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Ice-Contact Delta

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Series of coalesced flat-topped, fan-shaped mounds, forming a continuous ridge at non-calving ice margins, where ice front remains stationary for a considerable period of time (Bennett and Glassner 2011)

Synonyms

Delta moraine; Esker-kame delta; Kame delta

Formation

They form by subglacial meltwater discharging into a proglacial lake or the sea (Huggett 2011), directly at the glacier margins, unlike glacier-fed proglacial deltas which receive sediments from proglacial meltwater streams. Ice-contact deltas exhibit Hjulstrom- and Gilbert-type morphologies (Benn and Evans 2003). Ice-contact deltas may evolve from grounding-line fans (Grounding-Line System) (Powell 1990).

Composition

Glaciofluvial and glacial debris (Hambrey 1994)

Prominent Examples

Salpausselkä moraines, Finland

Planetary Analog

On Mars, some fan-shaped deposits interpreted as Gilbert-type deltas are proposed to be formed as ice-contact deltas in the Amazonian (Di Achille and Ori 2008) (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Putative...

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References

  • Benn D, Evans D (2003) Glaciers and glaciation. Oxford University Press, New York

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  • Bennett MM, Glassner NF (2011) Glacial geology: ice sheets and landforms. Wiley, Chichester

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  • Di Achille G, Ori GG (2008) Complex intermontaine glacial systems in Arabia Terra, Mars: Evidence for an Amazonian proglacial lake with associated glaciolacustrine deposits. 39th Lunar Planet Sci Conf, abstract #2096, Houston

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  • Hambrey MJ (1994) Glacial environments, UBC Press, Vancouver, Canada.

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  • Huggett RJ (2011) Fundamentals of geomorphology. Routledge London/New York. p. 284

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  • Powell RD (1990) Glacimarine processes at grounding-line fans and their growth to ice-contact deltas. In: Dowdeswell JA, Scourse JD (eds) Glacimarine environments: processes and sediments. Geological Society, London, Special Publication No. 53. 423 pp

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

Authors
  1. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Hargitai, H. (2014). Ice-Contact Delta. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_206-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_206-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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