Studies of glacial history in Arctic Canada. I. Pumice, radiocarbon dates, and differential postglacial uplift in the eastern Queen Elizabeth Islands

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 634-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weston Blake Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Source Area ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Arctic Canada ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Time Line ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Raised Beaches

Dark brown pumice has been discovered recently on raised beaches of Ellesmere and Devon Islands, and in archeological sites on Baffin Island. It is similar in appearance and chemical composition to pumice associated with raised marine features throughout northern Europe, especially along the coasts of Norway and Spitsbergen. The source area for the pumice is uncertain, but Iceland is a good possibility.Radiocarbon dates on driftwood and whale bones imbedded in beaches at the "pumice level", as well as at higher and lower elevations, indicate that the pumice arrived approximately 5000 years ago.The pumice serves as a time-line and provides a means of correlating widely-separated marine features. Because these features now occur at different elevations, the amount and direction of tilt can be calculated. Also, former ice centers can be delineated, as the areas which have undergone the greatest uplift are those where the ice cover was once thickest. In Arctic Canada the "pumice level" rises westward along Jones Sound—from 16.5 m a.s.l. at the mouth of South Cape Fiord, Ellesmere Island, to 24.0 m at the eastern tip of Colin Archer Peninsula, Devon Island, ca. 130 km away. It also rises northwestward toward the head of South Cape Fiord.The Jones Sound information, plus radiocarbon dates from elsewhere in the Queen Elizabeth Islands indicating the approximate position of the shoreline at the same time, shows that there is a region in the eastern and central part of the archipelago where >25 m of uplift has occurred during the last 5000 years. This region, including considerable areas that are now sea, is believed to have been covered by a major ice sheet during the last glaciation.

The last interglacial–glacial cycle, Clyde foreland, Baffin Island, N.W.T.: stratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and chronology

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 2824-2857 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. H. Miller ◽  
J. T. Andrews ◽  
S. K. Short
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Marine Sediments ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Pollen Assemblage ◽  
Outlet Glacier ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Last Glaciation

A study of the stratigraphic sequence (14C and amino acid age control), marine bivalve faunal changes, and palynology of buried soils and organic-rich sediment collected from the Clyde Foreland Formation in the extensive cliff sections of the Clyde foreland, eastern Baffin Island, N.W.T., suggests the following last interglacial – Foxe (last glaciation) glacial – present interglacial sequence.(1) Cape Christian Member (ca. 130 000 years BP?)Consists of the Sledgepointer till overlain by the Cape Christian marine sediments. In situ molluscan fauna, collected from the marine sediments, contain a moderately warm bivalve assemblage. A well-developed soil that formed on the marine sediments (Cape Christian soil) contains an interglacial pollen assemblage dominated by dwarf birch. U-series dates of > 115 000 and ca. 130 000 years BP on molluscs from the Cape Christian marine sediments suggest that they were deposited during the last interglaciation, here termed the Cape Christian Interglaciation. The development of a subarctic pollen assemblage in the Cape Christian soil has not been duplicated during the present interglaciation, suggesting higher summer temperatures and perhaps a duration well in excess of 10 000 years for the last interglaciation.(2) Kuvinilk MemberConsists of fossiliferous marine sediments, locally divided by the Clyde till into upper and lower units. The Clyde till was deposited by the earliest and most extensive advance of the Foxe (last) Glaciation. Kuvinilk marine sediments both under- and overlying the Clyde till contain the pecten Chlamys islandicus, indicating that the outlet glacier advanced into a subarctic marine environment. Amino acid ratios from in situ pelecypod shells abovę and below the Clyde till are not statistically different, but contrast markedly with ratios obtained from the same species in the Cape Christian Member. Organic horizons within the Kuvinilk marine sediments contain a relatively rich pollen assemblage, although 'absolute' counts are low.(3) Kogalu Member (> 35 00014C years BP)Sediments of the Kogalu Member unconformably overlie those of the Kuvinilk Member, but are of a similar character. The dominant sediments are marine in origin, but in places are divided into upper and lower units by the Ayr Lake till. Amino acid ratios from in situ shells above and below the Ayr Lake till are indistinguishable, but substantially less than those in the Kuvinilk Member, suggesting the two members are separated by a considerable time interval. Radiocarbon dates on shells in the Kogalu marine sediments range from 33 000 to 47 700 years BP, but these may be only minimum estimates. The sea transgressed to a maximum level 70–80 m asl, coincident with the glacial maximum. Subarctic marine fauna of interstadial–interglacial character occur within the Kogalu marine sediments.(4) Eglinton Member (10 000 years BP to present)A major unconformity exists between the Kogalu and Eglinton Members. Ravenscraig marine sediments were deposited during an early Holocene marine transgression–regression cycle; the oldest dates on these sediments are ca. 10 000 years BP. Locally a vegetation mat occurs at the base or within the Ravenscraig unit. Pollen from these beds is sparse, but indicates a terrestrial vegetation assemblage as diverse as that of today. There is no evidence that Laurentide Ice reached the foreland during the last 30 000 years. Eolian sands that overlie a soil developed on the marine sediments record a late Holocene climatic deterioration. Pollen in organic-rich sediments at the base of, and within, the eolian sands record a vegetation shift in response to climatic change.

The glacial geology of northeastern Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
John England
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Glacial Geology ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Previous Evidence ◽  
Marine Deposits ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
Distal Side ◽  
Stratigraphic Boundary

Thirty-five radiocarbon dates associated with former ice sheet margins and raised marine deposits are presented from northeastern Ellesmere Island. Along the southern margin of Hazen Plateau, and in inner Archer Fiord, a prominent morpho-stratigraphic boundary is marked by the Hazen Moraines. These moraines represent a restricted ice advance during the last glaciation and date ca. 8130 ± 200 BP. On the immediate distal side of the Hazen Moraines, eastward for 100 km towards northwestern Greenland, the majority of dates on marine limits show synchronous emergence beginning ca. 7500 BP. This zone of synchronous emergence is considered to represent an ice-free corridor isostatically unloaded between the margins of the receding Greenland and Ellesmere island ice sheets.A more widespread till, above and beyond the Hazen Moraines, extends out of Archer Fiord–Lady Franklin Bay to Robeson and Kennedy channels. This maximum ice advance is considered to predate the last glaciation on the basis of 14C and amino acid dates from ice-marginal deposits; however, alternative interpretations of the data are presented. Previous evidence suggesting an older advance of the Greenland Ice Sheet onto this coastline is confirmed. Several glaciers in the area are presently at their maximum postglacial positions.

Spatial patterns of modern diatom distribution and multiple paleolimnological records from a small arctic lake on Baffin Island, Arctic Canada

1996 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Wolfe
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Diatom Assemblages ◽  
Arctic Canada ◽  
Habitat Specificity ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Numerous Species ◽  
Sediment Reworking ◽  
Clear Differentiation ◽  
Lake Ontogeny

The assumption that within-lake, deep-water sedimentary diatom assemblages are relatively uniform and that a single core is sufficient to depict lake ontogeny was tested for a small tarn on the southwestern Cumberland Peninsula of Baffin Island, Northwest Territories. Diatom transport and deposition were evaluated through analyses of periphytic, planktonic, and epipelic habitats. Diatom stratigraphies of four cores were used to test whether or not trends are comparable in different regions of the lake and throughout the Holocene. Among 12 surface-sediment stations, diatom distributions were alternately highly equitable or variable. Valves of evenly distributed genera (Aulacoseira and Achnanthes) are mixed in the water column prior to deposition. This is supported by plankton tow and periphyton samples, which were respectively dominated by Aulacoseira distans (and varieties) and Achnanthes altaica. Conversely, frequencies of several benthic taxa (e.g., Pinnularia biceps, species of Eunotia) varied up to 30% between stations, in patterns unrelated to water depth, and reflecting habitat specificity and minimal transport prior to burial. Of the four cores (38.0–95.5 cm), analysis of the two longest revealed three distinct zones: (i) a zone dominated by species of Fragilaria (> 9000 BP); (ii) a zone containing benthic acidophilic diatoms indicating natural acidification (9000–7000 BP); and (iii) a zone characterized by numerous species of Aulacoseira ranging from the mid to late Holocene. Clear differentiation of the lower two zones was impossible in the shorter cores, and radiocarbon dates suggest that sediment reworking truncated the earliest records of organic sedimentation at these sites. Correspondence analysis facilitated comparisons of the diatom stratigraphies and enabled the evaluation of core reproducibility. Central cores preserve the most useful paleolimnological records in this environment. Keywords: diatoms, paleolimnology, Arctic Canada, Baffin Island.

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.

Atrypoidea species from the Canadian Arctic islands

1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1539-1561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Jones
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Evolutionary Trends ◽  
Arctic Canada ◽  
Separate Species ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Upper Silurian ◽  
The Relationship

Species of Atrypoidea have the potential of being biostratigraphically useful for the Upper Silurian strata of Arctic Canada. Critical to any biostratigraphic scheme is the relationship between A. phoca (Salter, 1852) and A. scheii (Holtedahl, 1914) since there is disagreement as to whether these species are synonymous, or distinct and stratigraphically separate species. Detailed morphological analysis of topotype A. scheii from Goose Fiord, Ellesmere Island shows that it falls within the range of morphological variation displayed by topotype A. phoca from Cape Riley, Devon Island. Consequently, A. scheii is maintained as a synonym of A. phoca.Other new species that may prove to be biostratigraphically useful include Atrypoidea gigantus n.sp. from an unnamed formation at Goose Fiord and A. netserki n.sp. from member C of the Read Bay Formation on Beechey Island. Atrypoidea gigantus, the largest species of Atrypoidea so far reported from Arctic Canada, is closely related to Atrypoidea foxi (Jones, 1974). Atrypoidea netserki is morphologically closest to A. phoca.Although the Atrypoidea sequences in the Ludlovian and Pridolian strata of Arctic Canada are now better known it is still difficult to delineate exact evolutionary trends, possibly because the various species have a facies- as well as a time-controlled distribution.

Holocene delevelling of Devon Island, Arctic Canada: implications for ice sheet geometry and crustal response

1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 885-904 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur S Dyke
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Bowhead Whale ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Level Curves ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Ice Load ◽  
Raised Beaches

The raised beaches and deltas of Devon Island contain an abundance of dateable materials. A large set of radiocarbon dates (228), 154 of which are new, are used to construct relative sea level curves and isobase maps for the island. The best materials for this purpose are driftwood logs (61 dates) and bowhead whale bones (74 dates) from raised beaches and mollusc shells from marine-limit deltas (20 dates) or from altitudes close to marine limit (14 dates). During the last glacial maximum, the island is thought to have lain beneath the southeastern flank of the Innuitian Ice Sheet. The relative sea level history is congruent with that inferred ice configuration. The island spans half the ice sheet width. Relative sea level curves are of simple exponential form, except near the glacial limit where an early Holocene emergence proceeded to a middle Holocene lowstand below present sea level, which was followed by submergence attending the passage of the crustal forebulge. The response times of relative sea level curves and of crustal uplift decrease from the uplift centre toward the limit of loading, but the change appears strongest near the limit. The Innuitian uplift is separated from the Laurentide uplift to the south by a strong isobase embayment over Lancaster Sound. Hence, ice load irregularities with wavelengths of about 100 km were large enough to leave an isostatic thumbprint in this region of the continent. The apparent absence of a similar embayment over Jones Sound probably indicates a greater Late Wisconsinan ice load there, or a thicker crust than in Lancaster Sound.

The last glaciation of west-central Ellesmere Island, Arctic Archipelago, Canada

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Distal Margin ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Last Glaciation ◽  
West Central ◽  
Reliable Evidence ◽  
Middle And Late Holocene

Locally abundant ice-marginal landforms lie in a 500 km long zone with a distal margin 10–60 km west of the margins of modern ice caps on central Ellesmere Island. Much of this drift belt, at the heads of the fiords, was deposited by the oscillating margin of a coalesced predecessor of the modern ice caps between 9000 and 7000 BP. The ice continued to retreat east of the present margin, and readvanced to its modern limit in a middle and late Holocene cooler climate. Unweathered but undated till and striations at the base of the drift suggest that the belt does not mark the western limit of central Ellesmere Island ice in the last glaciation. The limit lies an unknown distance downfiord; glaciers in the fiords may have floated. No reliable evidence was found for a complete ice cover of western Ellesmere Island and Eureka Sound in the last glaciation; nevertheless much of central and southern Ellesmere Island and Devon Island may have been glaciated by a regime that left few erosional or depositional landforms. Alternatively, emergence of an unglaciated Eureka Sound, underway by 9000 BP, may have followed combined peripheral glacioisostatic depression by encircling ice caps, whereas at the drift belt emergence was less and later, controlled only by central Ellesmere Island ice.

Communities and paleoecology of Eifelian (mid-Devonian) brachiopods from the Bird Fiord Formation of Arctic Canada

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (10) ◽  
pp. 1485-1503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong-yu Li ◽  
Brian Jones
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Binary Data ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Benthic Assemblage ◽  
Arctic Canada ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Devon Island

The carbonate–siliciclastic strata in the Bird Fiord Formation of Arctic Canada contain a diverse brachiopod-dominated biota. A collection of 46 381 brachiopods from 126 sites at 35 localities on Ellesmere Island, North Kent Island, Grinnell Peninsula (Devon Island), and Bathurst Island includes 22 species assigned to 21 genera. Many of these taxa are endemic to Arctic Canada. Each collection of brachiopods is typically dominated by only one or two taxa. Cluster analysis, based on binary data, shows that the brachiopods can be divided into an Atrypa–Elythyna community group and a Spinatrypina–Desquamatia community group. The former encompasses the Atrypa–Elythyna and Atrypa–Elythyna–Perryspirifer communities, and the latter includes the Spinatrypina–Desquamatia and Spinatrypina–Desquamatia–Cranaena communities. The distribution of these communities was primarily related to water depth. Thus, the Atrypa–Elythyna community group, which belongs to benthic assemblage 3, lived in a shallow, proximal-shelf environment. The Spinatrypina–Desquamatia community group, which belongs to benthic assemblage 4, lived in a deeper, distal-shelf environment.

scholarly journals Trends in high arctic muskox (Ovibos moschatus) harvest, 1990-2015

Rangifer ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Morgan Anderson
Keyword(s):  
High Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
Management Unit ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
Country Food ◽  
Domestic Use ◽  
Wildlife Harvest ◽  
Harvest Pressure

Harvest reporting has been in place for High Arctic muskoxen in Nunavut, Canada, since 1990-91. The communities of Resolute, Grise Fiord, and Arctic Bay harvest muskoxen in the region. Overall, muskox harvest has declined in Resolute and Grise Fiord since the 1990s. The recovery of Peary caribou populations on the Bathurst Island Complex, which provides an alternate preferred source of country food, may be a factor behind Resolute’s decreased muskox harvest. The proportion of harvest for domestic use has also declined relative to sport hunts, which have remained relatively constant since the 1990s. We compared muskox harvest from tag records and reported harvest, i.e., the voluntary surveys to the Nunavut Wildlife Harvest Study for muskoxen. It is clear that voluntarily reported harvest underestimates actual harvest, but not consistently enough to predict the actual harvest. Muskox populations are at historic high levels on Bathurst Island, southern Ellesmere Island, and Devon Island and could support more harvest than is currently taken. Changes to Total Allowable Harvests and management unit boundaries in 2015, combined with a decline in the availability of Baffin Island caribou as country food, may result in increased harvest pressure on muskoxen in the High Arctic.

CERAMIC SEQUENCE, CHRONOLOGY, AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF THE UCAREO-ZINAPÉCUARO, MICHOACÁN OBSIDIAN SOURCE AREA

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Dan M. Healan ◽  
Christine Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Source Area ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Pottery Analysis ◽  
Ceramic Chronology ◽  
Cross Dating ◽  
Obsidian Source

Abstract This article presents the ceramic sequence and chronology resulting from a multi-year program of survey, excavation, and analysis of pre-Hispanic settlement and exploitation within the Zinapécuaro-Ucareo (“U-Z”), Michoacan obsidian source area. Pottery analysis and classification aided by seriation analysis identified nine ceramic complexes and seven ceramic phases and sub-phases that both expand and refine the ceramic sequence previously established for the region by Gorenstein's (1985) investigations at nearby Acámbaro, Guanajuato. Initially established by ceramic cross-dating, the U-Z ceramic chronology has been largely confirmed by 30 radiocarbon dates and spans over 2,000 years of pre-Hispanic settlement, which included at least two notable episodes of trait-unit and site-unit intrusion from the eastern El Bajío and central Mexico. One of these episodes involved the appearance of two enclaves settled by individuals from the Acambay valley c. 90 km to the East, most likely from the site of Huamango, which our data indicate would have been occupied during the Middle Postclassic period.

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