Submarine and onshore end moraines in southern Newfoundland: implications for the history of late Wisconsinan ice retreat

Boreas ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN SHAW ◽  
DOUGLAS R. GRANT ◽  
JEAN-PIERRE GUILBAULT ◽  
THANE W. ANDERSON ◽  
D. RUSSELL PARROTT
Keyword(s):  
History Of ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

scholarly journals Late Wisconsinan and Holocene History of the Laurentide Ice Sheet*

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur S. Dyke ◽  
Victor K. Prest
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
The West ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Sea Level Oscillations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
And Migration

AbstractEleven paleogeographic maps and a summary ice retreat map outline the history of advance, retreat, and readvances of the Laurentide Ice Sheet along with associated changes in proglacial drainage and relative sea level oscillations for Late Wisconsinan and Holocene times. The text outlines pertinent chronological control and discusses the paleoglaciology of the ice sheet, with attention to location and migration of ice divides, their attendant domes and saddles, and to ice streams, ice shelves, and mechanisms of déglaciation. At 18 ka the ice sheet consisted of 3 sectors with an interlocked system of ice divides joined at intersector saddles. A throughgoing superdivide is recognized and named the Trans Laurentide Ice Divide. The ice sheet retreated slowly from 18 to 13 ka, mainly along the west and south margins, but still held a near maximum configuration at 13 ka. A regional change in flow pattern over the Prairies just before 14 ka is thought to represent a large reduction in ice volume, but not in extent, and likely was triggered by a switch from nondeforming to deforming bed conditions. Retreat between 13 and 8 ka was vastly more rapid in the west than in the east, which resulted in eastward migration of the divide system of Keewatin Ice but relatively static divides of Labrador and Foxe Ice. By 10 ka the Trans Laurentide Ice Divide had been fragmented as Hudson Ice became increasingly autonomous. By 8 ka Hudson Ice had disappeared, little ice was left in Keewatin, but Foxe Ice still held its near maximum configuration and Labrador Ice was still larger than Foxe Ice. Repeated surging along aquatic margins and calving back of margins thinned by surging probably was the most important mechanism of deglaciation of Keewatin and Hudson Ice. The core of Foxe Ice disintegrated at 7 ka but retreat and readvance of Foxe Ice remnants continued throughout the Holocene.

Late Wisconsinan glacial stratigraphy and history of southeastern Manitoba

1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Teller ◽  
Mark M. Fenton
Keyword(s):  
Carbonate Rocks ◽  
Lacustrine Sediment ◽  
Precambrian Rock ◽  
Lake Agassiz ◽  
Rock Fragments ◽  
Lithostratigraphic Units ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Boundary ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

The history of Late Wisconsinan glaciation in southwestern Manitoba has been established by identifying and correlating ice-laid lithostratigraphic units in the subsurface. Five Late Wisconsinan tills are defined on the basis of their texture, mineralogic composition, and stratigraphic position. These new formations are, from youngest to oldest, Marchand, Whitemouth Lake, Roseau, Senkiw, and Whiteshell Formations.Late Wisconsinan ice first invaded southeastern Manitoba 22 000 to 24 000 years ago. This Laurentide glacier advanced from the northeast across the Precambrian Shield and deposited the sandy Whiteshell and Senkiw tills, which contain abundant Precambrian rock fragments and minerals and few Paleozoic carbonate grains. Shortly after this, Keewatin ice advanced from the northwest over Paleozoic carbonate rocks, depositing the loamy carbonate-rich Roseau Formation throughout most of the area. This ice remained over southeastern Manitoba until after 13 500 years ago, when it rapidly retreated northward with Lake Agassiz on its heels. Two brief glacial readvances occurred. The first overrode Lake Agassiz lacustrine sediment as far south as central North Dakota shortly after about 13 000 years ago. The clayey Whitemouth Lake till was deposited in southern Manitoba at this time. After a rapid retreat, the ice briefly pushed southward over southeastern Manitoba about 12 000 years ago to just south of the International Boundary. The sandy carbonate-rich Marchand Formation was deposited at this time as the ice overrode its own sandy outwash. By 11 000 years ago, ice had disappeared from southeastern Manitoba.

Late Pleistocene depositional systems of Metropolitan Toronto and their engineering and glacial geological significance

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 1009-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Eyles
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Drainage Network ◽  
Glacial History ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
History Of ◽  
Depositional Systems ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Glacial Complex

The municipality of Metropolitan Toronto (area 480 km2, population 2.15 million) is centrally located on the Late Pleistocene sedimentary infill of the Laurentian Channel, a broad bedrock low up to 115 km wide connecting the Huron and Ontario basins. This channel forms part of a relict (late Tertiary?) drainage network (the Laurentian River) modified by Pleistocene glacial erosion and infilled by over 100 m of glacial and interglacial sediments. The subsurface stratigraphy of the channel fill below Metropolitan Toronto has been established from many different data sources and is depicted, in this paper, as a series of cross sections with a total length of nearly 105 km.The subsurface stratigraphy has been divided, provisionally, into five depositional complexes, which have been mapped in the subsurface along several transects. These are (1) a glacial complex of Illinoian (?) age, (2) a lacustrine complex of Sangamon Interglacial and earliest Wisconsinan sediments (120 000 – 75 000 BP?), (3) a glaciolacustrine – lacustrine complex spanning the Early and Mid-Wisconsinan (75 000 – 30 000 BP?), (4) a Late Wisconsinan (> 30 000 BP) glacial complex, and (5) a postglacial lacustrine complex (ca. 12 000 BP).The data presented in this paper are significant for applied geological investigations in the heavily urbanized Toronto area and provide new insights into the glacial history of the Ontario Basin, in particular the regional extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet margin prior to the Late Wisconsinan.

Late Pleistocene Glaciations in the Northwestern Sierra Nevada, California

2002 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Allan James ◽  
Jon Harbor ◽  
Derek Fabel ◽  
Dennis Dahms ◽  
David Elmore
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Lateral Moraine ◽  
Riparian Ecosystems ◽  
Glacial Ice ◽  
Central California ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Moraine Ridge

AbstractPleistocene fluvial landforms and riparian ecosystems in central California responded to climate changes in the Sierra Nevada, yet the glacial history of the western Sierra remains largely unknown. Three glacial stages in the northwestern Sierra Nevada are documented by field mapping and cosmogenic radionuclide surface-exposure (CRSE) ages. Two CRSE ages of erratic boulders on an isolated till above Bear Valley provide a limiting minimum age of 76,400±3800 10Be yr. Another boulder age provides a limiting minimum age of 48,800±3200 10Be yr for a broad-crested moraine ridge within Bear Valley. Three CRSE ages producing an average age of 18,600±1180 yr were drawn from two boulders near a sharp-crested bouldery lateral moraine that represents an extensive Tioga glaciation in Bear Valley. Nine CRSE ages from striated bedrock along a steep valley transect average 14,100±1500 yr and suggest rapid late-glacial ice retreat from lower Fordyce Canyon with no subsequent extensive glaciations. These ages are generally consistent with glacial and pluvial records in east-central California and Nevada.

scholarly journals The Quaternary History of Cumberland Sound, Southeastern Baffin Island: The Marine Evidence

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E. Jennings
Keyword(s):  
Late Phase ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Sedimentation Rates ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Arctic Water ◽  
Glacial Ice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Cumberland Sound

ABSTRACTAcoustic and core data from Cumberland Sound show that glacial ice derived from the Foxe Sector (Amadjuak Dome) of the Laurentide Ice Sheet advanced to the continental shelf at the mouth of the sound during a late phase of the Foxe Glaciation. The basal lithofacies/acoustic unit (Ai/BUD) in the sound is a massive, black diamicton. On the basis of strati-graphic, acoustic, lithologie and faunal evidence, this unit is interpreted as till. The till is overlain by an ice proximal to ice distal glacial-marine sediment sequence termed the Davis Strait Silt (DSS). The influence of ice retreat is reflected in the foraminiferal assemblages of the DSS. Rapid sedimentation rates in the sound prevailed during deposition of the DSS as shown by the conformable geometry of the DSS. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry dates on molluscs and foraminifera and a single conventional 14C date on disseminated organic material from ice proximal sediment of the DSS (lithofacies B and lower lithofacies C) indicate that the ice retreated rapidly from its probable maximum position on the shelf no earlier than ca. 13,400 BP and into the fiords along the coast of the sound by ca. 8900 BP. Deposition of ice-distal glacial marine sediments (lower lithofacies D) continued in the sound until ca. 7600 BP as the ice margin rapidly retreated into the fiords. Between ca. 8900 BP and ca. 8000 BP, the foraminiferal fauna show that the influence of glacial ice is remote and that "Atlantic Water" impinges on the seafloor. Postglacial sedimentation began in the sound at ca. 7600 BP. Retreat of the ice margin onto land made the fiord basins available as sediment catchments. The reduced sedimentation rates in the sound during this interval are indicated by the change to onlapping basin fill geometry of the Tiniktartuq Silt and Clay (TS&C). Calcareous foraminifera disappear from the sediments by ca. 6300 BP and are replaced by agglutinated foraminifera reflecting "Arctic Water" conditions at the seafloor. The TS&C is presently being deposited in the sound.

Deglaciation chronology and revegetation in northwestern Ontario

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 850-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svante Björck
Keyword(s):  
Black Spruce ◽  
Lake Superior ◽  
The South ◽  
Migration Routes ◽  
White Pine ◽  
Cool Period ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Northwestern Ontario ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ice Retreat

Along a 420 km transect in northwestern Ontario, Canada, sediments from four lakes were analyzed with respect to lithology, pollen, and macrofossils. Radiocarbon dates show that the region was deglaciated between ca. 11 500 and 8000 years BP, and periods of both rapid ice retreat and readvance influenced the history of Glacial Lake Agassiz. In the south the ice sheet was succeeded by a lengthy interval of park–tundra with stands of spruce, ash, and elm. The ash and elm seem to have disappeared during a suggested cool period (11 100–10 200 years BP). Farther north the park–tundra phase lasted not more than 50–100 years after ca. 10 200 years BP before boreal trees dominated. The climatic change around 10 200 years BP permitted the very rapid migration of spruce, larch, birch, and jack or red pine into northwestern Ontario from northern Minnesota. The migration routes for Pinus strobus (white pine), Alnus rugosa, and A. crispa were divided, however: one from the south (south of Lake Superior) and one from the east-southeast (north of Lake Superior). White pine reached its maximum distribution 6500–6000 years BP, when the limit was probably 150–200 km north of today's. The composition of the boreal forest during the altithermal was only slightly changed, but the influx of presumed prairie pollen reached a peak ca. 8000–7000 years BP. Since then Picea mariana (black spruce) gradually became the dominating tree species.

The last glaciation of Marvin Peninsula, northern Ellesmere Island, High Arctic, Canada

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 2578-2590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald S. Lemmen
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The North ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Glaciomarine Sediments ◽  
North And South

The limit of the last glaciation on Marvin Peninsula, northernmost Ellesmere Island, is recorded by extensive ice-marginal landforms and early Holocene glaciomarine sediments. While glaciers occupied most valleys on the peninsula, other areas remained ice free, as did most of the adjacent fiords. Beyond the ice limit, sparse erratics and degraded meltwater channels within weathered bedrock are evidence of older, more extensive glaciation(s). Shorelines and marine shells 50 m above the limit of the Holocene sea along the north coast relate to these older glacial events.Thirty-four new radiocarbon dates provide a chronology of ice buildup and retreat. Glaciers reached their limit after 23 ka, and locally as late as 11 ka. This was achieved by both expansion of existing glaciers and accumulation on plateau and lowland sites, which are presently ice free. Late Wisconsinan climate was characterized by cold and extreme aridity. Five dates ranging from 11 to 31 ka BP on subfossil bryophytes suggest that ice-free areas were biologically productive throughout the last glaciation. Ice retreat and postglacial emergence had begun by 9.5 ka and was associated with a marked climatic amelioration. The deglacial chronology confirms a pronounced disparity in the timing of ice retreat on the north and south sides of the Grant Land Mountains.

LATE QUATERNARY HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN BEETLE FAUNA OF NORTH AMERICA: A SYNTHESIS OF FOSSIL AND DISTRIBUTIONAL EVIDENCE

1988 ◽  
Vol 120 (S144) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald P. Schwert ◽  
Allan C. Ashworth
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Ground Beetle ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Beetle Species ◽  
Centre Of Origin ◽  
Tangible Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

AbstractFossils from sites of Late Quaternary age in North America provide tangible evidence of temporal changes in the character of the northern beetle fauna. Based on a synthesis of the fossil data with analyses of the present distributions for northern species, a rudimentary model is proposed to explain the recent history of the fauna of the arctic and the boreal forest.An open-ground beetle fauna of arctic–subarctic affinities had become established along the southern margin of the Laurentide ice sheet in the midcontinent by 20 500 years before present (yr B.P.). Climatic warming decimated this fauna throughout lowland areas at some time between 16 700 and 15 300 yr B.P.; small populations of some arctic–subarctic species, however, survived within either alpine habitats of the Cordillera and Appalachians or specialized environments associated with stagnant ice.Populations of the same arctic–subarctic beetle species existed within the ice-free Alaska–Yukon refugium throughout the late Wisconsinan. During the Holocene, this region served as the principal centre-of-origin for the dispersal of the arctic–subarctic beetle fauna.The beetle fauna of the boreal forest was also displaced southward by Late Wisconsinan glaciation. By 15 300 yr B.P., however, this fauna had largely replaced the arctic–subarctic beetle fauna along the ice margin of the midcontinent. Evidence provided by fossils from a series of sites demonstrates that beetle species of the boreal forest dispersed northward into Canada as the ice front receded.

Quaternary stratigraphy and glacial history of the Peace River valley, northeast British ColumbiaThis article is one of a selection of papers published in this Special Issue on the theme Geology of northeastern British Columbia and northwestern Alberta: diamonds, shallow gas, gravel, and glaciers.

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M.D. Hartman ◽  
John J. Clague
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Quaternary Sediments ◽  
Shallow Gas ◽  
Peace River ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Quaternary Stratigraphy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Selection Of

Two Cordilleran and three Laurentide glacial advances are recorded in Quaternary sediments and landforms in the Peace River valley, northeast British Columbia. The advances are inferred from fluvial gravels, glaciolacustrine sediments, and tills within nested paleovalleys excavated during three interglaciations and from the distribution of granitoid clasts derived from the Canadian Shield. Till of the last (Late Wisconsinan) Laurentide glaciation occurs at the surface, except where it is overlain by postglacial sediments. The advance that deposited this till was the most extensive in the study area, and the only advance definitively recognized in western Alberta south of the study area. Late Wisconsinan Cordilleran till has not been found in the study area, but Cordilleran and Laurentide ice may have coalesced briefly during the last glaciation. Support for this supposition is provided by the inferred deflection of Laurentide flutings to the southeast by Cordilleran ice. The earliest Laurentide advance may have been the least extensive of the three Laurentide events recognized in the study area. Erratics attributed to this advance occur only east of the Halfway River – Beatton River drainage divide.

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