A mechanism is
presented explaining how mega meltwater avalanches could be generated on the
surface of a continental ice sheet. It is shown that during periods of
excessive climatic warmth when the continental ice
sheet surface was melting at an accelerated rate, self-amplifying,
translating waves of glacial meltwater emerge as a distinct mechanism of meltwater
transport.
It is shown that
such glacier waves would have been capable of attaining kinetic energies per
kilometer of wave front equivalent to 12 million tons of TNT, to have achieved
heights of 100 to 300 meters, and forward velocities as great as 900 km/hr.
Glacier waves
would not have been restricted to a particular locale, but could have been
produced wherever continental ice sheets were present. Catastrophic floods
produced by waves of such size and kinetic energy would be able to account for
the character of the permafrost deposits found in Alaska and Siberia, flood
features and numerous drumlin field formations seen in North America.
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