Quaternary relief generation by polythermal glacier ice

The juxtaposition of wet-based erosive ice in valleys and cold-based, non-erosive ice atop felsenmeer-covered interfluve plateaus has generated relief in the Torngat Mountains of northeastern Canada. Measurements of in situ terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) concentrations from 31 bedrock sites, coupled with soils and geomorphology, indicate that erosion of the valleys has been >2 m during a single glacial–interglacial cycle. However, on summit plateaus the long-term (over several glacial–interglacial cycles) erosion rate is