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Time of Maximum Late Wisconsin Glaciation, West Coast of Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bertrand Blaise ,
John J. Clague  and
Rolf W. Mathewes
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
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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
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , November 1990 , pp. 282 - 295
Copyright
University of Washington

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