CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Lewis, D.H.
Date : 2001.
Title : Little Ice Age investigations in Strathcona Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, B.C.
Publication : Unpublished M.Sc. thesis. University of Victoria, Victoria.
Issue :
Page(s) : 147 p.
Abstract
Dendroglaciological and lichenometric techniques were used to establish the Little Ice Age glacial history of two glaciers (Septimus and Colonel Foster) in Strathcona Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. This record was placed in the context of the regional Little Ice Age record of the Pacific North American Cordillera, and evaluated in the context of proxy mass balance and climatic records from 1600 to 1994 AD. The Strathcona Little Ice Age chronology compares well with regional records from coastal British Columbia, Washington State, Alaska, and the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Three episodes of Little Ice Age glacier activity are noted: prior to 1397 AD, early 1700s, and late 1800s. These results indicate that the glaciers were responding asynchronously to local factors such as microclimate, topography, and glacier geometry, but responding synchronously to larger scale climatic forcing. Dendroclimatological analysis indicates that ice proximal mountain hemlock trees are responding synchronously, albeit inversely with mass balance, to regional climate variability. A proxy glacier mass balance record (1600 - 1994 AD) was constructed from a mountain hemlock ring-width chronology derived from climate sensitive trees growing adjacent to each site. This proxy record compares well with both the regional mass balance record for Pacific Northwest glaciers (1965-1994: r2 = 50%), and the Strathcona Little Ice Age moraine chronology. In addition, a significant relationship was revealed between the mass balance history of glaciers on Vancouver Island and large-scale climatic variability shown to be associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology