ABSTRACT: Late Pleistocene ice margin fluctuations in the Nahanni National Park-UNESCO World Heritage Site and their impact on glacial lake formation and architecture of drainage systems across the Yukon-NWT continental divide.

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Abstract

In the late Pleistocene the southern Mackenzie region was glaciated by ice masses from a Cordilleran and continental source (Laurentide). Stratigraphic and geomorphologic evidence indicate that the two glaciers occupied this region at different times during the Late Pleistocene. The continental ice sheet advanced over the foothills and up major valleys reaching its maximum extent, ca. 30 ka. B. P. This took place when Cordilleran glaciers were in their initial stages of development. The Laurentide Ice Sheet blocked the drainage of the South Nahanni River near Virginia Falls, forming a glacial lake which inundated an area of approximately 900 km2 at its maximum stand, and had an outlet to the southwest, across the continental divide into the Yukon Territory and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. Lacustrine sediments at various sites reach thicknesses ranging from 110 to 120 metres, at an elevation of around 700 m. Cordilleran glaciers advanced eastward and approximately 5000 years later blocked this southwestward drainage, rerouting it to the east and north along the Mackenzie Mountain front. The drainage was confined between the mountains and continental ice margin where it incised major canyons into the limestone bedrock, and produced a spectacular karst landscape, which today forms part of the Nahanni National Park. During the retreat of the Laurentide and advance of Cordilleran glaciers, glacial Lake Nahanni cut an outlet to the east at First Canyon. This outlet drained into a continuous northbound network of marginal meltwater channels joining the north-flowing drainage that eventually reached the Arctic Ocean, and during further retreat of the ice sheet established the Mackenzie River in its modern location. The presence of Laurentide ice in this region is evidenced by large granite boulders carried from the Canadian Shield. Erratics are found up to 100 km west of the mountain front. Neotectonic activity in the area is interpreted from exposures such as those seen at Virginia Falls. Here glaciolacustrine sediments of Lake Nahanni are found both above and below the falls, but those above the falls are offset along the fault by approximately 30 meters, indicating that the falls most likely formed or were tectonically reactivated in postglacial time. Pre-late Pleistocene terraces of the South Nahanni River lie above the upstream terraces found near Virginia Falls, and slope to the west, further providing evidence of postglacial rebound and tectonics.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology