TY - JOUR

T1 - Drumlin formation within the Bustarfell drumlin field, northeast Iceland

T2 - integrating sedimentological and ground-penetrating radar data

AU - Aradóttir, Nína

AU - Benediktsson, Ívar Örn

AU - Ingólfsson, Ólafur

AU - Sturkell, Erik

AU - Brynjólfsson, Skafti

AU - Farnsworth, Wesley R.

AU - Phillips, Emrys

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Drumlins are important bedforms of former glaciated landscapes as they demonstrate past ice-flow directions and elucidate processes that operated at the ice/bed interface. Recently mapped drumlins and other streamlined subglacial bedforms in northeast Iceland reveal the flow-sets of cross-cutting palaeo-ice streams that were active within the Iceland Ice Sheet (IIS) during and following the Last Glacial Maximum. Here we study the Bustarfell drumlin field within the Vopnafjörður–Jökuldalsheiði flow-set. The internal architecture of two drumlins was investigated using sedimentological analysis and ground-penetrating radar (GPR, 50 and 100 MHz) to illuminate subglacial processes that contributed to drumlin formation, as well as the history and dynamics of the IIS. On the stoss side of one of the drumlins, two subglacial traction till units were identified, separated by a thick unit of deformed glaciofluvial sand and gravel. The core of glaciofluvial material suggests that the drumlin formed around well-drained patches (sticky spots) in the subglacial bed that retarded the ice flow locally through increased basal drag and encouraged till deposition. Furthermore, our GPR data indicate a combination of erosional and depositional processes. We suggest that the glaciofluvial sediments were deposited as small ice-marginal fans on the Bustarfell plateau, possibly during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial, and that the drumlins were formed around these fans during a subsequent readvance during the Younger Dryas.

AB - Drumlins are important bedforms of former glaciated landscapes as they demonstrate past ice-flow directions and elucidate processes that operated at the ice/bed interface. Recently mapped drumlins and other streamlined subglacial bedforms in northeast Iceland reveal the flow-sets of cross-cutting palaeo-ice streams that were active within the Iceland Ice Sheet (IIS) during and following the Last Glacial Maximum. Here we study the Bustarfell drumlin field within the Vopnafjörður–Jökuldalsheiði flow-set. The internal architecture of two drumlins was investigated using sedimentological analysis and ground-penetrating radar (GPR, 50 and 100 MHz) to illuminate subglacial processes that contributed to drumlin formation, as well as the history and dynamics of the IIS. On the stoss side of one of the drumlins, two subglacial traction till units were identified, separated by a thick unit of deformed glaciofluvial sand and gravel. The core of glaciofluvial material suggests that the drumlin formed around well-drained patches (sticky spots) in the subglacial bed that retarded the ice flow locally through increased basal drag and encouraged till deposition. Furthermore, our GPR data indicate a combination of erosional and depositional processes. We suggest that the glaciofluvial sediments were deposited as small ice-marginal fans on the Bustarfell plateau, possibly during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial, and that the drumlins were formed around these fans during a subsequent readvance during the Younger Dryas.

KW - Bustarfell

KW - drumlin

KW - ground-penetrating radar

KW - Iceland Ice Sheet

KW - subglacial processes

U2 - 10.1002/jqs.3481

DO - 10.1002/jqs.3481

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85142367075

VL - 38

SP - 386

EP - 402

JO - Journal of Quaternary Science

JF - Journal of Quaternary Science

SN - 0267-8179

IS - 3

ER -