The stratified nature of deposits in streamlined glacial landforms on southern Victoria Island, District of Franklin

The structure of streamlined landforms near Cambridge Bay, Northwest Territories, suggests that these major glacial deposits may be produced by deposition from subglacial meltwater. Fluted landscapes are spatially gradational to drumlin features, which in turn are transitional to large eskers, all comprising stratified deposits including interbedded sand and diamicton. These sediments are intact, interbedded, and conformable with the landform, and they probably represent accumulation in a subaqueous environment. Both drumlinoid and fluted forms could result from meltwater eroding subglacial cavities that were subsequently filled with sediment from the meltwater and from the glacier. The implications of the proposed meltwater origin of streamlined landforms are that landform-sediment descriptions are crucial to mapping glacial sediments and that interpretation of the glacial geology and sediments of many areas needs to take into account the significance of subglacial meltwater deposition.