Kame and Kettle Topography

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Kame and Kettle Topography

• Kyle Christenson
• 4.8.09

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Kames

• Suparaglacier formations
• Are steep-sided and gravel, formed by
  supraglacial or ice-contact glacifluvial ,
  variously shaped mounds composed chiefly of sand
  deposition (Holmes, 1947).

www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10af.html
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• Kame terraces are discontinuous features with
  steep sides and flats tops.
• Term Kame is of limited usefulness
• Gently sloping depositional features deposited by
  melt water streams
• Composed of fluvial sands and gravels.
• Formed during high discharge often in glacier
  decay

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http//www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/alps/haut_glacier
_d_arolla/icons/kame_terrace.jpg
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Paradise Valley
Photo Dr. Locke
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Kettle or Pitted Sandar

• Are sandar which are cratered by hollows left by
  the melt-out of isolated buried blocks of glacial
  ice (Maizels, 1977)

www.webjogger.com/glacier/features.htm
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• Suparaglacial in origin, but can be proglacial.
• Remnants of a glacier snout, detached by
  differential ablation
• Or
• As icebergs transported on to a sandar surface by
  floodwaters

www.webjogger.com/glacier/features.htm
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• Tasman Glacier New Zealand
• www.treknature.com/gallery/photo151031.htm

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• In either case the ice is buried by glacial
  fluvial deposits with a delayed melt out.

http//www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/imag
es/kettles.jpg
Northwest Territories
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• Lethbridge, Alberta
• libwiki.mcmaster.ca/.../RelationToOtherLandforms

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Case Study

• Boulder Ring Structures Produced during
  Jokulhlaup Flows. Origin and Hydraulic
  Significance
• Author(s) Judith Maizels

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• Explores ring structure on Myrdalsandar, Iceland
• These boulder rich rims are up to 4m high and 40m
  in diameter
• Diamictation dips steeply into the center, which
  implies formation from ice melt out.

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• Jokuhlaup on Myrdalssandar in 1918
• Subglacial eruption from volcano Katla
• Flow peaked within 5 hours and receded within 24
  hours
• 150 ring structures limited to the margins or
  reverse slopes

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• A ring width 20-25 meters
• B ring width 9 meters. Flow from right to left

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Fig. 5. Stratigraphicc ross-sectiono f typical
boulder ring structureo n Myrdalssandur,sh owing
3 units basal, granularf lood gravels (GRm)
V-shaped layer of diamicton (Dms) and upper
laminated sands and silts (SI and Fl) forming the
kettle infill. Upstream bedding is truncated,
while thin diamicton capping occurs on both
upstream and downstream rims.
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• A and B., with sediment concentration, C 18 per
  cent and depth of burial, Db 0.1 Hi. showing a
  raised, but collapsed, rim around a deep central
  depression and formation of a Type 3 or 'crater'
  kettle
• C. Experiment 8.3, with C 10 per cent, and Db
  0.6 Hi. Narrow rim set within a shallow hollow
  forming a Type 2 or 'rim-med' kettle
• D. Experiment 8.4, with C 27.5 per cent, and Db
  0.6 Hi, showing a relatively broad rim
  surrounding a deep, funnel-shaped hollow,
  producing a Type 2 or 'rimmed' kettle
• E. Experiment 6.1, with C 40 per cent and Db
  0.6 Hi, showing broad high rim and small,
  funnel-shaped hollow with its floor lying above
  the level of the adjacent gravel surface, and
  forming a Type 3 or 'crater' kettle
• F. Experiment 11.4, with C 90 per cent and Db
  0.3 Hi, showing a large vertical pile of melt-out
  debris which extends down into the gravel bed to
  a depth of 0.3 Hi, and forms a Type 4 'till-fill'
  kettle or 'kettle mound'

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• Empirical relationships showing the effect of
  sedi-ment concentration and depth of burial of
  the ice block on the morphology of ring
  structures

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• Type 1 comprised 'normal' ket-tle holes without
  rims, and produced by debris-free ice blocks (as
  modelled by Maizels 1977)
• Type 2 comprised 'rimmed' kettles, characterized
  by re-latively deep hollows bounded by narrow,
  discon-tinuous rims (with 2w/D lt0.5)
• Type 3 consisted of 'crater' kettles exhibiting
  broad, high rims sur-rounding a shallow central
  hollow (with 2w/D gt0.5) and
• Type 4 consisted of 'till-fill' kettles or
  'kettle mounds', where rims were large enough to
  merge across the central hollow to form a mound
  of debris.

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References

• Benn, D.I., Evans, D.J.A. 2007. Glaciers and
  Glaciation London. Hodder Arnold. P. 487-493.
• Holmes, C.D. 1947. Kames. American Journal of
  Science 245, 240-249.
• Maizels, J.K. 1992. Boulder ring structures
  produced during jokulhlaup flows origin and
  hydraulic significance. Geografiska Annaler 74A,
  21-33.
• Maizels, J.K. 1977. Experiments on the origin of
  kettle holes. Journal of Glaciology 18, 291-303.