Gravel deposited in the conduit at the snout of Aktineq Glacier

Location: Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada

Bouldergravel deposited in the conduit shown in the images 0024 and 0025. This image was made approximately three years after the conduit was abandoned. The front of Aktineq Glacier has retreated, exposing the gravel that was deposited in the conduit by a subglacial meltwater stream. Note that some of the gravel is frozen into the glacier itself in the form of superimposed ice/sediment cutting across glacier structure. Although the glacier has flowed several kilometers over poorly consolidated Cretaceous/Tertiary clastic sediments, nearly 100% of the esker clasts are gneiss and other high-grade metamorphic lithologies from at least 10 km up-ice.

Updated 03/29/2010 AW