A map of large Canadian eskers from Landsat satellite imagery

Robert D. Storrar, Chris R. Stokes and David J.A. Evans

Journal of Maps, 2013, vol. 9, issue 3, 456-473

Abstract: Meltwater drainage systems beneath ice sheets are a poorly understood, yet fundamentally important environment for understanding glacier dynamics, which are strongly influenced by the nature and quantity of meltwater entering the subglacial system. Contemporary sub-ice sheet meltwater drainage systems are notoriously difficult to study, but we can utilise exposed beds of palaeo-ice sheets to further our understanding of subglacial drainage. In particular, eskers record deposition in glacial drainage channels and are widespread on the exposed beds of former ice sheets. This paper presents a 1:5,000,000 scale map of >20,000 large eskers (typically > 2 km long) deposited by the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), mapped from Landsat imagery of Canada, in order to establish a dataset suitable for analysis of esker morphometry and drainage patterns at the ice sheet scale. Comparisons between eskers mapped from Landsat imagery and aerial photographs indicate that, in most areas, approximately 75% of eskers are detected using Landsat. The data presented in this map build on and extend previous work in providing a consistent map of an unprecedented sample of eskers for quantitative analysis. It offers an alternative perspective on the problems surrounding ice-sheet meltwater drainage and can be used for: (i) detailed investigations of esker morphometry and distribution from a large sample size; (ii), testing of numerical models of meltwater drainage routing that predict esker characteristics (e.g. channel spacing, sinuosity), (iii) assessment of the factors that control esker location and formation; and (iv), a refined understanding of ice margin configurations during retreat of the LIS.

Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17445647.2013.815591 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tjomxx:v:9:y:2013:i:3:p:456-473

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tjom20

DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2013.815591

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Maps is currently edited by Dr Mike Smith, Dr Jeremy Porter and Dr Dick Berg

More articles in Journal of Maps from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().