Glacial landforms identification by means of LANDSAT-7 ETM+ image - Central Patagonian fjord coast, Chile

This work presents geomorphological features visually identified and interpreted in Landsat 7 ETM+ images, of subaenal zones adjacent to Penguin and Peel fjords, in the fjord coast of central Patagonia, Chile. Geomorphological maps are made based both on isatellite image and on 3D block-diagrams elaborated by the combination of elevation data and satelital image, thus allowing better visualization. The glaciers retreat produced modem geomorphological landscapes which contain both glacial and paraglacial landforms. The surficial distribution of subaerial glacigenic deposits shows evidences of topographic control on the glacier flow line and possible warm thermal basal conditions of the glaciers, such as fields of elongated hills, observed at the northem distal shoreline of Penguin fjord. The localizations of several kind of deposits and erosional features shows that many of glaciers which, at the present

times, are confined in their valleys, possibly reached over the fjords and still contribute the fjord basins with sediment through glaciofluvial flows.