Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:14:08.905Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Time of Maximum Late Wisconsin Glaciation, West Coast of Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bertrand Blaise
Affiliation:
Pacific Geoscience Center, Geological Survey of Canada, P.O. Box 6000, 9860 West Saanich Rd., Sidney, British Columbia, Canada V8L 4B2
John J. Clague
Affiliation:
Terrain Sciences Division, Geological Survey of Canada, 100 West Pender St., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6B 1R8
Rolf W. Mathewes
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences and Institute for Quaternary Research, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6

Abstract

New data from a deep-sea core in the eastern North Pacific Ocean indicate that the western margin of the Late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet began to retreat from its maximum position after 15,600 yr B.P. Ice-rafted detritus is present in the core below the 15,600 yr B.P. level and was deposited while lobes of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced across the continental shelf in Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait, and Dixon Entrance. The core data are complemented by stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon ages from Quaternary exposures bordering Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance. These indicate that piedmont lobes reached the east and north shores of Graham Island (part of the Queen Charlotte Islands) between about 23,000 and 21,000 yr B.P. Sometime thereafter, but before 15,000–16,000 yr B.P., these glaciers achieved their greatest Late Wisconsin extent. Radiocarbon ages of late-glacial and postglacial sediments from Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait, and adjacent land areas show that deglaciation began in these areas before 15,000 yr B.P. and that the shelf was completely free of ice by 13,000 yr B.P.

Type
Articles
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armstrong, J.E. Crandell, D.R. Easterbrook, D.J. Noble, J.B., (1965). Late Pleistocene stratigraphy and chronology in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington Geological Society of America Bulletin 76 321330 Google Scholar
Atwater, B.F., (1986). Pleistocene glacial-lake deposits of the Sandpoil River valley, northeastern Washington U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1661 Google Scholar
Bard, E., (1988). Correction of accelerator mass spectometry 14C ages measured in planktonic foraminifera: paleoecological implications Paleoceanography 3 643645 Google Scholar
Booth, D.R., (1987). Timing and processes of deglaciation along the southern margin of the Cordilleran ice sheet Ruddiman, W.F. Wright, H.E. Jr. North American and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation Vol. K-3 Geological Society of America, Geology of North America 7190 Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., (1981). Late Quaternary Geology and Geochronology of British Columbia. Part 2: Summary and Discussion of Radiocarbon-Dated Quaternary History Geological Survey of Canada Paper 80-35 Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., (1985). Deglaciation of the Prince Rupert-Kitimat area, British Columbia Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22 256265 Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., (1989). Cordilleran Ice Sheet Fulton, R.J. Quaternary Geology of Canada and Greenland Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of Canada 4042 No. 1 (also Geological Society of America, Geology of North America, Vol. K-1) Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., (1989). Quaternary geology of the Queen Charlotte Islands Schudder, G.G.E. Gessler, N. The Outer Shores Queen Charlotte Islands Museum Press Skidegate, BC 6574 Google Scholar
Clague, J.J. Armstrong, J.E. Mathews, W.H., (1980). Advance of the late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet in southern British Columbia since 22,000 yr B.P. Quaternary Research 13 322326 Google Scholar
Clague, J.J. Mathewes, R.W. Warner, B.G., (1982). Late Quaternary geology of eastern Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 19 17861795 Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S. Prest, V.K., (1987). Late Wisconsinan and Holocene Retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet Geological Survey of Canada Map 1702A Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S. Prest, V.K., (1987). Paleogeography of Northern North America, 18 000–12 000 Years Ago Sheet 1 of 3. Geological Survey of Canada Map 1703A Google Scholar
Easterbrook, D.J., (1969). Pleistocene chronology of the Puget Lowland and San Juan Islands, Washington Geological Society of America Bulletin 80 22732286 Google Scholar
Flint, R.F., (1971). Glacial and Quaternary Geology Wiley New York Google Scholar
Hebda, R.J., (1983). Late-glacial and postglacial vegetation history at Bear Cove Bog, northeast Vancouver Island, British Columbia Canadian Journal of Botany 61 31723192 Google Scholar
Heusser, C.J., (1973). Environmental sequence following the Fraser advance of the Juan de Fuca lobe, Washington Quaternary Research 3 284306 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicock, S.R. Armstrong, J.E., (1981). Coquitlam Drift: a pre-Vashon Fraser glacial formation in the Fraser Lowland, British Columbia Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 18 14431451 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicock, S.R. Armstrong, J.E., (1985). Vashon Drift: definition of the formation in the Georgia Depression, southwest British Columbia Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22 748757 Google Scholar
Keany, J. Ledbetter, M. Watkins, N. Huang, T-C., (1976). Diachronous deposition of ice-rafted debris in sub-Antarctic deep-sea sediments Geological Society of America Bulletin 87 873882 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luternauer, J.L. Murray, J.W., (1983). Late Quaternary Morphologic Development and Sedimentation, Central British Columbia Continental Shelf Geological Survey of Canada Paper 83-21 Google Scholar
Luternauer, J.L. Conway, K.W. Clague, J.J. Blaise, B., (1989). Late Quaternary geology and geochronology of the central continental shelf of western Canada Marine Geology 89 5768 Google Scholar
Mathewes, R.W. Vogel, J.S. Southon, J.R. Nelson, D.E., (1985). Accelerator radiocarbon date confirms early deglaciation of the Queen Charlotte Islands Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22 790791 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullineaux, D.R. Waldron, H.H. Rubin, M., (1965). Stratigraphy and Chronology of Late Interglacial and Early Vashon Glacial Time in the Seattle Area, Washington U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1194-0 Google Scholar
Mullineaux, D.R. Wilcox, R.E. Ebaugh, W.F. Fryxell, R. Rubin, M., (1978). Age of the last major scabland flood of the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington Quaternary Research 10 171180 Google Scholar
Porter, S.C. Carson, R.J. III Problems of interpreting radiocarbon dates from dead-ice terrain, with an example from the Puget Lowland of Washington Quaternary Research 1 (1971). 410414 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prest, V.K., (1984). Late Wisconsinan Glacier Complex Geological Survey of Canada Map 1584A Google Scholar
Sutherland Brown, A., (1968). Geology of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia British Columbia Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources Bulletin 54 Google Scholar
Waitt, R.B. Jr. Thorson, R.M., (1983). The Cordilleran ice sheet in Washington, Idaho, and Montana Porter, S.C. Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States Vol. 1 Univ. Minnesota Press Minneapolis 5370 The Late Pleistocene Google Scholar
Warner, B.G. Mathewes, R.W. Clague, J.J., (1982). Ice-free conditions on the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, at the height of late Wisconsin glaciation Science 218 675677 Google Scholar