Introduction

Fjord systems are an important interconnecting link between the continental shelf and the glaciated portions of continental cratons. As effective sediment traps, fjords and fjord valleys are filled with the full spectrum of sedimentary particles derived from the chemical and physical erosion of the hinterland terrains by alpine glaciers and former continental ice sheets. Much of the sediment that accumulates within these overdeepened coastal basins is related to the glacial/proglacial deposition during retreat from the last major ice advance, or several episodes of paraglacial basin filling.

For many of the world's fjords, glaciers once converged through their heads, draining the continental ice sheets. This funneling of large volumes of ice gave rise to rapid flow velocities and, depending on the nature of the bed contact, increased power of erosion. During the deglacial cycle, the outlet glacier acted as a vast conveyor belt delivering debris to the fjord and its tributary valleys. Large volumes of clastic sediments, sometimes over 1 km in thickness (Syvitski, Burrell, & Skei, 1987), were deposited in fjords during this critical period.

As the fjord outlet glaciers retreated onshore, outwash deposits of thick sequences of glaciofluvial sediments (sandurs) aggraded onto the valley floors (Church, 1972). Contemporaneous deposition of marine sediment occurred in the deltaic environment at the fjord head and in the deep fjord basins. As the ice sheet thinned and eventually disappeared, isostatic rebound of the inner fjord region caused coastal emergence.