CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Andrews, J.T.; and Miller, G.H.
Date : 1984
Title : Quaternary glacial and nonglacial correlations for the eastern Canadian Arctic.
Publication : Quaternary Stratigraphy of Canada - a Canadian Contribution to the IGCP Project 24. Edited by R.J. Fulton. Geological Survey of Canada Paper
Issue : 84-10:
Page(s) : 101-116
Abstract
The Eastern Canadian Arctic includes the 450,000 sq km Baffin Island and the northern areas of Labrador-Ungava Peninsula. Quaternary research in these areas during the last century traditionally concerned itself with the mapping of major moraine systems and the recognition of weathering zones. Of late more attention has focused on the extensive exposure of Quaternary sediments in wave-eroded cliffs along much of the outer coastline that fronts Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea. These exposures contain fossiliferous glacial marine sediments and buried soils; tills are reported in a few sections. Absolute radiometric dates have been obtained from several units using both C14 and U-series methods. On the outer coast of eastern Baffin Island these sediments represent the Eglinton Member of the Clyde Foreland Formation; they overlie sediments of the Koqalu Member which is older than 54 ka on the basis of C14 and is probably between 70 and 120 ka oldjudging from U-series dates and amino acid racemization estimates. In northernmost Labrador and on southern Ellesmere Island good evidence exists for a deglacial event with finite C14 dates close to 40 ka. Despite several years of investigation and several hundred C14 dates, there is still no evidence for an 18 ka glacial maximum. In southern Baffin Island, however, the outer Hall moraines within Frobisher Bay are C14 dated at ca. 10.7 ka and are thus distinctly older than moraines within Frobisher Bay are C14 dated at ca. 10.7 ka and are thus distinctly older than moraines of Cockburn age (8-9 ka) which appear to represent the maximum late Wisconsinan ice margin from Cumberland Sound northward. Beneath the Kogalu Member are as many as eight additional sedimentary sequences that represent the effects of glacial isostatic loading and unloading. These units can be distinguished on the basis of their amino acid ratios and broadly "dated".The Quaternary record in the Eastern Canadian Arctic probably spans 1 to 2 million years.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology