The Earthquake Threat in Southwestern British Columbia: A Geologic Perspective     

Clague  John J. 《Natural Hazards》2002,26(1):7-33

Ten moderate to large (magnitude 6–7) earthquakes have occurred in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington in the last 130 years. A future large earthquake close to Vancouver, Victoria, or Seattle would cause tens of billions of dollars damage and would seriously impact the economies of Canada and the United States. An improved understanding of seismic hazards and risk in the region has been gained in recent years by using geologic data to extend the short period of instrumented seismicity. Geologic studies have demonstrated that historically unprecedented, magnitude 8 to 9 earthquakes have struck the coastal Pacific Northwest on average once every 500 years over the last several thousand years; another earthquake of this size can be expected in the future. Geologic data also provide insights into the likely damaging effects of future large earthquakes in the region. Much of the earthquake damage will result directly from ground shaking, but damage can also be expected from secondary phenomena, including liquefaction, landslides, and tsunamis. Vancouver is at great risk from earthquakes because important infrastructure, including energy and transportation lifelines, probably would be damaged or destroyed by landslides and liquefaction-induced ground failure.  相似文献   

Record of recent river channel instability, Cheakamus Valley, British Columbia     

John J. Clague  Robert J. W. Turner  Alberto V. Reyes   《Geomorphology》2003,53(3-4):317-332

Rivers flowing from glacier-clad Quaternary volcanoes in southwestern British Columbia have high sediment loads and anabranching and braided planforms. Their floodplains aggrade in response to recurrent large landslides on the volcanoes and to advance of glaciers during periods of climate cooling. In this paper, we document channel instability and aggradation during the last 200 years in lower Cheakamus River valley. Cheakamus River derives much of its flow and nearly all of its sediment from the Mount Garibaldi massif, which includes a number of volcanic centres dominated by Mount Garibaldi volcano. Stratigraphic analysis and radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating of recent floodplain sediments at North Vancouver Outdoor School in Cheakamus Valley show that Cheakamus River aggraded its floodplain about 1–2 m and buried a valley-floor forest in the early or mid 1800s. The aggradation was probably caused by a large (ca. 15–25×10⁶ m³) landslide from the flank of Mount Garibaldi, 15 km north of our study site, in 1855 or 1856. Examination of historical aerial photographs dating back to 1947 indicates that channel instability triggered by this event persisted until the river was dyked in the late 1950s. Our observations are consistent with data from many other mountain areas that suggest rivers with large, but highly variable sediment loads may rapidly aggrade their floodplains following a large spike in sediment supply. Channel instability may persist for decades to centuries after the triggering event.  相似文献   

Combining dissolved, suspended and bed load stream geochemistry to explore for volcanic massive sulfide deposits: Big Salmon Complex, northern British Columbia     

Kevin Telmer  Heidi E. Pass  Stephen Cook 《Journal of Geochemical Exploration》2002,75(1-3)

Exploration successes for volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits, such as Kudz Ze Kayah, Wolverine and Fyre Lake in the Yukon–Tanana Terrane and Slide Mountain Terrane (southern Yukon Territory) have spurred interest in the correlative rocks in the Big Salmon Complex in northern British Columbia. In an effort to further the utility of multi-media stream geochemistry in exploration frontiers that are forested, heavily drift covered, or buried, the primary streams of 19 watersheds from the East Teslin Lake (National Topographic System (NTS): 104N/9, 16) and Teh Creek areas (NTS: 104O/11, 12, 13, 14) of the Big Salmon Complex were analyzed for Cu, Pb, and Zn and other parameters in the dissolved load, suspended load and bed load. Traditionally, exploration based on stream geochemistry has employed the bed load and more recently the dissolved load chemistry, but almost never the suspended load despite strong differences in the geochemical signatures of the three media. Here, we document that copper, lead, and zinc partition into the dissolved, suspended, and bed loads differently and that the magnitude of anomalies is different for each media. The adsorbing capacity of the suspended load may make it a more sensitive indicator of mineral deposits on a regional basis than either the trace-element-poor dissolved load or the bulk-rock-diluted bed load which are likely better indicators of local mineralization. It is clear that each phase contributes unique information about the distribution of elements in the watershed that could be considered in exploration models.We also show that summing standardized element concentrations and summing the sums across media appears to be an effective method to reduce the data without loss of important information. We likewise investigated the utility of calculating major element normalized enrichments for exploration and find that it is a promising approach.  相似文献   

A multi-proxy holocene record of environmental change fromthe sediments of Skinny Lake, Iskut region, northern British Columbia,Canada     

I.S. Spooner  D. Mazzucchi  G. Osborn  R. Gilbert  I. Larocque 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2002,28(4):419-431

A stratigraphic record from a lake in the Central Plateau Regionof northern British Columbia reveals changes in environment and inferredclimate during the Holocene. Upon deglaciation (ca. 11500 BP), Skinny Lakebecame an embayment of an ice-dammed lake. High clastic sedimentationrates, an unstable landscape, and cool, possibly wet conditions likelypersisted until the early Holocene (ca. 9000 BP). From ca. 9000–8300 BPdeclining lake levels coupled with warm and dry conditions resulted in theformation of a prominent marl bed. A colonizing shrub and herb assemblagepersisted from 9000 BP until about 8300 BP when it was replaced by a spruce(Picea) and subalpine fir (Abieslasiocarpa) forest under slightly cooler and moister conditions. Themiddle Holocene was warmer-than-present, however, decreasingtemperature and increasing precipitation trends characterize the period fromca. 6000 BP–3000 BP. The transition to modern climate at 3000 BP isevident primarily in the lithostratigraphic record and corresponds with theinitiation of the Tiedemann glacial advance (ca. 3300 BP) in thesouth-coastal mountains of British Columbia. A significant change infossil pollen occurs at ca. 2400 BP and is characterised by an increase in pinepollen accompanied by decreases in alder (Alnus), spruceand fir. This also coincides with an increase in west-sourced exoticwestern hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and cedar type(Cupressaceae) pollen possibly transported by regional changes in air masscirculation patterns associated with Aleutian Low dynamics. This studydemonstrates that both lithostratigraphic and biotic proxies are helpful inreconstructing the timing and nature of climate change and that each may havevarying sensitivities to a particular type of change.  相似文献   

Geostatistical analyses of interactions between killer whales (Orcinus orca) and recreational whale-watching boats     

D. E. Jelinski  C. C. Krueger  D. A. Duffus 《Applied geography (Sevenoaks, England)》2002,22(4)

Johnstone Strait in coastal British Columbia, Canada, is a core habitat for seasonal concentrations of killer whales (Orcinus orca), which have attracted considerable attention from commercial whale-watching operators and recreational boaters. Within the Strait lies the Robson Bight–Michael Bigg Ecological Reserve, a marine reserve set aside as critical habitat for killer whales and closed to recreational boat traffic. The geography of encounters between killer whales and seven types of whale-watching vessels (including kayaks, charter and pleasure craft) in and near this reserve was analysed with a suite of geostatistics in a geographic information system (GIS) vector environment. Reserve boundary violation was high among most user groups, with kayakers being the most frequent offenders. Motorized vessels had significantly longer contact times with whales compared to kayaks and sailboats. Motorized vessels showed the travel characteristic of deliberate tracking of whales. The movements of killer whales also appear to be affected by boats. These results have important implications for killer whale conservation and management in areas where they are subject to intensive whale-watching activities, and possible chronic disturbance.  相似文献   

Example of a debris-flow risk analysis from Vancouver Island,British Columbia,Canada     

Ron Arksey  Doug VanDine 《Landslides》2008,5(1):121-126

In July 2005, a debris flow and a water flood occurred on two adjacent gullies in the White River area, on northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The 16,000 m³ debris flow buried approximately 7.5 ha of second-growth trees, buried approximately 500 m of a forestry road, and reached two fish-bearing streams. The water flood eroded approximately 240 m of the same forestry road and plugged four culverts before overtopping and inundating the road. To better plan for future events, risk analyses of debris flows, debris floods, and water floods were carried out for the two gullies involved, plus a third adjacent gully. The elements at risk that were analyzed included, in order of priority: users of the forestry road, the fish-bearing streams, the forestry road itself, and a timber bridge. Using a series of qualitative, but defined, relative-risk matrices, the following components of specific risk were estimated for each of the three types of events on each of the three gullies for each of the four elements at risk: probability of occurrence, probability that the event will reach or otherwise affect the site of the element at risk, the probability that the element at risk will be at the site when the event occurs, and the probability of loss or damage resulting from the element being at the site when the event occurs.  相似文献   

Formalising an inversion methodology for reconstructing ice‐sheet retreat patterns from meltwater channels: application to the British Ice Sheet     

Sarah L. Greenwood  Chris D. Clark  Anna L. C. Hughes 《第四纪科学杂志》2007,22(6):637-645

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Prograde reactions and garnet zoning reversals in staurolite schist, British Columbia: significance for thermobarometric interpretations     

D. L. WHITNEY  E. D. GHENT 《Journal of Metamorphic Geology》1993,11(6):779-788

Abstract An outcrop of staurolite-bearing pelitic schist from the Solitude Range in the south-western Rocky Mountains, British Columbia, was examined in order to determine the nature of prograde garnet- and staurolite-producing reactions using information from garnet zoning and inclusion mineralogy. Although not present as a matrix phase, chloritoid is present as inclusions in garnet and is interpreted to have participated in the simultaneous growth of garnet and staurolite by a reaction such as chloritoid + quartz = garnet + staurolite + H₂O.
A garnet zoning trend reversal, which is most pronounced with respect to almandine and grossular components, is present in the outer core of garnets. The location of the zoning reversal corresponds to the outer limit of chloritoid inclusions in garnet. As there is no evidence for polymetamorphism, the zoning reversal is interpreted to indicate continued garnet growth by prograde reaction(s) during a single metamorphic event after the exhaustion of chloritoid as a matrix phase.
Metamorphic conditions recorded by mineral rim compositions are 550–600° C at 6–7 kbar. Because there is no evidence for partial resorption of garnet during production of staurolite, we interpret these results to represent peak conditions.  相似文献   

A provisional map of forest types for the British Isles 5000 years ago     

Keith David Bennett 《第四纪科学杂志》1989,4(2):141-144

The distributions of seven woodland types, plus unforested areas, are mapped for the British Isles at 5000 BP. The map was compiled using data of modern soil distribution, present-day ecological preferences of the tree taxa present, and the pollen record.  相似文献   

Multi-proxy evidence of postglacial climate and environmental change at Two Frog Lake,central mainland coast of British Columbia,Canada     

Jennifer M. Galloway  R. Timothy Patterson  Christine T. Doherty  Helen M. Roe 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2007,38(4):569-588

Pollen and diatoms preserved in the radiocarbon dated sediments of Two Frog Lake in the Seymour-Belize Inlet Complex of the central mainland coast of British Columbia document postglacial climate change. Two Frog Lake was isolated from the sea prior to 11,040 ± 50 yr BP (13,030 cal. yr BP) when the climate was cool and dry, and open Pinus contorta woodlands covered the landscape. These woodlands were replaced by a mixed conifer forest ca. 10,200 yr BP (ca. 12,300 cal. yr BP) when the climate became moister. A relatively dry and warm early Holocene climate allowed Pseudotsuga menziesii to migrate northward to this site where it grew with Picea, Tsuga heterophylla and Alnus. The climate became cooler and moister at ca. 8,000 yr BP (ca. 9,200 cal. yr BP), approximately 500–1,000 years prior to sites located south of Two Frog Lake and on the Queen Charlotte Islands, but contemporary with sites on the northern mainland coast of British Columbia and south coastal Alaska. Climate heterogeneity in central coastal British Columbia appears to have occurred on a synoptic scale, suggesting that atmospheric dynamics linked to a variable Aleutian Low pressure system may have had an important influence on early Holocene climate change in the Seymour-Belize Inlet Complex. The transition to cooler and moister conditions facilitated the expansion of Cupressaceae and the establishment of a modern-type coastal temperate rainforest dominated by Cupressaceae and T. heterophylla. This was associated with progressive lake acidification. Diatom changes independent of vegetation change during the late Holocene are correlative with the mid-Neoglacial period, when cooler temperatures altered diatom communities.  相似文献