Flow obstructions in valley glaciers

Valley glaciers often occur within complex dendritic systems where tributary glaciers contribute ice mass and blocking potential to the trunk glacier. Analysis of glacier inventories and maps in the regions of Svalbard, East Greenland, Yukon Territory and the Thompson Glacier system indicates that trunk - tributary intersections commonly occur at angles between 45° and 90°. An analogue material with flow properties similar to creep in pure ice has been used to simulate flow in a model valley glacier. The model and a series of blockages were constructed based on dimensions derived from the inventory and map analysis. The angled blockage indicates lower overall velocity rates and appears to have a funnelling rather than blocking affect on the analogue material. The perpendicular obstruction that blocked half the width of the model valley caused a piling up of analogue material prior to a release into the unobstructed side of the valley.

Authors

• Caruso, Raven
• University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science

• Dissertations, Academic
• Glaciers -- Yukon Territory

Identifier

hdl:10133/654

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:opus.uleth.ca:10133/654