THE CORDILLERAN ICE SHEET OF THE NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS, AND RELATED QUATERNARY HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU

1965 ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
Columbia Plateau ◽  
History Of ◽  
Quaternary History ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet

scholarly journals Investigating the glacial history of the northern sector of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet with cosmogenic 10Be concentrations in quartz

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (25-26) ◽  
pp. 3630-3643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjen P. Stroeven ◽  
Derek Fabel ◽  
Alexandru T. Codilean ◽  
Johan Kleman ◽  
John J. Clague ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Glacial History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Cosmogenic 10Be ◽  
Northern Sector

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene glacial chronologies and paleoclimate in the northern Rocky Mountains

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendon Quirk ◽  
Elizabeth Huss ◽  
Benjamin Laabs ◽  
Eric Leonard ◽  
Joseph Licciardi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Continental Divide ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Geologic Record ◽  
Glacier Modeling ◽  
Exposure Ages

Abstract. The geologic record of mountain glaciations is a robust indicator of terrestrial paleoclimate change. During the last glaciation, mountain ranges across the western U.S. hosted glaciers while the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets flowed to the west and east of the continental divide, respectively. Records detailing the chronologies and paleoclimate significance of these ice advances have been developed for many sites across North America. However, relatively few glacial records have been developed for mountain glaciers in the northern Rocky Mountains near ice sheet margins. Here, we report cosmogenic beryllium-10 surface exposure ages and numerical glacier modeling results showing that mountain glaciers in the northern Rockies abandoned terminal moraines after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum around 17–18 ka and could have been sustained by −10 to −8.5 °C temperature depressions relative to modern assuming similar or drier than modern precipitation. Additionally, we present a deglacial chronology from the northern Rocky Mountains that indicates while there is considerable variability in initial moraine abandonment ages across the Rocky Mountains, the pace of subsequent ice retreat through the Lateglacial exhibits some regional coherence. Our results provide insight on potential regional mechanisms driving the initiation of and sustained deglaciation in the western U.S. including rising atmospheric CO2 and ice sheet collapse.

Sequence stratigraphy and depositional history of the Baranof Fan: Insights for Cordilleran Ice Sheet outflow to the Gulf of Alaska

2019 ◽  
Vol 132 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 353-372
Author(s):  
Jiajia Zhang ◽  
Sean P.S. Gulick
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Coupled System ◽  
Gulf Of Alaska ◽  
Coast Range ◽  
Depositional History ◽  
Sediment Distribution ◽  
Sequence Correlation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet

AbstractThe Baranof Fan is one of three large Alaska deep-sea fans that preserve sedimentary records reflecting both tectonic and climatic processes. However, lack of drill sites in the Baranof Fan makes the depositional history across the southeastern Alaska margin still poorly understood. Sequence correlation from the adjacent Surveyor Fan to the Baranof Fan provides updated age constraints on the Baranof Fan evolution history. Results show that both the Baranof and Surveyor Fans are dominantly glacial and initiated ca. 2.8 Ma and expanded rapidly since ca. 1.2 Ma in response to the major glaciation events; these results place the deposition of the Baranof Fan younger than previously thought (ca. 7 Ma). The glacially influenced Baranof Fan contains two sub-fans that are laterally stacked with their depocenters migrating southeastward. Each sub-fan developed multiple channels that young southeastward as channel avulsion, coevolution, and tectonic beheading progressed over the past ∼2.8 m.y. Tectonic reconstruction suggests that the Baranof Fan is sourced from the Coast Range via shelf-crossing troughs near the Chatham Strait and Dixon Entrance and thus represents a major outflow for the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during glaciations; the Chatham Strait is the major conduit that has fed most of the Baranof Fan channels. Comparatively, the Surveyor Fan is sourced predominantly from the St. Elias Range where a confluence of orogenesis and glaciations are a coupled system and only partly from the Coast Range via the Icy Strait. It is concluded that the formation and expansion of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet has determined the timing of the Baranof Fan deposition, yet Pacific–North America strike-slip motion has influenced the Baranof Fan sediment distribution, as previously suggested, via a series of southeastward avulsing channels and resultant southeastward migration of deep-sea depocenters.

scholarly journals Late-Glacial and Postglacial Vegetation and Climate of Jackson Hole and the Pinyon Peak Highlands, Wyoming

1985 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 44-49
Author(s):  
Cathy Barnosky
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
National Park ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Glacial Refugia ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vegetation And Climate

The late-Quaternary vegetation history of the northern Rocky Mountains has thus far been inferred largely from isolated records. These data suggest that conifer forests were established early in postglacial time and were little modified thereafter. The similarity of early postglacial vegetation to modern communities over broad areas gives rise to two hypotheses: (1) that glacial refugia were close to the ice margin, and (2) that vegetation soon colonized the deglaciated areas and has been only subtly affected by climatic perturbations since that time. It is the goal of this project to test these two hypotheses in the region of Grand Teton National Park.

Using 10Be dating to determine when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet stopped flowing over the Canadian Rocky Mountains

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Helen E. Dulfer ◽  
Martin Margold ◽  
Zbynĕk Engel ◽  
Régis Braucher ◽  
Aster Team
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
Weighted Mean ◽  
Exposure Age ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract During the last glacial maximum the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets coalesced east of the Rocky Mountains and geomorphological evidence indicates ice flowed over the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains between ~54–56°N. However, this ice flow has thus far remained unconstrained in time. Here we use in situ produced cosmogenic 10Be dating to determine when Cordilleran ice stopped flowing over the mountain range. We dated eight samples from two sites: one on the western side (Mount Morfee) and one on the eastern side (Mount Spieker) of the Rocky Mountains. At Mount Spieker, one sample is rejected as an outlier and the remaining three give an apparent weighted mean exposure age of 15.6 ± 0.6 ka. The four samples at Mount Morfee are well clustered in time and give an apparent weighted mean exposure age of 12.2 ± 0.4 ka. These ages indicate that Mount Spieker became ice free before the Bølling warming and that the western front of the Rocky Mountains (Mount Morfee) remained in contact with the Cordilleran Ice Sheet until the Younger Dryas.

scholarly journals Late-Quaternary Vegetation History of Jackson Hole, Wyoming

1982 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 35-36
Author(s):  
Cathy Barnosky
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
Hole Area ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
History Of

During the late Quaternary, the Jackson Hole area has reen repeatedly glaciated-the most recent and least extensive ice advance occurred during the Pinedale Glaciation (ca. 25,000-9,000 yr B.P.; Love and Reed, 1971). The objective of this research is to study the vegetation history of Jackson Hole since Pinedale time, as a means of interpreting the development and stability of modern plant communities. The research is based on an examination of pollen and plant-macrofossiil records contained in lake-sediment cores collected near the former ice margin. The environmental history of this region is poorly known and the paleoecological information provided by this study should help fill a gap in our understanding of the vegetation, climate, and glacial history of the Northern Rocky Mountains.

Age of the Last Major Scabland Flood of the Columbia Plateau in Eastern Washington

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donal R. Mullineaux ◽  
Ray E. Wilcox ◽  
Walter F. Ebaugh ◽  
Roald Fryxell ◽  
Meyer Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Columbia River ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Snake River ◽  
River Drainage ◽  
Northern Rocky Mountains ◽  
Columbia Plateau ◽  
Northwestern Margin ◽  
Eastern Washington ◽  
Mount St Helens

Pumice layers of set S from Mount St. Helens can be correlated with certain ash beds associated with young flood deposits of the channeled scabland. The correlation points to an age of about 13,000 14C yr B.P. for the last major flood to have crossed the scabland. Until recently, the last major episode of flooding was thought to be closer to 20,000 yr B.P., an age inferred chiefly from the relation of the flood to glacial events of the northern Rocky Mountains. Several investigations within the last few years have suggested that the last major flood occurred well after 20,000 yr B.P. Tentative correlations of ash beds of the scabland with set S pumice layers, the relations of flood and glacial events along the northwestern margin of the Columbia Plateau, and a radiocarbon date from the Snake River drainage southeast of the plateau all indicate an age much younger than 20,000 yr. The postulated age of about 13,000 yr B.P. is further supported by a radiocarbon date in the Columbia River valley downstream from the scabland tract. Basal peat from a bog on the Portland delta of Bretz, which is a downvalley deposit of the last major scabland flood, has been dated as 13,080 ± 300 yr B.P. (W-3404).

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