CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Clague, J.J.
Date : 1994
Title : Quaternary stratigraphy and history of south-coastal British Columbia.
Publication : Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin
Issue : 481:
Page(s) : 181-192
Abstract
Thick Quaternary sediments underlie the lowlands of south-coastal British Columbia. Most of these sediments were deposited in marine, deltaic, and fluvial environments near the margins of Pleistocene glaciers. Heterogeneous units of stratified drift of at least three glaciations are separated by unconformities and, locally, by nonglacial sediments. Surface and near-surface sediments were deposited during the Fraser Glaciation which peaked about 15 ka BP. At that time, lobes of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered south-coastal British Columbia to elevations of about 1500 m, and the Strait of Georgia and bordering lowlands attained something close to their present form. During deglaciation, glaciomarine, glaciofluvial, and deltaic sediments were deposited over large areas on the glacially eroded, isostatically depressed landscape. In contrast, sedimentation during postglacial time has been largely restricted to the Strait of Georgia, fiords, and lakes. Sea level along the south coast has fluctuated above and below its present position during Quaternary time owing to glacio-isostatic uplift and subsidence of the land surface, global (eustatic) sea level change, and tectonism.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology