Formation of plateau landscapes on glaciated continental margins

David Lundbek Egholm; John Jansen; Christian Brædstrup; Vivi K. Pedersen; Jane Lund Andersen; Sofie Vej Ugelvig; Nicolaj Krog Larsen; Mads Faurschou Knudsen

doi:10.1038/NGEO2980

Formation of plateau landscapes on glaciated continental margins

David Lundbek Egholm, John Jansen, Christian Brædstrup, Vivi K. Pedersen, Jane Lund Andersen, Sofie Vej Ugelvig, Nicolaj Krog Larsen, Mads Faurschou Knudsen

Institut for Geoscience

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

62 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

Low-relief plateaus separated by deeply incised fjords are hallmarks of glaciated, passive continental margins. Spectacular examples fringe the once ice-covered North Atlantic coasts of Greenland, Norway and Canada, but low-relief plateau landscapes also underlie present-day ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Dissected plateaus have long been viewed as the outcome of selective linear erosion by ice sheets that focus incision in glacial troughs, leaving the intervening landscapes essentially unaffected. According to this hypothesis, the plateaus are remnants of preglacial low-relief topography. However, here we use computational experiments to show that, like fjords, plateaus are emergent properties of long-term ice-sheet erosion. Ice sheets can either increase or decrease subglacial relief depending on the wavelength of the underlying topography, and plateau topography arises dynamically from evolving feedbacks between topography, ice dynamics and erosion over million-year timescales. This new mechanistic explanation for plateau formation opens the possibility of plateaus contributing significantly to accelerated sediment flux at the onset of the late Cenozoic glaciations, before becoming stable later in the Quaternary.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Nature Geoscience
Vol/bind	10 (2017)
Nummer	8
Sider (fra-til)	592–597
Antal sider	6
ISSN	1752-0894
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO2980
Status	Udgivet - 2017

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title = "Formation of plateau landscapes on glaciated continental margins",

abstract = "Low-relief plateaus separated by deeply incised fjords are hallmarks of glaciated, passive continental margins. Spectacular examples fringe the once ice-covered North Atlantic coasts of Greenland, Norway and Canada, but low-relief plateau landscapes also underlie present-day ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Dissected plateaus have long been viewed as the outcome of selective linear erosion by ice sheets that focus incision in glacial troughs, leaving the intervening landscapes essentially unaffected. According to this hypothesis, the plateaus are remnants of preglacial low-relief topography. However, here we use computational experiments to show that, like fjords, plateaus are emergent properties of long-term ice-sheet erosion. Ice sheets can either increase or decrease subglacial relief depending on the wavelength of the underlying topography, and plateau topography arises dynamically from evolving feedbacks between topography, ice dynamics and erosion over million-year timescales. This new mechanistic explanation for plateau formation opens the possibility of plateaus contributing significantly to accelerated sediment flux at the onset of the late Cenozoic glaciations, before becoming stable later in the Quaternary.",

author = "Egholm, {David Lundbek} and John Jansen and Christian Br{\ae}dstrup and Pedersen, {Vivi K.} and Andersen, {Jane Lund} and Ugelvig, {Sofie Vej} and Larsen, {Nicolaj Krog} and Knudsen, {Mads Faurschou}",

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AU - Egholm, David Lundbek

AU - Jansen, John

AU - Brædstrup, Christian

AU - Pedersen, Vivi K.

AU - Andersen, Jane Lund

AU - Ugelvig, Sofie Vej

AU - Larsen, Nicolaj Krog

AU - Knudsen, Mads Faurschou

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Low-relief plateaus separated by deeply incised fjords are hallmarks of glaciated, passive continental margins. Spectacular examples fringe the once ice-covered North Atlantic coasts of Greenland, Norway and Canada, but low-relief plateau landscapes also underlie present-day ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Dissected plateaus have long been viewed as the outcome of selective linear erosion by ice sheets that focus incision in glacial troughs, leaving the intervening landscapes essentially unaffected. According to this hypothesis, the plateaus are remnants of preglacial low-relief topography. However, here we use computational experiments to show that, like fjords, plateaus are emergent properties of long-term ice-sheet erosion. Ice sheets can either increase or decrease subglacial relief depending on the wavelength of the underlying topography, and plateau topography arises dynamically from evolving feedbacks between topography, ice dynamics and erosion over million-year timescales. This new mechanistic explanation for plateau formation opens the possibility of plateaus contributing significantly to accelerated sediment flux at the onset of the late Cenozoic glaciations, before becoming stable later in the Quaternary.

AB - Low-relief plateaus separated by deeply incised fjords are hallmarks of glaciated, passive continental margins. Spectacular examples fringe the once ice-covered North Atlantic coasts of Greenland, Norway and Canada, but low-relief plateau landscapes also underlie present-day ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Dissected plateaus have long been viewed as the outcome of selective linear erosion by ice sheets that focus incision in glacial troughs, leaving the intervening landscapes essentially unaffected. According to this hypothesis, the plateaus are remnants of preglacial low-relief topography. However, here we use computational experiments to show that, like fjords, plateaus are emergent properties of long-term ice-sheet erosion. Ice sheets can either increase or decrease subglacial relief depending on the wavelength of the underlying topography, and plateau topography arises dynamically from evolving feedbacks between topography, ice dynamics and erosion over million-year timescales. This new mechanistic explanation for plateau formation opens the possibility of plateaus contributing significantly to accelerated sediment flux at the onset of the late Cenozoic glaciations, before becoming stable later in the Quaternary.

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JO - Nature Geoscience

JF - Nature Geoscience

IS - 8

ER -

Formation of plateau landscapes on glaciated continental margins

Abstract

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