Module Identifier | GG33510 | ||
Module Title | GLACIAL SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS | ||
Academic Year | 2001/2002 | ||
Co-ordinator | Professor Michael Hambrey | ||
Semester | Semester 1 | ||
Course delivery | Lecture | 14 Hours 7 x 2 hours of lectures / seminars / tutorials | |
Field Work | 2 days at weekend. Transport costs to be shared by students. Cardigan area. | ||
Assessment | Continuous assessment | (1) Fieldwork report, maximum 3,000 plus figures, including literature review, data acquisition and analysis - submission date to be specified by module co-ordinator (50%). (2) Essay review: maximum 3000 words plus figures and references, from a choice of 6 topics (50%). | 100% |
Resit assessment | Resits will comprise a 2 hour written examination (50%) and a 5,000 word literature review of a topic to be decided by the module co-ordinator (50%), for submission by the first day of the resit examinations. |
Debris in glaciers: Entrainment and transport of sediment in glaciers; sediment distribution; structural glaciological controls; sediment characteristics.
Analysis of glacial sediments: Facies analysis; textural classification of poorly sorted sediments; genetic classification of glacial deposits; methods of analysis of glacial sequences.
Processes of terrestrial glacial deposition: Formation of lodgement till; melt-out till and sublimation till; role of deformable beds; depositional landforms.
Glacigenic sediment reworking and deformation: Resedimentation of glacigenic facies: glacitectonics and deformation structures, and their kinematic significance; glacier surges and sedimentation.
Case study 1: Svalbard polythermal glaciers: sedimentary facies and landforms: comparison with late glacial phenomena in the British Isles.
Glaciofluvial sediments and landforms: Glaciofluvial processes, landforms, facies and facies associations; jokulhlaups.
Glaciolacustrine processes and sediments: Importance of glacial lake sedimentation in the Quaternary record; physical processes in glacier-fed lakes; glaciolacustrine landforms; glaciolacustrine facies and facies associations.
Glaciomarine sedimentation - fjords: Sources of glaciomarine sediment; marine processes in fjords; patterns and rates of sedimentation; fjordal facies and facies associations; depositional features in fjords;
Case studies 2 & 3: East Greenland (Scoresby Sund), Antarctica (Ferrar Fjord, Lambert Glacier).
Glaciomarine sedimentation - continental margins: Glacier-ocean interactions; sedimentation and erosion on glacier-influenced continental shelves and slopes; shelf facies and facies associations.
Case study 4: Evolution of the Antarctic continental margin from offshore drilling and seismic surveying.
Fieldwork: Application of glacial sedimentological principles to the "Irish Sea Glaciation Problem" with reference to Welsh coastal and inland sections; sedimentary logging; clast shape, fabric and lithological analysis of galcial sediments; documentation of glaciotectonic phenomena; relation to landforms.
Fieldwork: Application of glacial sedimentological principles to the "Irish Sea Glaciation Problem" with reference to Welsh coastal and inland sections; sedimimentary logging; clast shape, fabric and lithological analysis of glacial sediments; documentation of glaciotectonic phenomena; relation to landforms.