Holocene tephrostratigraphy and glacial fluctuations in Waterton Lakes and Glacier national parks, Alberta and Montana

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1093-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Osborn
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
National Park ◽  
Glacier National Park ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Canadian Rockies ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and Glacier National Park in Montana lie along adjacent sections of the continental divide in the Rocky Mountains. In cirques or near divides there is evidence for two ages of glacial deposits. Younger deposits are generally well preserved, poorly vegetated, and bear no tephra and no or very small lichens. Older deposits are more poorly preserved, better vegetated, bear Rhizocarpon sp. lichens at least up to 92 mm in diameter, and bear tephra. The tephra often occurs in two different coloured horizons, but both are compositionally equivalent to Mazama tephra.The older advance has a minimum age of about 6800 14C years BP and a probable maximum age of about 12 000 14C years BP. It is correlated with the pre-Mazama Crowfoot Advance of the Canadian Rockies. Deposits of the younger advance are probably not too much older than mid-19th century, because some glaciers began retreating from the deposits about then. The younger advance is correlated to the Cavell Advance of the Canadian Rockies and the Gannett Peak Advance of the American Rockies.Both advances were minor. The older advance left moraines about 1.5 km or less beyond present glacier margins and depressed ELA's an average of 40 m below modern values.

Holocene and latest Pleistocene glacial chronology, Glacier National Park, Montana

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Carrara
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
National Park ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Glacier National Park ◽  
Glacial Chronology ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Climatic Cooling ◽  
Average Annual Precipitation ◽  
Glacial Advance

Moraines of two different age groups have been identified fronting the present-day glaciers and snowfields in Glacier National Park, Montana. The subdued, vegetated moraines of the older group have been found at 25 sites, mainly in the central part of the Lewis Range. These older moraines are in places overlain by the Mazama ash. Although the exact age of the moraines has not been determined by radiocarbon dating, vegetative evidence and correlation with other pre-altithermal age moraines in the Rocky Mountains suggest that these older moraines date from 10 000 BP or earlier. Whether these moraines are the product of a separate advance after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation or are simply the product of the last advance or stillstand of Wisconsin glaciers before final deglaciation is not known.Moraines of the younger group, consisting of fresh bouldery rubble, are common throughout Glacier Park. Tree-ring analyses indicate that some of these younger moraines were deposited by advances that culminated during the mid-19th century. At that time there were more than 150 glaciers in Glacier Park. This episode of mid-19th century climatic cooling resulted in the most extensive glacial advance in this region since the end of the Wisconsin glaciation.Present-day glaciers have shrunk drastically from their mid-19th century positions; more than half the glaciers present during that time no longer exist. Much of this retreat occurred between 1920 and the mid-1940's, corresponding to a period of above-average summer temperatures and below-average annual precipitation in this region. Between 1966 and 1979, several of the larger glaciers in the Mount Jackson area of Glacier Park advanced as much as 100 m.

THE ATHABASCA VALLEY ERRATICS TRAIN, ALBERTA AND PLEISTOCENE ICE MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE

1967 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 625-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Roed ◽  
E. W. Mountjoy ◽  
N. W. Rutter
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
National Park ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Metamorphic Rocks ◽  
Jasper National Park ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Park Area

The Athabasca Valley Erratics Train contains a variety of low- to medium- grade metamorphic rocks, the most abundant of which is talcose schist, with lesser amounts of garnet schist and biotite–quartz schist. This erratics train occurs in and west of the Athabasca Valley west of Edson, Alberta. It is probably a late stage deposit of the same glacier that carried and deposited the Erratics Train, Foothills of Alberta. The metamorphic erratics were incorporated into a glacier that originated in the northern part of the Monashee Mountains and Premier Range of British Columbia. This ice movement is also recorded by numerous U-shaped valleys, which extend across the Continental Divide. Thus, during a brief period in late(?) Wisconsin time, the Cordilleran ice in the Rocky Mountains of the Jasper National Park area was partly derived from west of the Continental Divide and the Rocky Mountain Trench. These data agree with the inferred ice movements shown on the 1958 Glacial Map of Canada.

scholarly journals A Cytogentic Analysis of Cutthroat Trout in the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

1978 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 107-111
Author(s):  
Robert Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Cutthroat Trout ◽  
Widespread Distribution ◽  
Behavioral Diversity ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Salmo Clarki

The cutthroat trout, Salmo clarki, is the trout species native to the Rocky Mountains on both sides of the Continental Divide. The widespread distribution of cutthroat trout in several independent drainages has resulted in the formation of considerable morphological and behavioral diversity both within and between cutthroat trout populations. Behnke has described several different subspecies of Salmo clarki on the basis of their meristic serological characteristics. However, because the genetic basis of these characteristics is unknown, the results of these studies have been inconclusive for the taxonomic designations of cutthroat trout subspecies in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Bats of Kootenay, Glacier, and Mount Revelstoke national parks in Canada: identification by echolocation calls, distribution, and biology

1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 2503-2508 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. Fenton ◽  
H. G. Merriam ◽  
G. L. Holroyd
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
Myotis Lucifugus ◽  
Glacier National Park ◽  
Lasiurus Cinereus ◽  
Echolocation Calls ◽  
Bat Activity ◽  
Lasionycteris Noctivagans ◽  
The Town

We studied the behaviour, echolocation calls, and distribution of bats in Kootenay, Glacier, and Mount Revelstoke national parks in British Columbia, Canada. Presented here are keys for identification of nine species of bats by their echolocation calls as rendered by two different bat-detecting systems. The species involved include Myotis lucifugus, M. evotis, M. volans, M. septentrionalis, M. californicus, Lasionycteris noctivagans, Eptesicus fuscus, Lasiurus cinereus, and L. borealis. The distribution of these species within the three parks was assessed by capturing bats in traps and mist nets and by monitoring of their echolocation calls. Most of the species exploited concentrations of insects around spotlights, providing convenient foci of activity for assessing distribution. Although most species of Myotis were commonly encountered away from the lights, Lasiurus cinereus in Kootenay National Park was only regularly encountered feeding on insects at lights. This species was not detected in Glacier National Park, and although we regularly encountered it in the town of Revelstoke, it was rarely encountered in Mount Revelstoke National Park. Another focus of bat activity was small pools in cedar forest in Mount Revelstoke National Park. This involved high levels of Myotis spp. activity at dusk as the bats came to the pools to drink.

scholarly journals “Hands Off Our National Parks”: The Alpine Club of Canada Hydro-development Controversies in the Canadian Rockies, 1922-1930

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
PearlAnn Reichwein
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Hydro Development ◽  
Canadian Rockies ◽  
Hetch Hetchy

Abstract Through the 1920s, hydro development proposals for irrigation and power dams impinged on Canada's national parks in the Rockies. The Alpine Club of Canada — a mountaineering organization formed in 1906 — rallied opposition to dams and insisted that national parks were an inviolable public domain. National Parks Commissioner J.B. Harkin and ACC Director A.O. Wheeler created an alliance that highlighted the club's role as a key interest group and recreational stakeholder with a shared vision of the mountain parks. Conflicts over dams in Rocky Mountains and Waterton Lakes national parks were politically and philosophically compared to the great battle of the “Hetch Hetchy” aqueduct in California.

scholarly journals Peregrine Release in Grand Teton National Park

1980 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 38-39
Author(s):  
William Burnham
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
National Park ◽  
Avian Species ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Grand Teton National Park ◽  
Peregrine Falcons ◽  
Nesting Sites

Peregrine falcons were never numerous relative to most other avian species, however, many historic nesting sites are known. In the Rocky Mountains approximately 50% of these sites exist in National Parks and Monuments. This year The Peregrine Fund, in cooperation with the Wyoming Game and Fish, Grand Teton National Park, and Bridger-Teton National Forest began restoration of the species in the Tetons. Three release sites were selected on high cliffs overlooking Jackson and Phelps Lakes in Grand Teton National Park.

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