Publication Date:
2003-01-01
Description:
Skeithararsandur in southeastern Iceland, with an area of 〉 1000 km2, is the world's largest active proglacial outwash plain. In July-August 2000, a total of over 10 km of ground penetrating radar (GPR) profile data (at 50 MHz and 100 MHz) was collected from a variety of proglacial outwash sediments across the Gigjukvisl channel region of the Skeithararsandur plain. GPR-profile results and their corresponding facies interpretations are presented for the flood deposits of a single supraglacial outwash fan and its associated source-proximal ice-walled canyon created entirely by the November 1996 jokulhlaup event. By combining the GPR data with ground surveying, photogrammetry and detailed sedimentary outcrop evidence, this study adds a new perspective to the large-scale analysis of single, high-magnitude flood events and the sedimentary record of former, ice-proximal outwash plains. The GPR derived architectures point to a higher degree of sediment reworking than predicted by previous sedimentary models and may provide a useful analogue for the study of sedimentation within similar bedrock fluvial and alluvial fan feeder systems.
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