1. Active Ice Margins

These include “Ice Marginal Channels,” “Bedrock Grooves,” “Ice Tongue Grooves,” and the “Shattuck Mountain Pothole Tract,” all of which are believed to have formed beneath or along the margins of basically hard, solid, cold, and  active ice,  where meltwater was firmly restricted to the ice margin. Also, the aforementioned tonal streaks on VCGI LiDAR imagery likely as well represent such ice margins, but are not sufficiently understood to establish their meaning and significance. The specific identification of active versus stagnant ice margins  is an important distinction. Active ice margin features are especially common and preferentially located on certain terrain, specifically north- and northwestern-facing hillsides. Interestingly this distinction applies to ice margins in both Vermont and southern Quebec, based on both published literature and as well my personal Quebec reconnaissance hiking experience. In general, the ice sheet recession was progressive and step-down in nature. The tendency for active ice margin features to be located  on north and northwestern sloping hillsides is so common, prompting me to  search for such features  during VCGI mapping in such locations, often serving to identify such features which in some cases likely would not have been noticed otherwise. The explanation for the preferential development of such features at such locations is intriguing. It  suggests that the active ice margin was pressed firmly against such hillsides, perhaps likewise associated with directed meltwater drainage. Interestingly, in New York, Denny’s  Cadyville moraine, as discussed elsewhere herein, appears to closely resemble a series of features here in this present report referred to as “Ice Marginal Channels.” Unlike Vermont active ice margin features, these features are developed against a northeast facing sloping hillside. This  conceptually fits the thesis that such features relate  to the pressing of ice against the terrain, which in New York, on the west side of the Champlain ice lobe, favored a southwestern directed pressing ice mass against northeastern facing terrain. In other words, the Bath Tub Model may have involved preferential ice margin Glacial Dnamics and drainage relationships associated with physiography.

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