CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Aitken, A.E., Last, W.M., and Burt, A.K.
Date : 1999.
Title : The lithostratigraphic record of late Pleistocene–Holocene environmental change at the Andrews site near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
Publication : Holocene Climate and Environmental Change in the Palliser Triangle: a geoscientific context for evaluating the impacts of climate change on the southern Canadian Prairies; Edited by: Lemmen, D.S. and Vance, R.E. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin
Issue : 534
Page(s) : 173-181.
Abstract
Four lithostratigraphic units are recognized in a 5.8 m dugout excavation within hummocky terrain: diamicton (L1), laminated organic-rich gypsite (L2), calcareous clayey silt (L3), and massive clayey silt (L4). The basal diamicton is supraglacial till deposited within a shallow depression prior to 10 200 BP. Subsequent melt-out of buried, stagnant glacial ice created a shallow lacustrine basin ca. 10 000 BP. A subsequent 1200 year interval of severe aridity (to ca. 8800 BP) is reflected by a dominance of chemical sedimentation in a saline to hypersaline basin. A bed of sandy mud enriched in charcoal flakes and charred seeds at the top of this evaporitic unit records a period of drainage basin destabilization by prairie fires, which resulted in increased runoff and erosion. Sediments reflect a gradual transition, between ca. 8000 and 6000 BP, from the high-salinity and chemical-dominated sedimentary environment to a lake characterized by lower salinity and mainly fine-grained clastic sedimentation.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology