CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Cameron, V.J.
Date : 1989
Title : The late Quaternary geomorphic history of the Sumas Valley
Publication : Unpublished M.A. thesis. Simon Fraser University
Issue :
Page(s) : 169 p.
Abstract
The objectives of this study were: (1) to reconstruct the geomorphic evolution of the Sumas Valley in Late Quaternary time by examination of the subsurface sedimentary architecture of the region, and (2) to address the question of whether the Fraser River (or a distributary) could have flowed through the valley and discharged into Bellingham Bay. The subsurface sedimentary architecture suggests that the most significant aspect of the Sumas Valley's evolution in post glacial time was the progradation of two fans into a basin left by the downwasting of glacial ice. The presence of Mazama tephra in some of the cores, as well as the age of radiocarbon dated wood, places the deposition of these fan sediments clearly within the Holocene. Lithological identification of sediments suggests that the source of the northern fan is the Chilliwack River, whereas the southern fan is believed to have originated from the progradation of the Nooksack River, or a greatly enlarged Sumas River, into the valley. The hypothesis of the Fraser River flowing through the Sumas Valley during the Holocene is rejected.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology