Sedimentary Architecture of Modern and Ancient Glaciated Basins

拟议的研究将记录现代和古代冰川盆地的地貌和沉积物的沉积结构，以增强我们对过去环境和气候变化的理解。冰川盆地包含了古环境变化的重要记录，但由于解释冰川沉积物起源的不确定性，这些记录往往难以破译。了解冰川沉积物的空间特征（结构）有助于确定其起源模式，对水文地质调查确定地下水的来源、质量和可持续性也很重要；加拿大社区使用的大部分地下水都储存在冰川沉积物中的含水层中，我们对这些含水层的地下几何形状或范围的了解有限。

The proposed research will document the sedimentary architecture of landforms and sediments in modern and ancient glaciated basins in order to enhance our understanding of past environmental and climatic change. Glaciated basins contain an important record of paleoenvironmental change but this record is often difficult to decipher due to uncertainties in interpreting the origin of glacial deposits. Understanding the spatial characteristics (architecture) of glacial sediments can help identify their mode of origin and is also important for hydrogeological investigations to determine the source, quality and sustainability of groundwater; most of the groundwater used by Canadian communities is hosted in aquifers within glacial deposits and we have limited understanding of the subsurface geometry or extent of these aquifers. This research will focus on using new approaches to the documentation of glacial landforms and sediments forming in modern environments in Iceland and those preserved in Quaternary successions in Ontario. Modern glacial and proglacial landforms and sediment stratigraphies are well exposed in front of several retreating glacier margins along the southern coast of Iceland. Fieldwork will involve detailed measurement and documentation of landforms and outcrops using GPS and standard sedimentological logging techniques (recording grain size, sedimentary structures, unit contacts, thicknesses and geometries). These field data will be integrated with satellite data and will be used to identify and analyze the spatial relationships and distribution of modern glacial landforms and sediments. A second element of the proposed research is to apply what is learned from modern glacier margins in Iceland to the analysis of late Quaternary deposits in southern Ontario where complex stratigraphies of Late Quaternary glacial, lacustrine and fluvial deposits have accumulated in glacial and proglacial settings. Exposed sedimentary successions and drill core data from several locations in southern Ontario (including Georgetown, South Simcoe, and the northern shores of Lake Erie and Ontario) will be compared with the modern sedimentological and architectural data collected from Iceland. This will allow more accurate reconstructions of Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental conditions in Ontario, and will contribute significantly to the debate regarding the role that large subglacial meltwater floods played in the creation of Quaternary landforms and sediment stratigraphies.