Topographic controls on glacier sediment–landform associations around the temperate North Patagonian Icefield

Glacier sediment–landform associations are commonly used as interpretive and predictive tools to reconstruct the nature of past glacial events. Here we provide a regional-scale study of the sediments and landforms around the temperate North Patagonian Icefield, an area with outlet glaciers that terminate in the full range of environments possible in a temperate glacier setting (land-terminating, lake-terminating and tidewater-terminating). We present a regional-scale geomorphological map and sedimentological data collected at 11 outlet glaciers of the icefield. Key sediments and landforms include large tracts of ice-scoured bedrock, extensive sandar, terminal moraines, ice-contact glaciofluvial landforms and evidence of paraglacial slope adjustment following glacier recession. The sediments and landforms developed around the North Patagonian Icefield contrast with those previously identified at other temperate outlet glaciers in Iceland and Alaska, and we argue that this is largely a result of topographic controls on glacier terminal environment (e.g. local relief, topography and geomorphological setting).