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Coalescence of late Wisconsinan Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets east of the Rocky Mountain Foothills in the Dawson Creek region, northeast British Columbia, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Adrian Scott Hickin ,
Olav B. Lian  and
Victor M. Levson
Adrian Scott Hickin*
Affiliation:
British Columbia Geological Survey, P.O. Box 9333 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC, V8W 9N3, Canada School of Earth and Ocean Science, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada
Olav B. Lian
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and the Environment, University of the Fraser Valley, 33844 King Road, Abbotsford, BC, V2S 7M8, Canada
Victor M. Levson
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Ocean Science, University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada Quaternary Geoscience Inc., 1673 Earlston Avenue, Victoria, BC, V8P 2Z8, Canada
*
⁎Corresponding author. British Columbia Geological Survey, P.O. Box 9333 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC, V8W 9N3, Canada. E-mail address:adrian.hickin@gov.bc.ca (A.S. Hickin).
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Abstract

Geomorphic, stratigraphic and geochronological evidence from northeast British Columbia (Canada) indicates that, during the late Wisconsinan (approximately equivalent to marine oxygen isotope stage [MIS] 2), a major lobe of western-sourced ice coalesced with the northeastern-sourced Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS). High-resolution digital elevation models reveal a continuous 75 km-long field of streamlined landforms that indicate the ice flow direction of a major northeast-flowing lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) or a montane glacier (>200 km wide) was deflected to a north-northwest trajectory as it coalesced with the retreating LIS. The streamlined landforms are composed of till containing clasts of eastern provenance that imply that the LIS reached its maximum extent before the western-sourced ice flow crossed the area. Since the LIS only reached this region in the late Wisconsinan, the CIS/montane ice responsible for the streamlined landforms must have occupied the area after the LIS withdrew. Stratigraphy from the Murray and Pine river valleys supports a late Wisconsinan age for the surface landforms and records two glacial events separated by a non-glacial interval that was dated to be of middle Wisconsinan (MIS 3) age.

Keywords

Cordilleran ice sheetLaurentide ice sheetIce sheet coalescenceIce free corridorLiDARStratigraphyOptical datingOSLIce flowTill geochemistry
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 85 , Issue 3 , May 2016 , pp. 409 - 429
Copyright
University of Washington

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