MODELS OF ESKER FORMATION INVOLVING SUPRAGLACIAL SANDURS: EXAMPLES FROM SVALBARD AND SCOTLAND

Eskers are a diverse family of glacial landforms with a range of morphologies and potential origins. This provides a particular challenge with respect to predicting their potential as aquifers. In recent years the authors have developed a number of architectural facies models for eskers formed as part of surpaglacial sandur systems. The models are based on the investigation of eskers at modern glacier margins in Svalbard and Pleistocene examples in the Scotland. The models have particular relevance to the evolution of braided esker systems, which represent just one type esker morphology. The models incorporate the subtle interplay of sedimentation rate, glacier recession and the rate at which buried ice melts. The current paper explores the interplay between these variables and demonstrates how they control not only esker morphology but the internal facies architecture of an esker and consequently the geometry of the associated aquifer.