Ridge of glacial outwash

Location: Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada

Ridge of glacial outwash, frozen to the base of the glacier and thrust to its surface in the compressional regime typical of the snout area of Stagnation Glacier (B28). This ridge is actually an ice-cored ridge. The 0.6-m-thick planar gravel sheet forms the left side of the ridge, draping over and insulating clear glacier ice of the ridge core (see also discussions with images 0041, 0042, 0043, and 0149). Note also the angular, supraglacial boulders that have been let down through ablation onto the rounded gravel clasts of the upthrust sheet of outwash as it emerged by melting of the overlying ice on which the boulders rested. These surface boulders can be traced out into the stagnant ice-based forefront of Stagnation Glacier, and they contribute to the lineations on it that are evident from the air (see also discussion of image 0143). A view up-ice from this ridge of the supraglacial, angular boulder cover of B28 can be seen in image 0164. In both images the figure for scale is the author.

Updated 04/09/2010 AW