scholarly journals The Quaternary Geologic History of the Canadian Rocky Mountains

2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bobrowsky ◽  
Nathaniel W. Rutter
Keyword(s):  
Central Region ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
Geologic History ◽  
Physical Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
Central Rocky Mountains ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

ABSTRACT The Canadian Rocky Mountains figured prominently during the glacial history of western Canada. First as a western limit or boundary to the Laurentide Ice Sheet, second as an eastern margin of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, and finally as a centre of local Montane ice. Throughout the Quaternary, complex interactions of glacier ice from these three ice sources markedly changed the physical form of the Rocky Mountains, Trench and Foothills areas. Investigations into the Quaternary history of this region have been ongoing since the beginning of the last century. Since about 1950, the number of studies performed in this area have increased significantly. This paper briefly reviews the historical accomplishments of Quaternary work in the region up to the period of about 1950. From this time to the present, individual study efforts are examined in detail according to the three geographic regions: 1) the northern Rocky Mountains (from the Liard Plateau south to the McGregor Plateau), 2) the central Rocky Mountains (from the McGregor Plateau south to the Porcupine Hills) and 3) the southern Rocky Mountains (from the Porcupine Hills south to the international border). In the northern region, geologic data suggest a maximum of two Rocky Mountain glaciations and only one Laurentide glaciation and no ice coalescence. In the central region, three of four Rocky Mountain events, and at least two Laurentide events are known. Only in the central region is there good evidence for ice coalescence, but the timing of this event is not clearly established. In the south, at least three Rocky Mountain episodes and a variable number of Laurentide episodes are recognized. There is no evidence for ice coalescence. A number of facts support the proposal that Cordilleran ice crossed the Continental Divide and joined with local Montane ice at several locations. However, this expansion of western ice occurred before the Late Wisconsinan in all areas but Jasper. In general, the chronological data presented suggest that the Late Wisconsinan glaciation in the Rocky Mountains was a short-lived event which started around or after 20 ka years ago and ended before 12 ka ago.

Distribution and Life History of the Lodgepole Needle Miner (Recurvaria sp.) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

1954 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Stark
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
National Park ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Yosemite National Park ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
History Of

General. The life history of the lodgepole needle miner in Yosemite National Park, California, has been described (24). The Canadian outbreak was discovered in 1942 but intensive investigations were not commenced until 1948. Many differences have been noted between the Canadian and Californian life histories since the discovery of the outbreak.It is the purpose of this paper to bring together all information collected by the author and staff of the Laboratory of Forest Zoology at Calgary, Alberta, concerning the life history of the lodgepole needle miner in the Canadian Rocky mountains.

Geologic History of Rocky Mountain Region: ABSTRACT

AAPG Bulletin ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Haun, Harry C. Kent
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Mountain Region ◽  
Geologic History ◽  
Rocky Mountain Region ◽  
History Of

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN TRENCH: A PROBLEM

1964 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Crickmay
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Combined Action ◽  
Headward Erosion

The Rocky Mountain Trench is defined as the 1 000-mile valley which marks the west side of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The background of the Trench as a problem is examined, and descriptions, geographical and geological, are given. Previous work on Trench origin is reviewed and note is taken of the seeming inapplicability of accepted erosion theories to the making of the erosion-made Trench. An hypothesis is offered in which the combined action of drainage hemmed in by bordering uplifts, guided headward erosion, lateral corrasion, and streams repeatedly reversed by continuing diastrophism is suggested as the excavator of the Trench, a valley characterized by the puzzling peculiarity of continuous depth without a consistent gradient.

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.

Influence of bedrock geology on sedimentation in Pre-Late Wisconsinan alluvial fans in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

2000 ◽  
Vol 68-71 ◽  
pp. 133-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor M Levson ◽  
Nathaniel W Rutter
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Alluvial Fans ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
Bedrock Geology ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

Conductive structures under the Canadian Rocky Mountains

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. K. Bingham ◽  
D. I. Gough ◽  
M. R. Ingham
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Transfer Functions ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Vertical Component ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Auroral Zone ◽  
Event Analysis ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
Period Range ◽  
Single Station

The paper reports results from an array of 33 three-component magnetometers that recorded time-varying fields in 1981 over an area of some 56 000 km2 in the Canadian Cordillera. The array was centred at Tête Jaune Cache in the Rocky Mountain Trench, where a large magnetovariation anomaly had been located in an earlier array study. It was bisected by the trench and extended to the northeast across the Rocky Mountains to the Alberta Foothills and to the southwest across the Cariboo and Monashee mountains. Magnetograms and Fourier transform maps covering the period range 10–91 min show strong attenuation of the vertical component, Z, southwest of the Rocky Mountain Trench, with very large Z amplitudes in the Main Ranges of the Rockies. The horizontal components show an elongated anomaly along the Rocky Mountains Main Ranges and Trench, with three-dimensional features superimposed. The conductive structures include a highly conductive layer, probably in the lower crust, southwest of the trench and a conductive ridge rising into the upper crust near the edge of that layer. Current models have been fitted to observed vertical -and horizontal-component anomalies and show that both layer and ridge are necessary for a fit and that the ridge is 50–80 km wide. Single-station transfer functions at periods of 10 and 22 min have been calculated from a number of variation events of various polarizations, to reduce any displacement of the anomalies by auroral-zone source currents. Artificial-event analysis, with these transfer functions, shows that the conductive ridge lies under the Main Ranges of the Rockies and not under the trench. Its great width indicates a structure of major tectonic significance, which will be considered in another paper.

scholarly journals Recession of Grasshopper Glacier, Montana, Since 1898

1986 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 65-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane G. Ferrigno
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Positive Mass ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
If Current ◽  
Central Rocky Mountains

Grasshopper Glacier is a cirque glacier in the central Rocky Mountains of the United States. It is a remnant of the “Little Ice Age”, rather than the more widespread and older Pinedale Glaciation. The glacier has not been monitored on a regular basis and very few maps have been published of the area, but it has been studied, photographed, occasionally mapped, and described by scientific and non-scientific groups, at different times since 1898. These photographic, cartographic, and written records make it possible to trace the fluctuations of this glacier since 1898. Grasshopper Glacier has had periods of positive mass balance, but the overall trend has been negative, with accelerated melting in recent years. It is estimated that Grasshopper Glacier has lost about 50% of its area and as much as 90% of its volume, since 1898. Other Rocky Mountain glaciers are experiencing similar wastage and, if current conditions continue, these glaciers will disappear by the middle of the next century.

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.

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