Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Overview of megaflooding: Earth and Mars
- 2 Channel-scale erosional bedforms in bedrock and in loose granular material: character, processes and implications
- 3 A review of open-channel megaflood depositional landforms on Earth and Mars
- 4 Jökulhlaups in Iceland: sources, release and drainage
- 5 Channeled Scabland morphology
- 6 The morphology and sedimentology of landforms created by subglacial megafloods
- 7 Proglacial megaflooding along the margins of the Laurentide Ice Sheet
- 8 Floods from natural rock-material dams
- 9 Surface morphology and origin of outflow channels in the Valles Marineris region
- 10 Floods from fossae: a review of Amazonian-aged extensional–tectonic megaflood channels on Mars
- 11 Large basin overflow floods on Mars
- 12 Criteria for identifying jökulhlaup deposits in the sedimentary record
- 13 Megaflood sedimentary valley fill: Altai Mountains, Siberia
- 14 Modelling of subaerial jökulhlaups in Iceland
- 15 Jökulhlaups from Kverkfjöll volcano, Iceland: modelling transient hydraulic phenomena
- 16 Dynamics of fluid flow in Martian outflow channels
- Index
- Plate section
- References
6 - The morphology and sedimentology of landforms created by subglacial megafloods
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- 1 Overview of megaflooding: Earth and Mars
- 2 Channel-scale erosional bedforms in bedrock and in loose granular material: character, processes and implications
- 3 A review of open-channel megaflood depositional landforms on Earth and Mars
- 4 Jökulhlaups in Iceland: sources, release and drainage
- 5 Channeled Scabland morphology
- 6 The morphology and sedimentology of landforms created by subglacial megafloods
- 7 Proglacial megaflooding along the margins of the Laurentide Ice Sheet
- 8 Floods from natural rock-material dams
- 9 Surface morphology and origin of outflow channels in the Valles Marineris region
- 10 Floods from fossae: a review of Amazonian-aged extensional–tectonic megaflood channels on Mars
- 11 Large basin overflow floods on Mars
- 12 Criteria for identifying jökulhlaup deposits in the sedimentary record
- 13 Megaflood sedimentary valley fill: Altai Mountains, Siberia
- 14 Modelling of subaerial jökulhlaups in Iceland
- 15 Jökulhlaups from Kverkfjöll volcano, Iceland: modelling transient hydraulic phenomena
- 16 Dynamics of fluid flow in Martian outflow channels
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Summary
Subglacial landforms across various scales preserve the history of movement, deposition and erosion by the last great ice sheets and their meltwater. The origin of many of these landforms is, however, contentious. In this chapter these forms are described both individually and as suites that make up entire landscapes. Their interpretations are discussed with reference to the megaflood hypothesis. A description is provided of individual forms via their size, shape, landform associations, sedimentology and the relationship between landform surfaces and internal sediments. The possible origins of each are then discussed. To simplify the chapter the landforms are categorised by their size (micro, meso, macro and mega), although, importantly, it should be noted that several landforms show similarities across scales. Also discussed is the relevant subglacial hydrology associated with the described forms, especially the volume and discharge rates of megaflood flows, and where water may have been stored prior to the megaflood events.
Introduction
As early as 1812, Sir James Hall interpreted the famous Castle Rock in Edinburgh, Scotland, a crag and tail, as a landform created by immense, turbulent floods. Likening the hill to features carved in snow by wind, he could only hypothesise that water was responsible; probably giant tidal waves, as, at that time, he knew of no other mechanism that could conceivably create such streamlining. It is now very clear that the streamlined forms first noted by Hall are part of a continuum containing landforms of many shapes and sizes.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Megaflooding on Earth and Mars , pp. 78 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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