Sedimentation associated with glaciovolcanism: a review

2022 ◽  
pp. SP520-2021-135
Author(s):  
J. L. Smellie

AbstractThree discrete categories of sedimentary deposits are associated with glaciovolcanism: englacial cavity, jökulhlaup and lahar. Englacial cavity deposits are found in water-filled chambers in the lee of active glaciovolcanoes or at a locus of enhanced geothermal heat flux. The cavities provide a depocentre for the accumulation of debris, either abundant fresh juvenile debris with sparse dropstones (associated with active glaciovolcanism) or polymict basal glacial debris in which dropstones are abundant (associated with geothermal hot spots). Described examples are uncommon. By contrast, volcanogenic jökulhlaup deposits are abundant, mainly in Iceland, where they form extensive sandar sequences associated with ice-covered volcanoes. Jökulhlaups form as a result of the sudden subglacial discharge of stored meltwater. Analogous deposits known as glaciovolcanic sheet-like sequences represent the ultra-proximal lateral equivalents deposited under the ice. Glaciovolcanic lahars are associated with ice-capped volcanoes. They form as a result of explosive eruptions through relatively thin ice or following dome collapse, and they trigger mainly supraglacial rather than subglacial meltwater escape. Sediment transport and depositional processes are similar in jökulhaups and lahars and are dominated by debris flow and hyperconcentrated or supercritical flow modes during the main flood stage, although the proportions of the principal lithofacies are different.

2013 ◽  
Vol 455 ◽  
pp. 466-469
Author(s):  
Yun Chuan Wu ◽  
Shang Long Xu ◽  
Chao Wang

With the increase of performance demands, the nonuniformity of on-chip power dissipation becomes greater, causing localized high heat flux hot spots that can degrade the processor performance and reliability. In this paper, a three-dimensional model of the copper microchannel heat sink, with hot spot heating and background heating on the back, was developed and used for numerical simulation to predict the hot spot cooling performance. The hot spot is cooled by localized cross channels. The pressure drop, thermal resistance and effects of hot spot heat flux and fluid flow velocity on the cooling of on-chip hot spots, are investigated in detail.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 728
Author(s):  
Mohd Basril Iswadi Basori ◽  
Sarah E. Gilbert ◽  
Khin Zaw ◽  
Ross R. Large

The Bukit Botol and Bukit Ketaya deposits are two examples of volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposits that occur in the Tasik Chini area, Central Belt of Peninsular Malaysia. The mineralisation is divided into subzones distinguished by spatial, mineralogical, and textural characteristics. The primary sulphide minerals include pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena, with lesser amounts of Sn- and Ag-bearing minerals, with Au. However, pyrrhotite is absent from both deposits. This study presents the results of sphalerite chemistry analysed by using an electron microprobe. Two types of sphalerite are recognised: sphalerite from the Bukit Botol deposit reveals a range of <DL to 24.0 mole% FeS, whereas sphalerite from the Bukit Ketaya deposit shows a range of <DL to 3 mole% FeS. Significant variations are shown in Zn, Cu, Cd, and Ag levels. Although the sphalerite has a wide variation in composition, a discernible decreasing Fe trend is exhibited from the stringer zone towards massive sulphide. This compositional variation in sphalerites may in part reflect variable temperature and activity of sulphur in the hydrothermal fluids during ore formation. Alternatively, the bimodal composition variations suggest that mineral chemistry relates to contrasting depositional processes. The Zn/Cd ratios for sphalerite from both these deposits are similar to those exhibited by volcano−sedimentary deposits with a volcanic origin. Therefore, the consistently low Cd concentrations and moderate to high Zn/Cd ratios suggest mixing of seawater and minor magmatic fluids controlling the chemistry of sphalerite at both deposits during their formation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Dietze ◽  
F. Maussion ◽  
M. Ahlborn ◽  
B. Diekmann ◽  
K. Hartmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. Grain-size distributions offer powerful proxies of past environmental conditions that are related to sediment sorting processes. However, they are often of multimodal character because sediments can get mixed during deposition. To facilitate the use of grain size as palaeoenvironmental proxy, this study aims to distinguish the main detrital processes that contribute to lacustrine sedimentation across the Tibetan Plateau using grain-size end-member modelling analysis. Between three and five robust grain-size end-member subpopulations were distinguished at different sites from similarly–likely end-member model runs. Their main modes were grouped and linked to common sediment transport and depositional processes that can be associated with contemporary Tibetan climate (precipitation patterns and lake ice phenology, gridded wind and shear stress data from the High Asia Reanalysis) and local catchment configurations. The coarse sands and clays with grain-size modes >250 μm and <2 μm were probably transported by fluvial processes. Aeolian sands (~200 μm) and coarse local dust (~60 μm), transported by saltation and in near-surface suspension clouds, are probably related to occasional westerly storms in winter and spring. Coarse regional dust with modes ~25 μm may derive from near-by sources that keep in longer term suspension. The continuous background dust is differentiated into two robust end members (modes: 5–10 and 2–5 μm) that may represent different sources, wind directions and/or sediment trapping dynamics from long-range, upper-level westerly and episodic northerly wind transport. According to this study grain-size end members of only fluvial origin contribute small amounts to mean Tibetan lake sedimentation (19± 5%), whereas local to regional aeolian transport and background dust deposition dominate the clastic sedimentation in Tibetan lakes (contributions: 42 ± 14% and 51 ± 11%). However, fluvial and alluvial reworking of aeolian material from nearby slopes during summer seems to limit end-member interpretation and should be crosschecked with other proxy information. If not considered as a stand-alone proxy, a high transferability to other regions and sediment archives allows helpful reconstructions of past sedimentation history.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parviz Ajourlou ◽  
François PH Lapointe ◽  
Glenn A Milne ◽  
Yasmina Martos

&lt;p&gt;Geothermal heat flux (GHF) is known to be an important control on the basal thermal state of an ice sheet which, in turn, is a key factor in governing how the ice sheet will evolve in response to a given climate forcing. In recent years, several studies have estimated GHF beneath the Greenland ice sheet using different approaches (e.g. Rezvanbehbahani et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 2017; Martos et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 2018; Greve, Polar Data Journal, 2019). Comparing these different estimates indicates poor agreement and thus large uncertainty in our knowledge of this important boundary condition for modelling the ice sheet. The primary aim of this study is to quantify the influence of this uncertainty on modelling the past evolution of the ice sheet with a focus on the most recent deglaciation. We build on past work that considered three GHF models (Rogozhina et al., 2011) by considering over 100 different realizations of this input field. We use the uncertainty estimates from Martos et al. (Geophysical Research Letters, 2018) to generate GHF realisations via a statistical sampling procedure. A sensitivity analysis using these realisations and the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM, Bueler and Brown, Journal of Geophysical Research, 2009) indicates that uncertainty in GHF has a dramatic impact on both the volume and spatial distribution of ice since the last glacial maximum, indicating that more precise constraints on this boundary condition are required to improve our understanding of past ice sheet evolution and, consequently, reduce uncertainty in future projections.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoran Kang ◽  
Liyun Zhao ◽  
Michael Wolovick ◽  
John C. Moore

Abstract. Basal thermal conditions play an important role in ice sheet dynamics, and they are sensitive to geothermal heat flux (GHF). Here we estimate the basal thermal conditions, including basal temperature, basal melt rate, and friction heat underneath the Lambert-Amery glacier system in east Antarctica, using a combination of a forward model and an inversion from a 3D ice flow model. We assess the sensitivity and uncertainty of basal thermal conditions using six different GHFs. We evaluate the modelled results using all available observed subglacial lakes. There are very large differences in modelled spatial pattern of temperate basal conditions using the different GHFs. The two most-recent GHF fields inverted from aerial geomagnetic observations have higher values of GHF in the region, produce a larger warm-based area, and match the observed subglacial lakes better than the other GHFs. The fast flowing glacier region has a lower modelled basal friction coefficient, faster basal velocity, with higher basal frictional heating in the range of 50–2000 mW m−2 than the base under slower flowing glaciated areas. The modelled basal melt rate reaches ten to hundreds of mm per year locally in Lambert, Lepekhin and Kronshtadtskiy glaciers feeding the Amery ice shelf, and ranges from 0–5 mm yr−1 on the temperate base of the vast inland region.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamoumi Naima ◽  
choukri chacrone ◽  
Silvia Spezzaferri

The sedimentary deposits of Eocene-Miocene Mrayt Group, North-Western Rif, Morocco has been the subject of controversy by previous authors regarding their depositional environment. Detailed sedimentological study based on petrographic and sedimentary facies analysis, ichnofacies interpretation and paleocurrent measurements, leads to several results and new insights. Petrographic study provided the first evidence of mixed siliciclastic and carbonate sediments and their nomenclature: silty micrites, micritic siltstones, micritic sandstones, sandy micrite, and allochemic sandstones, as well as the nature of the sources and its geological context. Twenty two sedimentary facies that have never been described before are identified, and based on their succession and association a new interpretation of depositional processes and depositional systems are proposed. The paleoenvironments of the Mrayt Group are interpreted as littoral and shallow marine settings: tides- dominated estuary, tides-dominated delta systems and open coast tidal flat, under complex hydrodynamics strongly influenced by river discharge, tidal currents, waves and storms action.Sedimentation occurred in “the Maghrebian basin” under the interplay of: i) tectonics related to the Cenozoic collision of the African and Eurasian continental plates, ii) Cenozoic alternation of warm climate and cooling due to the increasing influence of Antarctica glaciation, iii) sediments supplies induced by rejuvenation of sedimentary sources and iv) sea level fluctuation related to the advance and retreat of ice-sheet on Antarctica.


2007 ◽  
Vol 53 (181) ◽  
pp. 289-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Popov ◽  
Valery N. Masolov

AbstractDuring the summer field seasons of 1987–91, studies of central East Antarctica by airborne radio-echo sounding commenced. This scientific work continued in the 1990s in the Vostok Subglacial Lake area and along the traverse route from Mirny, and led to the discovery of 16 new subglacial water cavities in the areas of Domes Fuji and Argus and the Prince Charles Mountains. Twenty-nine subglacial water cavities were revealed in the area near Vostok, along with a feature we believe to be a subglacial river. Two subglacial lakes were discovered along the Mirny–Vostok traverse route. These are located 50 km north of Komsomolskaya station and under Pionerskaya station. We find high geothermal heat flux in the vicinity of the largest of the subglacial lakes, and suggest this may be due to their location over deep faults where additional mantle heat is available.


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