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A glacial readvance during retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, British Columbia central coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2017

Jordan B. R. Eamer ,
Dan H. Shugar ,
Ian J. Walker ,
Olav B. Lian ,
Christina M. Neudorf  and
Alice M. Telka
Jordan B. R. Eamer
Affiliation:
Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada Coastal Erosion and Dune Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Dan H. Shugar
Affiliation:
Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada Coastal Erosion and Dune Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Current address: Water, Sediment, Hazards, and Earth-surface Dynamics (waterSHED) Laboratory, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, Washington, USA
Ian J. Walker*
Affiliation:
Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada Coastal Erosion and Dune Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Current address: Applied Geospatial Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Olav B. Lian
Affiliation:
Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada Department of Geography and the Environment, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
Christina M. Neudorf
Affiliation:
Hakai Institute, Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada Department of Geography and the Environment, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
Alice M. Telka
Affiliation:
Paleotec Services, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
*
*Corresponding author at: Applied Geospatial Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada. E-mail: [email protected] (I.J. Walker).
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Abstract

Descriptions of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreat after the last glacial maximum have included short-lived readvances occurring during the Older and Younger Dryas stadial periods and into the Holocene, but identification of these events has been largely limited to southwest and central British Columbia and northwest Washington State. We present evidence of a late Pleistocene readvance of Cordilleran ice occurring on the central coast of British Columbia on Calvert Island, between northern Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii. Evidence is provided by sedimentological and paleoecological information contained in a sedimentary sequence combined with geomorphic mapping of glacial features in the region. Results indicate that a cold climate existed between 15.1 and 14.3 cal ka BP and that ice advanced to, and then retreated from, the western edge of the island between 14.2 and 13.8 cal ka BP. These data provide the first evidence of a major fluctuation in the retreating ice sheet margin in this region and suggest that a cold climate was a major factor in ice readvance. These data contribute to the understanding of past temperature, ice loading and crustal response, the nature of ice margin retreat, and the paleoenvironment of an understudied area of the Pacific Northwest.

Keywords

Cordilleran Ice Sheetlate Pleistoceneglacial readvancegeomorphic mappingstratigraphypaleoecologymacrofossilsDryas
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 468 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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