CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Duk-Rodkin, A.
Date : 2001.
Title : Preglacial drainage and diamond placer potential from the Interior Plains to the Labrador Sea.
Publication : Canadian Quaternary Association/ Association canadienne pour l'etude du Quaternaire, Annual Meeting 2001. Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, August 20 – 24, 2001.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
An eastern flowing paleo-drainage system drained the Interior Plains and exited through Hudson Strait into the Labrador Sea. The drainage is reconstructed using paleo-topography, provenance of sediments, and recycled pollen found in offshore wells in the Labrador Sea. It was probably active from early Tertiary until the Late Pleistocene, when Laurentide ice retreat established the current north-flowing Mackenzie River system. Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary (Eocene) kimberlite pipes bearing diamonds are common in the N.W.T. A comparison of drainage and geologic setting of the N.W.T. kimberlites with those of the Orange River in South Africa, suggests some striking similarities. Some of the N.W.T. pipes have been extensively eroded (>60 %) suggesting that diamond placer deposits likely occur in the region and potential placers are suspected along the depositional sector of the paleo-drainage. Considering nearly 62 million years of fluvial erosion with an estimated volume of ~3x10 km2 sediments in the offshore, placer potential is highest to the east and southeast of the N.W.T., possibly as far as Hudson Bay and the Labrador Sea.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology