CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Blake, W., Jr.
Date : 1972.
Title : Climatic implications of radio-carbon dated driftwood in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Arctic Canada
Publication : In; Climatic Changes in Arctic Areas During the Last Ten Thousand Years. Proceedings of a Symposium held at Oulanka and Kevo, Finland, October 1971. Edited by: Y. Vasari; H. Hyvarien and S. Hicks., Acta Universitatis Ouluensis,Ser. A, Scientia Rerum Natu
Issue : 1:
Page(s) : 77-104
Abstract
Numerous radiocarbon dates show that by 10,000 years ago the disintegratlon of the Innuitian Ice Sheet was well underway in the western part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, although a lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet still impinged on the south coast of Melvllle Island at that time. By 8,000 years ago all of the inter-island channels were open, with the possible exception of the northern part of Nares Strait between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. The oldest driftwood logs discovered, from widely separated parts of the archipelago, are between 8,500 and 8,000 years old. Driftwood 6,500 to 4,500 years old is especially abundant, indicating that at least as much open water as at present, and probably more, existed during that interval. The marked decrease in the abundance of driftwood between approximately 4,500 and 500 years BP is attributed to the onset of more severe sea ice conditions, an event which coincided with the development of ice shelves, especially along the north coast of Ellesmere Island, but perhaps elsewhere in the archipelago as well.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology