A subglacial till formed from a sandstone bedrock has a variable grain‐size distribution which reflects its variable genesis. Glacial comminution processes were simulated by artificial mill experiments with fragments of the sandstone bedrock. Pure crushing caused disintegration along mineral boundaries into separate minerals, most mineral grains retaining their primary size during the crushing process. Abrasion produced cracks across the minerals and resulted in silt‐sized rock flour. The experiments indicate that most of the sand‐sized till material formed as a result of crushing, while the silt is mainly the result of abrasion. The sand and silt are both regarded as components resistant to further glacial comminution, but are formed by different comminution processes. By considering also the coarser till material, the general principles of glacial breakdown of resistant rocks from boulders to sand or silt can be illustrated. A matrix index and an abrasion index based on the mill experiments distinguish well between genetically different subglacial till types
A complete interglacial cycle, named the FjGsangerian and correlated with the Eemian by means of its pollen stratigraphy, is found in marine sediments just above the present day sea level outside Bergen, western Norway. At the base of the section there are two basal tills of assumed Saalian (sensu lato) age in which the mineralogy and geochemistry indicate local provenance. Above occur beds of marine silt, sand and gravel, deposited at water depths of between 10 and 50 m. The terrestrial pollen and the marine foraminifera and molluscs indicate a cold-warm+old sequence with parallel development of the atmospheric and sea surface temperatures. In both environments the floralfauna indicate an interglacial climatic optimum at least as warm as that during the Holocene. The high relative sea level during the Eemian (at least 30 m above sea level) requires younger neotectonic uplift. The uppermost marine beds are partly glaciomarine silts, as indicated by their mineralogy, drop stones and fauna, and partly interstadid gravels. The pollen indicates an open vegetation throughout these upper beds, and the correlation of the described interstadid with Early Weichselian interstadids elsewhere is essentially unknown. The section is capped by an Early Weichselian basal till containing redeposited fossils, sediments, and weathering products. Several clastic dikes injected from the glacier sole penetrate the tiU and the interglacial sediments. Radiocarbon dates on wood and shells gave infinite ages. Amino acid epimerization ratios in molluscs support the inferred Eemian age of the deposit. The Fj@sangerian is correlated with the Eemian and deep sea oxygen isotope stage 5e; other possible correlations are also discussed.
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