6533b859fe1ef96bd12b7648

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Glacier drainage and sandur formation at Kötlujökull, South Iceland

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description

Abstract Over a number of years research on a stretch of the southeastern glacier margin of Kotlujokull in South Iceland, 8 km in length, has focused on correlating the manner of glacier drainage with the genesis of sandar, exemplified by the recent evolution of the glacier foreland. The research has yielded the following results. During an initial period, beginning prior to 1945 and ending between 1966 and 1975, a belt of moraines about 1 km wide was destroyed in stages, except for a few remnants, by 11 outbreaks of subglacial meltwater at different times and locations along the glacier front. These outbursts were associated with the genesis of “ordinary”; sandar, which are referred to here as “low sandar.”; The main evolution of these sandar, and especially of their proximal parts, took only a few days and was correlated with a discharge of meltwater under high hydrostatic pressure from a subglacial tunnel mouth. The details of such an outburst are described. Prior to 1975 a general change occurred from...