CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Dallimore, A.; Thomson, R.E.; Enkin, R.J.; Kulikov, E.A.; Bertram, M.A.; Wright, C.A.; Southon, J.R.; Barrie, J.V.; Baker, J.; Pienitz, R.; Calvert, S.E.; Chang, A.S.; and Pedersen, T.F.
Date : 2004.
Title : A high-resolution record of Holocene climate variability from a western Canadian coastal inlet.
Publication : American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. December 13-17, 2004. San Francisco, California.
Issue :
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Abstract
Conditions within the Pacific Ocean have a major effect on the climate of northwestern North America. High resolution records of present and past northeast Pacific climate are revealed in our multi-disciplinary study of annually laminated marine sediments from anoxic coastal inlets of British Columbia. Past climate conditions for the entire Holocene are recorded in the sediment record contained in a 40 meter, annually laminated marine sediment core taken in Effingham Inlet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, from the French ship the Marion Dufresne, as part of the international IMAGES program. By combining our eight year continuous instrument record of modern coastal ocean dynamics and climate with high-resolution analysis of depositional processes, we have been able to develop proxy measurements of past climatic and oceanographic changes on annual to millennial time scales. Results indicate that regional climate has oscillated on a variety of time scales throughout the Holocene. At times, climatic change has been dramatically rapid. We are also developing digital methods for statistical time-series analyses of physical sediment properties through the Holocene in order to obtain a more objective quantitative approach for detecting cyclicity in our data. Results of the time series analysis of lamination thickness reveals statistically significant spectral peaks of climate scale variability at established decadal to century time scales. These in turn may be related to solar cycles and quasi-cyclical ocean processes such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. However, the annually laminated time series are periodically interrupted by massive mud intervals which are related to bottom currents and at times paleo-seismic events, illustrating the need for a full understanding of modern oceanographic and sedimentation processes, so an accurate proxy record of past climate can be established.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology