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      A laboratory study of sediment deformation: stress heterogeneity and grain-size evolution

      , ,
      Annals of Glaciology
      Cambridge University Press (CUP)

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          Abstract

          In shearing sediment beneath glaciers, networks of grains may transiently support shear and normal stresses that are larger than spatial averages. Consistent with studies of fault-gouge genesis, we hypothesize that crushing of grains in such networks is responsible for surrounding larger grains with smaller grains. At sufficiently large strains, this should minimize stress heterogeneity, favor intergranular sliding and abrasion rather than crushing, and result in a self-similar grain-size distribution.

          This hypothesis is tested with a ring-shear device that slowly shears a large annular sediment sample to high strains. Shearing and comminution of weak equigranular (2.0–3.3 mm) sediment resulted in a self-similar grain-size distribution with a fractal dimension that increased with shear strain toward a steady value of 2.85. This value is significantly larger than that of gouges produced purely by crushing, 2.6, but it is comparable to values for tilts thought to be deforming beneath modern glaciers, 2.8 to nearly 3.0. At low strains, under a steady mean normal stress of 84 kPa, variations in normal stress measured locally ranged in amplitude from 50 to 300 kPa with wavelengths that were 100 times larger than the initial grain diameter. Crushing of grains, observed through the transparent walls of the device, apparently caused the failure of grain networks. At shearing displacements ranging from 0.7 to 1.0 m, the amplitude of local stress fluctuations decreased abruptly. This change is attributed to fine sediment that distributed stresses more uniformly and caused grain networks to fail primarily by intergranular sliding rather than by crushing of grains. Sliding between grains apparently produced silt by abrasion and resulted in a fractal dimension that was higher than if there had been only crushing.

          A size distribution with a fractal dimension greater than 2.6 is probably a necessary but not sufficient condition for determining whether a basal till has been highly deformed. Stress heterogeneity in subglacial sediment that is shearing through its full thickness should contribute to the erosion of underlying rock.

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          Physical Conditions at the Base of a Fast Moving Antarctic Ice Stream

          Boreholes drilled to the bottom of ice stream B in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet reveal that the base of the ice stream is at the melting point and the basal water pressure is within about 1.6 bars of the ice overburden pressure. These conditions allow the rapid ice streaming motion to occur by basal sliding or by shear deformation of unconsolidated sediments that underlie the ice in a layer at least 2 meters thick. The mechanics of ice streaming plays a role in the response of the ice sheet to climatic change.
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            • Record: found
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            Till beneath ice stream B: 3. Till deformation: Evidence and implications

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              The kinematics of gouge deformation

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                applab
                Annals of Glaciology
                A. Glaciology.
                Cambridge University Press (CUP)
                0260-3055
                1727-5644
                1996
                January 20 2017
                1996
                : 22
                : 167-175
                Article
                10.1017/S0260305500015378
                6a6fbc7e-e343-4202-a21c-57f4ed65ff2c
                © 1996
                History

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