Facies and stratigraphical analyses of glacial and interglacial sediments at Morgan Bluffs,Banks Island,Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
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| Authors: | Thomas R Lakeman John H England |
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| Institution: | Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, , Edmonton, Alberta, T6G?2E3 Canada |
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| Abstract: | Stratigraphical exposures of both glacial and non‐glacial sediments at Morgan Bluffs, a >6‐km long exposure on the east coast of Banks Island, comprise a discontinuous archive of Quaternary environmental change. A detailed facies analysis of the sediments and a new stratigraphical framework is incompatible with the many climatostratigraphical units proposed previously. Instead, three distinct intervals of sedimentation are recognized. The first records the progradation of a delta, followed by fluvial aggradation of a braided river valley perhaps ～1 Ma. The second documents glacigenic sedimentation, including fluctuations of a tidewater glacier margin, in a marine basin more than 0.78 Ma. The third records till deposition by the NW Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Late Wisconsinan, followed by the progradation of a deglacial, ice‐contact delta into an ice‐dammed lake ～12.8 cal. ka BP. The revised stratigraphical framework adds important new terrestrial observations to a sparse and fragmentary data set of Quaternary environmental change in the Canadian Arctic. This study challenges former references and correlations to the previously proposed climatostratigraphical framework and nomenclature. |
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