https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-336 Preprint. Discussion started: 21 November 2020 c Author(s) 2020. CC BY 4.0 License. Ribbed bedforms in palaeo-ice streams reveal shear margin positions, lobe shutdown and the interaction of meltwater drainage and ice velocity patterns Jean Vérité1, Édouard Ravier1, Olivier Bourgeois2, Stéphane Pochat2, Thomas Lelandais1, Régis 5 Mourgues1, Christopher D. Clark3, Paul Bessin1, David Peigné1, Nigel Atkinson4 1 Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique, UMR 6112, CNRS, Le Mans Université, Avenue Olivier Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans CEDEX 9, France 2 Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique, UMR 6112, CNRS, Université de Nantes, 2 rue de la Houssinière, BP 92208, 44322 Nantes CEDEX 3, France 10 3 Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK 4 Alberta Geological Survey, 4th Floor Twin Atria Building, 4999-98 Ave. Edmonton, AB, T6B 2X3, Canada Correspondence to: Jean Vérité (
[email protected]) Abstract. Conceptual ice stream landsystems derived from geomorphological and sedimentological observations provide 15 constraints on ice-meltwater-till-bedrock interactions on palaeo-ice stream beds. Within these landsystems, the spatial distribution and formation processes of ribbed bedforms remain unclear. We explore the conditions under which these bedforms develop and their spatial organisation with (i) an experimental model that reproduces the dynamics of ice streams and subglacial landsystems and (ii) an analysis of the distribution of ribbed bedforms on selected examples of paleo-ice stream beds of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. We find that a specific kind of ribbed bedforms can develop subglacially 20 from a flat bed beneath shear margins (i.e., lateral ribbed bedforms) and lobes (i.e., submarginal ribbed bedforms) of ice streams.