A sub-glacial sediment deformation model from geotechnical and structural properties of an overconsolidated lacustro-glacial clay

Abstract

Sub-glacial deformation processes of ice sheets are recorded in geotechnical and structural properties of overriden sediments. Geotechnical, structural and microstructural properties were determined of Late-Pleistocene lacustroglacial clays in the northern Netherlands that were subjected to deformation by the Saalian ice sheet. From these properties a sub-glacial deformation model could be constructed of the clay sequence, depicting an extensively sheared upper zone and a lower zone that was folded, hydrodynamically consolidated and fissured during subsequent phases of ice sheet development. This sub-glacial deformation model can serve as a basis for a model of the distribution of geotechnical properties of the clays which has applications in engineering geology and geotechnical engineering.