Incipient tunnel channels

Glaciated terrains in east-central Alberta and south-central Michigan contain channels that have hummocks and transverse ridges separating depressions along their floors. This association imparts a linked pothole appearance. Similar channels are often interpreted as tunnel channels or subaerial channels, partly filled with sediment from a subsequent glacial advance, a stagnating ice roof, or slumped sediment from the channel margins. However, the truncation of sedimentary packages in the channel walls and intrachannel hummocks indicates that they are erosional landforms, cut into glacial sediments (till), bedrock, or gravel. Eskers overlie and are found within a few channels, indicating that these channels formed before the final stagnation that produced the eskers. These two characteristics, combined with the observation that many channels have convex-up long profiles. indicate that the channels were eroded by pressurized, subglacial water. Because the formative mechanisms for this type of channel are not clear, and modern environments that could produce this type of landform are inaccessible, we draw on several morphologic analogues to propose mechanisms for channel erosion. We conclude that the erosion of these linked pothole channels (incipient tunnel channels) was the product of the complex interaction between complex turbulent flow structures and various scales of roughness elements. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.