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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2002; v. 203; p. 55-71;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2002.203.01.04
© 2002 Geological Society of London

Late Quaternary architecture of trough-mouth fans: debris flows and suspended sediments on the Norwegian margin

J. Taylor1, J. A. Dowdeswell2, N. H. Kenyon3 & C. Ó Cofaigh2

1 Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, UK Justin.Taylor{at}bristol.ac.uk
2 Scott Polar Research Institute and Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, UK
3 Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK

Trough-mouth fans are the main marine depocentres for glacier-derived sediments in the Polar North Atlantic, but their growth through the Late Quaternary is complex. Glacigenic debris flows (GDFs) are sourced from a common and homogeneous part of the upper fan and only develop as coherent individual flows after downslope transport. Their genesis and mode of deposition mean that GDFs are confined to particular areas of trough-mouth fans; accumulation of these subglacial sediments is controlled by a combination of margin glaciology and fan morphology. Although most of the fan sediment is deposited as GDFs, during glacials considerable areas of trough-mouth fans are dominated by sedimentation of suspension deposits, associated with extensive meltwater release from a warm-based ice sheet and probable contour current activity. The depositional sequence of these two sediment types may be important in generating the long run-out distances of GDFs, which are initiated and sustained over low gradients. Furthermore, emplacement of GDFs is interpreted to be a relatively low-frequency event, and temporally, at least, fans are not dominated by this mode of sediment emplacement whilst ice sheets are at the shelf break. Large-scale trough-mouth fan development is therefore asynchronous and non-uniform, a result of the interaction between glaciology, morphology, and oceanography.





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