Textural characteristics of drift from some representative Cordilleran glaciers

Particle-size analyses of more than 300 samples of drift from Nisqually, Paradise, and South Cascade Glaciers in the Cascade Range of Washington, from Athabasca Glacier in Alberta, Canada, and from other alpine glaciers show that textural differences exist both between glaciers and between glacier subenvironments. Differences between glaciers probably reflect bedrock terrane and are shown by the percentage of silt + clay in the A comparison of alpine drift with continental ice-sheet drift from Ontario shows that, in general, alpine drift is coarser, but that alpine basal till is comparable to ice-sheet basal till. When comparing nonglacial diamictons to alpine drift, it may be possible to distinguish the former from the sediments of one glacier subenvironment but not from those of another.