Late Quaternary geology and geomorphology of the Elk Valley, southeastern British Columbia

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 741-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. George ◽  
W. A. Gorman ◽  
D. F. VanDine
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Quaternary Geology ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Two Stages

Glacial stratigraphy and geomorphology of the bottom areas of the Elk Valley support the existence of one major ice advance, presumably during the late Wisconsinan. Its retreat probably occurred in two stages by orderly frontal withdrawal. Glacial Lake Elk, formed within the Elk Valley from meltwaters released by this glacier, was dammed initially by an ice plug from the Rocky Mountain Trench glacier at a point near Morrissey and subsequently less than 3 km upvalley from Elko. The lake drained in at least three stages.

Glacial Lake Invermere, upper Columbia River valley, British Columbia: a paleogeographic reconstruction

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswald Sawicki ◽  
Derald G. Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Ice Thickness ◽  
Valley Fill ◽  
Northerly Direction ◽  
Glacier Ice ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

Terraces of thick lacustrine silt and deltaic gravel flank parts of the valley floor of the Rocky Mountain Trench between Skookumchuck and Donald, British Columbia. These indicate the presence of former Late Wisconsinan glacial Lake Invermere, which at its maximum extent occupied the Rocky Mountain Trench from Bluewater Creek, 6 km north of Donald, to 7 km north of Skookumchuck. The lake was 210 km long, an average of 2.5 km wide by 100 m deep, and had an area of 530 km2. Retreating glacier ice is interpreted to have formed a dam at the northern end of the lake, and blockage to the south resulted from a sediment valley fill.Glacial Lake Invermere formed as two water bodies, at elevations 885 and 900 m asl, separated by glacier ice. These two water bodies later joined to form a continuous lake at 835 m asl. Evidence of isostatic tilting is absent, suggesting uniform ice thickness and thinning, a pattern contrary to that inferred for other areas of southern British Columbia. After breaching of the valley fill at its south end, the lake terminated with final melting of Rocky Mountain Trench ice. At that time the southerly flow of water reversed to a northerly direction. A radiocarbon date from an adjacent valley indicates the lake drained prior to 10 000 BP.

Laurentide and montane glaciation along the Rocky Mountain Foothills of northeastern British Columbia

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan M Bednarski ◽  
I Rod Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Cosmogenic Dating ◽  
Surficial Geology ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Mountain Front ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet

Mapping the surficial geology of the Trutch map area (NTS 94G) provides new data on the timing of continental and montane glaciations along the Foothills of northeastern British Columbia. Striated surfaces on mountain crests were dated to the Late Wisconsinan substage by cosmogenic dating. The striations were produced by eastward-flowing ice emanating from the region of the Continental Divide. This ice was thick enough to cross the main ranges and overtop the Rocky Mountain Foothill summits at 2000 m above sea level (asl). It is argued here that such a flow, unhindered by topography, could only have been produced by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet and not by local cirque glaciation. During this time, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet dispersed limestone and schist erratics of western provenance onto the plains beyond the mountain front. Conversely, the Laurentide Ice Sheet did not reach its western limit in the Foothills until after Cordilleran ice retreated from the area. During its maximum, the Laurentide ice penetrated the mountain valleys up to 17 km west of the mountain front, and deposited crystalline erratics from the Canadian Shield as high as 1588 m asl along the Foothills. In some valleys a smaller montane advance followed the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

Coalescence of late Wisconsinan Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets east of the Rocky Mountain Foothills in the Dawson Creek region, northeast British Columbia, Canada

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Scott Hickin ◽  
Olav B. Lian ◽  
Victor M. Levson
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Flow Direction ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Ice Flow ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
River Valleys

Geomorphic, stratigraphic and geochronological evidence from northeast British Columbia (Canada) indicates that, during the late Wisconsinan (approximately equivalent to marine oxygen isotope stage [MIS] 2), a major lobe of western-sourced ice coalesced with the northeastern-sourced Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS). High-resolution digital elevation models reveal a continuous 75 km-long field of streamlined landforms that indicate the ice flow direction of a major northeast-flowing lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) or a montane glacier (>200 km wide) was deflected to a north-northwest trajectory as it coalesced with the retreating LIS. The streamlined landforms are composed of till containing clasts of eastern provenance that imply that the LIS reached its maximum extent before the western-sourced ice flow crossed the area. Since the LIS only reached this region in the late Wisconsinan, the CIS/montane ice responsible for the streamlined landforms must have occupied the area after the LIS withdrew. Stratigraphy from the Murray and Pine river valleys supports a late Wisconsinan age for the surface landforms and records two glacial events separated by a non-glacial interval that was dated to be of middle Wisconsinan (MIS 3) age.

Late Quaternary events in the Lethbridge area, Alberta

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 551-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willem J. Vreeken
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Landscape History ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Green Lake ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Soil Landscape ◽  
Loess Deposition ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

New observations in the Lethbridge area permit a more complete reconstruction of the landscape history in Late Wisconsinan and Holocene time. The plain of glacial Lake Macleod, the Lethbridge moraine, and the plain of glacial Lake Lethbridge became exposed in that order and in quick succession. Almost immediately thereafter, a discontinuous mantle of loess began to accumulate on those surfaces. The presence of Glacier Peak layer G or Manyberries tephra near the base of the loess indicates these events occurred just before 11 200 BP. The similarity of this chronology to that established for the older Green Lake end moraine in the Cypress Hills region and the fact that the younger Buffalo Lake moraine was formed before 11 000 BP indicate that deglaciation of southern Alberta proceeded very rapidly.The oldest buried paleosol observed near Lethbridge began to form shortly after 11 200 BP. Subsequently, and throughout the Holocene, intervals of loess deposition alternated with soil-forming intervals. At least six soil–landscape cycles occurred between 11 200 and 6800 BP (before the Mazama tephra was deposited), and at least five cycles occurred subsequently. Occurrences of postglacial loess more than 3 m thick are common. A column of 6.7 m of loess, including 12 paleosols, was observed at one site.

scholarly journals The pattern and style of deglaciation at the Late Wisconsinan Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheet limits in northeastern British Columbia

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Huntley ◽  
Adrian S. Hickin ◽  
Olav B. Lian
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Glacial Lake ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Lake Formation ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Lake Deposits

This paper reports on the landform assemblages at the northern confluence of the Late Wisconsinan Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets with montane and piedmont glaciers in the northern Rockies and southern Mackenzie Mountains. Recent observations in northeastern British Columbia refine our knowledge of the pattern and style of ice sheet retreat, glacial lake formation, and meltwater drainage. At the onset of deglaciation, confluent Laurentide and Cordilleran terminal ice margins lay between 59°N, 124°30′W and 60°N, 125°15′W. From this terminal limit, ice sheets retreated into north-central British Columbia and Yukon Territory, with remnant Cordilleran ice and montane glaciers confined to mountain valleys and the Liard Plateau. Distinctive end moraines are not associated with the retreat of Cordilleran ice in these areas. Laurentide ice retreated northeastward from uplands and the plateaus; then separated into lobes occupying the Fort Nelson and Petitot river valleys. Ice-retreat landforms include recessional end moraines (sometimes overridden and drumlinized), hill–hole pairs, crevasse-fill deposits, De Geer-like ribbed till ridges, hummocky moraines, kames, meltwater features, and glacial lake deposits that fall within the elevation range of glacial Lake Liard and glacial Lake Fort Nelson (ca. 840–380 m). Meltwater and sediment transport into glacial lakes Fort Nelson, Liard, Nahanni, and Mackenzie was sustained by remnant ice in the Liard River and Fort Nelson River drainage basins until the end of glaciation. Optical dating of sand from stabilized parabolic dunes on the Liard Plateau indicates that proglacial conditions, lake formation, and drainage began before 13.0 ± 0.5 ka (calendar years). The Petitot, Fort Nelson, and Liard rivers all occupy spillways incised into glacial deposits and bedrock by meltwater overflow from glacial lakes Peace and Hay.

Late Quaternary Sediments and Geomorphic History of the Southern Rocky Mountain Trench, British Columbia

1975 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Clague
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Lacustrine Sediments ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Quaternary Sediments ◽  
Glacier Recession ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Southern Rocky Mountain

The southern Rocky Mountain Trench was a major outlet valley of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Quaternary sediments underlying the floor of the trench in southeastern British Columbia consist mainly of glacial, glaciofluvial, and glaciolacustrine materials deposited during the Fraser (Pinedale) Glaciation, and fluvial and lacustrine sediments deposited during the preceding interglaciation.Deposits of three stades and two intervening nonglacial intervals are recognized. Interglacial sediments which contain wood dated at 26 800 ± 1000 y B.P. underlie drift of the early stade. During the interval between the early and middle stades, the Rocky Mountain Trench in southeastern British Columbia probably was completely deglaciated, and sediments were deposited in one or more lakes on the floor of the trench. In contrast, glacier recession between the middle and late stades was of short duration and extent; glaciolacustrine sediments were deposited only along the margins of the Rocky Mountain Trench, and apparently residual ice remained in the center of the valley. Final recession of the trunk glacier occurred prior to 10 000 y B.P. with no major halts and without significant stagnation of the terminus.

Quaternary stratigraphy and history, Williams Lake, British Columbia

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Clague
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Stream Channels ◽  
Valley Fill ◽  
Braided Streams ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Wisconsinan ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Sand And Gravel

Thick valley-fill sediments in the vicinity of Williams Lake, British Columbia, provide a detailed record of the late Quaternary history of an area near the centre of the former Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Stratigraphic units assigned to the late Wisconsinan Fraser Glaciation, the preceding (penultimate) glaciation, and the present interglaciation are described. Especially noteworthy are (1) thick units of sand and gravel deposited by braided streams, perhaps during periods of ice-sheet growth; and (2) complex glaciolacustrine sediments that accumulated in ice-dammed lakes during periods of deglaciation.Glaciers from the Coast and Cariboo mountains coalesced and flowed north over central British Columbia during late Wisconsinan time. Fraser Glaciation advance sediments and older Pleistocene deposits were partially removed by this ice sheet, and the eroded remnants were mantled with till. At the end of the Fraser Glaciation, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet downwasted and retreated southward along an irregular front across the study area. Parts of the ice sheet stagnated and disintegrated into tongues confined to valleys. Sediment carried by melt streams flowing from decaying ice masses was deposited in glacial lakes, in stream channels, and on floodplains.

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