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Drainage of an ice-marginal lake. Twins Glacier, Wyoming, U.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. C. Mahaney
W. C. Mahaney*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, York University, Atkinson College, 4700 Keele Street, Downsview, Ontario M3J 2R7, Canada
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Abstract

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Type
Correspondence
Information
Journal of Glaciology , Volume 28 , Issue 100 , 1982 , pp. 503 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © International Glaciological Society 1982

The Editor,

Journal of Glaciology

Sir,

A minor marginal lake formed next to a valley-side bedrock spur adjacent to Twins Glacier, Wind River Range. Wyoming, U.S.A., July 1978. Twins Glacier lies in a north-facing cirque in Upper Titcomb Basin (Reference Mahaney and MahaneyMahaney, 1978) at 3350 m. Surrounded by Winifred Peak (3894 m) and Twin Peaks (4019 m), Twins Glacier has a representative sequence of Neoglacial moraines built up in front of it. None of the Neoglacial moraines are capable of impounding melt water and forming lakes. This ice-marginal lake formed near the glacier terminus as a result of melt water blockage by a slide of ice and snow (Fig. 1) from a south-facing bedrock spur. The lake drained on 21 July.

Fig. 1. Outlet channel in Upper Titcomb Basin, Wyoming, oriented from south-west (foreground) to the north-east (background).

An alternative hypothesis put forward by Reference SeppäläSeppälä (1973) for the origin of small ice-marginal lakes by wind eddying at the base of steep valley sides is not applicable in this case. Here a large slide of ice and snow dammed melt water and formed a temporary lake c.1.5 m deep with a surface of c.500 m2. Drainage of this lake appears to have been a slow process judging by the micro-strandlines shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 (close-up) associated with the margins of the water body. Melt water flowing into the lake undoubtedly helped to melt part of the snow and firn pack leaving a smooth, nicely contoured ellipsoidal basin. The lake drained to the north between the slide mass and the bedrock spur.

Fig. 2. Micro-strandlines in firn pack, Upper Titcomb Basin, Wyoming.

References

Mahaney, W. C. 1978. Late Quaternary stratigraphy and soils in the Wind River Mountains, western Wyoming. (In Mahaney, W. C., ed. Quaternary soils. Norwich, Geo Abstracts Ltd., p. 223–64.)Google Scholar
Seppälä, M. 1973. On the formation of small marginal lakes on the Juneau Icefield, south-eastern Alaska, U.S.A. Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 12, No. 65, p. 267–73.Google Scholar
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Outlet channel in Upper Titcomb Basin, Wyoming, oriented from south-west (foreground) to the north-east (background).

Figure 1

Fig. 2. Micro-strandlines in firn pack, Upper Titcomb Basin, Wyoming.