Identification and significance of late Holocene tephra from Otter Creek, southern British Columbia, and localities in west-central Alberta

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2593-2600 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Westgate

Three thin, light-coloured, ash-grade tephra beds occur within the uppermost metre of peat at Otter Creek bog in southern British Columbia. The youngest tephra is related to the ~2600 year old Bridge River tephra but is probably the product of a younger and weaker eruption that directed tephra to the southeast of the vent, believed to be located in the Meager Mountain district of southwestern British Columbia. The middle unit is ~2100 years old and is tentatively correlated with one of the upper beds of set P tephra of Mount St. Helens in Washington. The lowermost tephra is equivalent to the Yn bed of set Y, derived from an eruption of Mount St. Helens about 3400 years ago.The Yn tephra has been located as far north as Entwistle in west-central Alberta but mineralogically and chemically similar tephra elsewhere in this region is ~4300 years old and thus represents an older part of the Y set. Significant compositional differences between these two extensive members of the Y set have not yet been recognized.

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 1401-1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin F Foit Jr. ◽  
Daniel G Gavin ◽  
Feng Sheng Hu

Several mid-late Holocene Glacier Peak tephras along with Mazama and Mount St. Helens Wn and P tephras were found in cores from Cooley and Rockslide lakes in southeastern British Columbia, ∼300 km northeast of Glacier Peak. The sediments in Cooley Lake host the late Holocene Glacier Peak A tephra (2010 calibrated (cal) years BP), four separate Glacier Peak Dusty Creek (GPDC) tephras (5780–5830 cal years BP), and a Glacier Peak set D tephra (6060 cal years BP). This is the first report of Glacier Peak A and D tephras in British Columbia. The A tephra has been correlated on the basis of glass composition and age to a late Holocene Glacier Peak tephra in the sediments of Big Twin Lake, 75 km northeast of Glacier Peak. The glasses in the four GPDC tephra layers from Cooley Lake are compositionally indistinguishable from those in Mount Barr Cirque and Frozen lakes in southwestern British Columbia. The layers likely represent four eruptions taking place over 50 years. Although set D tephra has not been correlated to a known proximal or distal deposit, its glass bears the Glacier Peak glass compositional signature and its interpolated age corresponds to the initiation of the set D eruptive period. The presence of GPDC tephra in lake sediments across southern British Columbia suggests a broad plume trajectory to the north and northeast, whereas the apparent absence of the A and D tephras in all but Cooley Lake suggest plumes with a northeasterly direction.


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 1454-1461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf W. Mathewes ◽  
John A. Westgate

Ash-grade Bridge River tephra, identified as such on the basis of shard habit, modal mineralogy, and composition of ilmenite, occurs in sedimentary cores from three lakes located to the south of the previously documented plume and necessitates a significant enlargement of the fallout area of that tephra in southwestern British Columbia.These new, more southerly occurrences are probably equivalent to the ~2350 year old Bridge River tephra, although it can be argued from the evidence at hand that the 14C dates and biotite-rich nature support relationship to a slightly earlier Bridge River event.Large differences exist in the 14C age of sediments immediately adjacent to the Bridge River tephra at these three lake sites; maximum ages of 3950 ± 170 years BP (GX-5549) and 3750 ± 210 years BP (I-10041) were obtained at Phair and Fishblue lakes, respectively, whereas the corresponding age at Horseshoe Lake is only 2685 ± 180 years BP (GX-5757). The two older dates are considered to be significantly affected by old carbon contamination for the bedrock locally consists of calcareous sedimentary rocks and the lacustrine sediments are very calcareous. The 14C date from Horseshoe Lake, which occurs in an area of igneous rocks, appears to be only slightly too old relative to the ~2350 year old Bridge River tephra.Well-dated tephra beds, therefore, can be very useful in assessing the magnitude of old carbon errors associated with radiocarbon dates based on limnic sediments. Calcareous gyttja deposits beneath Bridge River tephra within the study area exhibit old carbon errors of the order of 1350–1550 years.


2007 ◽  
Vol 242 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 123-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Timothy Patterson ◽  
Andreas Prokoph ◽  
Eduard Reinhardt ◽  
Helen M. Roe

2009 ◽  
Vol 121 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1362-1380 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brian Mahoney ◽  
Sarah M. Gordee ◽  
James W. Haggart ◽  
Richard M. Friedman ◽  
Larry J. Diakow ◽  
...  

2005 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 110 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. B. Ford

The genus Delphinus has recently been determined to be comprised of two species, the Short-beaked Common Dolphin, D. delphis, and the Long-beaked Common Dolphin, D. capensis. D. delphis is regularly observed in eastern Canadian waters, but is known only from a single stranding in British Columbia. Two specimen records and a series of sightings of D. capensis in British Columbian waters during 1993-2003, detailed here, are the first for this species in Canada. D. capensis normally ranges only as far north as central California, and its abundance in those waters increases in association with warm-water oceanographic events. Although the species appears to be rare in British Columbia, future sightings during warm-water periods might be anticipated.


1985 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan O. Davis

Near Summer Lake in southern Oregon, 54 tephra beds of late Quaternary age are exposed in pluvial lake sediments of Lake Chewaucan. Seven of the tephra beds near the top can be correlated with tephra deposits younger than 117,000 yr at Mount St. Helens, Washington, at Crater Lake, Oregon, and in northwestern Nevada in the deposits of pluvial Lake Lahontan. However, most of the section at Summer Lake lies below the correlated units, and contains 39 tephra beds older than 117,000 yr.Major-element chemistry of tephra glasses was determined by electron microprobe analysis; petrography supports the correlations made from chemical evidence. Compositions correlated range from 70 to 76% SiO2; the least silicic Summer Lake glass contained 57%.Extrapolation of depositional rate suggests that most of the sediments at Summer Lake are younger than about 335,000 yr, but older lake beds containing tephra layers occur at one place. The long lacustrine record suggests that Lake Chewaucan persisted through the last interpluvial stage, and that the lake may have dried up at the end of the Pleistocene due to diversion of the Chewaucan River by relict shore features.


2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Koehler ◽  
Dan J. Smith

The dendroglaciologic and lichenometric research methodologies employed in this study provide a perspective of glaciological conditions from 5 ka to present in a remote headwater area of the British Columbia Coast Mountains. Since Holocene ice fronts of four glaciers at this site periodically extended below treeline, previous glacier advances overrode and buried forests beneath till deposits. This study suggests that glaciers were expanding into standing forests at 4.76 and 3.78 ka. Following glacier expansion at 3.78 ka, a period of recession ensued when glaciers withdrew upvalley long enough for the development of deep pedogenic surfaces and the growth of trees exceeding 300 years. Investigations at Beluga and Manatee glaciers benchmark a subsequent episode of significant glacial expansion at 2.42 ka referred to as the “Manatee Advance”. This advance has regional correlatives and is distinguished from the Tiedemann Advance at Manatee Glacier by documentation of substantive ice front retreat between the two episodes. Examination of Little Ice Age (LIA) deposits in the study area allowed for presentation and application of a revised Rhizocarpon spp. lichen growth curve. Lichenometric surveys of lateral moraines associated with Beluga, Manatee, and Oluk glaciers provided limited insight into their early LIA behaviour but record advances during the 15th and 16th centuries. Locally, glaciers achieved their maximum LIA size prior to an early to mid 18th century moraine-building event. This reconstruction of Holocene glacial history offers insights consistent with the emerging record of glacier activity described for other southern British Columbia Coast Mountain glaciers.


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