CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
Search Results
Author : Evans, I.S.
Date : 2004.
Title : Asymmetry of glaciation in the British Columbia Coast Mountains.
Publication : International Conference on Sediment and Geochemical Budgets in Geomorphology to honour Professor Olav Slaymaker. June 27th - 30th, 2004 The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
The aspect most favoured by glaciers in the Southern Coast Mountains is north-northeast, due to both solar radiation incidence and wind effects. Although asymmetry of glacier numbers is strongest in the sunnier, landward ranges around Bridge River and Cayoosh Creek, with vector strengths as high as 90%, it is found also in wet, cloudy coastal ranges, with vector strengths of 20-60%. Asymmetry can be measured also by Fourier Analysis of the azimuthal variation in glacier altitude, giving north: south differences exceeding 200 m in the drier ranges. Glaciers in some adjacent areas show the following north: south differences in altitude (metres), allowing for regional trends: Vancouver Island 40, Olympic Mountains 94, Stikine 109, SW Yukon 177, Washington Cascades 190. These variations again show the effects of regional climate. Analysed in the same way, cirque floor altitudes provide valuable palaeoenvironmental evidence. In the Coast Mountains, differences are mainly north: south, amounting to 190 m in the Bendor Range and 214 m in the Cayoosh Range. Cirques were formed during phases of intermediate glaciation, with firn lines some 400 m lower than present: these phases were sunny, and the wind regime was not noticeably different to present.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology