Dating Early and Middle (Reid) Pleistocene Glaciations in Central Yukon by Tephrochronology

2001 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Westgate ◽  
Shari J. Preece ◽  
Duane G. Froese ◽  
Robert C. Walter ◽  
Amanjit S. Sandhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Alaska ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Pleistocene Glaciations ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Aeolian Sand ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Aleutian Arc ◽  
Dawson City ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Tephra Beds

AbstractThe late Cenozoic deposits of central Yukon contain numerous distal tephra beds, derived from vents in the Wrangell Mountains and Aleutian arc–Alaska Peninsula region. We use a few of these tephra beds to gain a better understanding on the timing of extensive Pleistocene glaciations that affected this area. Exposures at Fort Selkirk show that the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced close to the outer limit of glaciation about 1.5 myr ago. At the Midnight Dome Terrace, near Dawson City, exposed outwash gravel, aeolian sand, and loess, related to valley glaciers in the adjacent Ogilvie Mountains, are of the same age. Reid glacial deposits at Ash Bend on the Stewart River are older than oxygen isotope stage (OIS) 6 and likely of OIS 8 age, that is, about 250,000 yr B.P. Supporting evidence for this chronology comes from major peaks in the rates of terrigeneous sediment input into the Gulf of Alaska at 1.5 and 0.25 myr B.P.

A catalogue of late Cenozoic tephra beds in the Klondike goldfields and adjacent areas, Yukon Territory1Yukon Geological Survey Contribution 010.

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (10) ◽  
pp. 1386-1418 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Preece ◽  
J.A. Westgate ◽  
D.G. Froese ◽  
N.J.G. Pearce ◽  
W.T. Perkins
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Field ◽  
Trace Element Composition ◽  
Element Composition ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Major Element Composition ◽  
Aleutian Arc ◽  
Tephra Beds ◽  
Cenozoic Sediments ◽  
Distinguishing Features

Many distal tephra beds exist in the late Cenozoic sediments of the Klondike goldfields and nearby areas. They come from volcanoes in the Wrangell volcanic field and the eastern Aleutian arc and represent large-magnitude eruptions. During the course of our tephrochronological studies in this region over the last 40 years, we have discovered 196 tephra occurrences and 50 distinctive tephra beds. The location of these sites and the distinguishing features of each of these tephra beds are presented in the form of a catalogue, which we hope will provide a stimulus for present and future tephrochronological studies in the Yukon Territory. These data are presented as a series of tables, as follows: location, stratigraphic context, petrography, geochemical characteristics, including major- and trace-element composition of glass shards, major-element composition of Fe–Ti oxides, classification, and age determinations. A new classification scheme is presented in which the rhyolitic and dacitic tephra beds are grouped into three classes: adakite, transitional, and typical arc.

Characterization, identity, distribution, and source of late Cenozoic tephra beds in the Klondike district of the Yukon, Canada

2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 983-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shari J Preece ◽  
John A Westgate ◽  
Brent V Alloway ◽  
Michael W Milner
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Field ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Stratigraphic Framework ◽  
Aleutian Arc ◽  
High Silica ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Tephra Beds ◽  
First Time

A large number of distal, silicic tephra beds have been preserved in the late Cenozoic deposits of the Klondike region, Yukon Territory. Forty-one tephra samples, representing twelve distinctive beds, are detailed in this study. They range in composition from basaltic andesite to high-silica rhyolite, and were deposited during the late Pliocene to Late Wisconsinan time interval. Seven tephra beds are derived from volcanoes in the Wrangell volcanic field, and four come from the more distant eastern Aleutian arc - Alaska Peninsula region, but the source of the single andesitic tephra is unknown. The widespread and well known Old Crow and Sheep Creek tephra beds have been identified in the Klondike district, but all the other tephra units are characterized in detail for the first time. The ages of most tephra beds are poorly constrained, but will undoubtedly become better known with the application of recently developed glass fission-track methods. Hence, prospects are favourable for the eventual development of a comprehensive and reliable time-stratigraphic framework that will support on-going studies on the late Cenozoic geology, geomorphology, paleontology, and paleoenvironments of the Klondike area.

Paleomagnetic evidence for late Cenozoic glaciations in the Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories, Canada

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 896-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Barendregt ◽  
R. J. Enkin ◽  
J. Baker ◽  
A. Duk-Rodkin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Magnetic Measurements ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction ◽  
Pleistocene Glaciations ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Stratigraphic Record ◽  
Bear River ◽  
Mackenzie Mountains

The Mackenzie Mountains were affected by montane valley glaciers during the Pleistocene and peripherally by the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last glaciation. In this paper we report on magnetostratigraphic dating and correlation of three sections recording Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene glaciations: Katherine Creek, Little Bear River, and Inlin Brook (located around 65°N, 127°W). Each section consists of a colluvial unit overlying a Pliocene pediment surface cut into Proterozoic or Paleozoic bedrock, or Tertiary gravel, which is in turn overlain by a stack of five, and in places six, montane tills, usually with soils developed at their surfaces, and capped by a Laurentide till. Normal and reversed magnetizations were recognized with single-domain magnetite as a dominant remanence carrier. The Katherine Creek section has a normally magnetized colluvium at its base, which is overlain by two reversed tills, succeeded by three normal tills. We interpret the top two tills to be of Brunhes age (< 780 ka) but argue that the lowermost normal till is of probable Olduvai age (ca. 1.8 Ma). The two underlying tills are of Matuyama age (2.6 Ma to 780 ka), and the colluvial base is assigned to the Gauss (3.5–2.6 Ma). The Little Bear River section exposes a stratigraphic record similar to that found at Katherine Creek. Only four units could be assigned a paleomagnetic polarity, the others yielding incoherent results. Paleosols on the first and second till units were reversed and normal, respectively, and the top till was normal. Thus there is clear evidence of an older (reversed) Pleistocene glaciation and a magnetostratigraphic record compatible with that found at Katherine Creek. Magnetic measurements from Inlin Brook gave largely incoherent results, with the exception of the surface (Laurentide) till, which is normal. The glacial history recorded in the Mackenzie Mountains correlates well with other studies carried out in the Cordillera. The large-scale changes in climate revealed in these terrestrial records provide baseline data for paleoenvironmental reconstruction.

scholarly journals Late Pliocene Cordilleran Ice Sheet development with warm northeast Pacific sea surface temperatures

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Sánchez-Montes ◽  
Erin L. McClymont ◽  
Jeremy M. Lloyd ◽  
Juliane Müller ◽  
Ellen A. Cowan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Gulf Of Alaska ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
Subarctic Pacific ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Forcing Mechanisms ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 Concentrations

Abstract. The initiation and evolution of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet are relatively poorly constrained. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 341 recovered marine sediments at Site U1417 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). Here we present alkenone-derived sea surface temperature (SST) analyses alongside ice-rafted debris (IRD), terrigenous, and marine organic matter inputs to the GOA through the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. The first IRD contribution from tidewater glaciers in southwest Alaska is recorded at 2.9 Ma, indicating that the Cordilleran Ice Sheet extent increased in the late Pliocene. A higher occurrence of IRD and higher sedimentation rates in the GOA during the early Pleistocene, at 2.5 Ma, occur in synchrony with SSTs warming on the order of 1 ∘C relative to the Pliocene. All records show a high degree of variability in the early Pleistocene, indicating highly efficient ocean–climate–ice interactions through warm SST–ocean evaporation–orographic precipitation–ice growth mechanisms. A climatic shift towards ocean circulation in the subarctic Pacific similar to the pattern observed during negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) conditions today occurs with the development of more extensive Cordilleran glaciation and may have played a role through increased moisture supply to the subarctic Pacific. The drop in atmospheric CO2 concentrations since 2.8 Ma is suggested as one of the main forcing mechanisms driving the Cordilleran glaciation.

Evidence for a 55–50 ka (early Wisconsin) glaciation of the Cordilleran ice sheet, Yukon Territory, Canada

2007 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent C. Ward ◽  
Jeffrey D. Bond ◽  
John C. Gosse
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
Aleutian Low ◽  
Climatic Forcing ◽  
Apparent Contrast ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Source Areas ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractCosmogenic 10Be ages on boulders of 54–51 ka (n=4) on a penultimate Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS) drift confirm that Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 (early Wisconsin) glaciation was extensive in parts of Yukon Territory, the first confirmed evidence in the Canadian Cordillera. We name the glaciation inferred from the mapped and dated drift the Gladstone. These results are in apparent contrast to the MIS 6 (Illinoian) age of the penultimate Reid glaciation to the east in central Yukon but are equivalent to exposure ages on MIS 4 drift in Alaska. Contrasting penultimate ice extents in Yukon requires that different source areas of the northern CIS in Yukon responded differently to climatic forcing during glaciations. The variation in glacier extent for different source areas likely relates to variation in precipitation during glaciation, as the northern CIS was a precipitation-limited system. Causes for a variation in precipitation remain unclear but likely involve the style of precipitation delivery over the St. Elias Mountains possibly related to variations in the Aleutian low.

Sequence stratigraphy and depositional history of the Baranof Fan: Insights for Cordilleran Ice Sheet outflow to the Gulf of Alaska

2019 ◽  
Vol 132 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 353-372
Author(s):  
Jiajia Zhang ◽  
Sean P.S. Gulick
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Coupled System ◽  
Gulf Of Alaska ◽  
Coast Range ◽  
Depositional History ◽  
Sediment Distribution ◽  
Sequence Correlation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet

AbstractThe Baranof Fan is one of three large Alaska deep-sea fans that preserve sedimentary records reflecting both tectonic and climatic processes. However, lack of drill sites in the Baranof Fan makes the depositional history across the southeastern Alaska margin still poorly understood. Sequence correlation from the adjacent Surveyor Fan to the Baranof Fan provides updated age constraints on the Baranof Fan evolution history. Results show that both the Baranof and Surveyor Fans are dominantly glacial and initiated ca. 2.8 Ma and expanded rapidly since ca. 1.2 Ma in response to the major glaciation events; these results place the deposition of the Baranof Fan younger than previously thought (ca. 7 Ma). The glacially influenced Baranof Fan contains two sub-fans that are laterally stacked with their depocenters migrating southeastward. Each sub-fan developed multiple channels that young southeastward as channel avulsion, coevolution, and tectonic beheading progressed over the past ∼2.8 m.y. Tectonic reconstruction suggests that the Baranof Fan is sourced from the Coast Range via shelf-crossing troughs near the Chatham Strait and Dixon Entrance and thus represents a major outflow for the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during glaciations; the Chatham Strait is the major conduit that has fed most of the Baranof Fan channels. Comparatively, the Surveyor Fan is sourced predominantly from the St. Elias Range where a confluence of orogenesis and glaciations are a coupled system and only partly from the Coast Range via the Icy Strait. It is concluded that the formation and expansion of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet has determined the timing of the Baranof Fan deposition, yet Pacific–North America strike-slip motion has influenced the Baranof Fan sediment distribution, as previously suggested, via a series of southeastward avulsing channels and resultant southeastward migration of deep-sea depocenters.

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