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Stratigraphy and Paleoecology of Pleistocene Interstadial Sediments, Central British Columbia1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John J. Clague ,
Richard J. Hebda  and
Rolf W. Mathewes
John J. Clague
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, 100 West Pender St., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6B 1R8
Richard J. Hebda
Affiliation:
Royal British Columbia Museum, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8V 1X4
Rolf W. Mathewes
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, and Institute for Quaternary Research, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
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Abstract

Two exposures of organic-rich interstadial sediments in central British Columbia provide information on middle Wisconsinan environments and climates near the center of the region subsequently covered by the late Wisconsinan Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Interstadial sediments at Bullion Pit overlie drift of early Wisconsinan or older age and underlie thick drift of late Wisconsinan age. Alluvium (or colluvium) and peat were deposited on the floor of the ancestral Quesnel River valley 46,000–40,000 14C yr ago when the vegetation consisted of spruce forest with dry openings and local fens and the climate was colder and perhaps drier than today. This is broadly consistent with paleoclimatic reconstructions for the same time interval for Babine Lake, 400 km to the northwest, and for Meadow Creek, 400 km to the southeast. Plant-rich pond sediments containing tephra layers and vertebrate remains are exposed between two drifts in a ravine at Mexican Hill, 30 km east of Quesnel. Although they may be contemporaneous with the Bullion Pit beds, the nonglacial sediments at Mexican Hill more likely were deposited sometime after the warmest part of the last interglaciation, but prior to 50,000 yr B.P. At that time, the vegetation at Mexican Hill probably was parkland. The present vegetation at Mexican Hill is boreal forest; thus, a drier and possibly cooler climate is indicated.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , September 1990 , pp. 208 - 226
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

1

This is Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 21889.

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