglacial depositional m…
Does porewater or meltwater control tunnel valley genesis? Case studies from the Hirnantian of Morocco.
18 pages; International audience; Several Ordovician tunnel valleys are exposed in the Moroccan Anti-Atlas Mountains, including the Alnif and the Foum Larjamme tunnel valleys, located 150 km away from each other. Sedimentological and deformational analyses of these two glacial troughs reveal that differing processes lead to their formations.The Alnif tunnel valley contains numerous deformation structures within sediments both below and above the main glacial erosion contact surface. Ball-structures and clastic dykes occur within preglacial sediments down to 35 m below glacial incisions while overlying glacial sediments contain fluted surfaces, clastic dykes, dewatering structures, folds and…
Sedimentological and deformational criteria for discriminating subglaciofluvial deposits from subaqueous ice-contact fan deposits: A Pleistocene example (Ireland)
A pit located near Ballyhorsey, 28 km south of Dublin (eastern Ireland), displays subglacially deposited glaciofluvial sediments passing upwards into proglacial subaqueous ice-contact fan deposits. The coexistence of these two different depositional environments at the same location will help with differentiation between two very similar and easily confused glacial lithofacies. The lowermost sediments show aggrading subglacial deposits indicating a constrained accommodation space, mainly controlled by the position of an overlying ice roof during ice-bed decoupling. These sediments are characterized by vertically stacked tills with large lenses of tabular to channelized sorted sediments. The…